Magic

Sir Richard Attenbourough does a fine job directing this film about a magician that has little charm, personality, or self-confidence who must take a dummy into his act to let himself become famous. The only trouble is that the fine line that exists between the dummy and the ventriloquist becomes much too fine. Anthony Hopkins is really good as this shy, awkward man slowly descending into a world of madness as great success looms over the horizon. Hopkins also does the voice of the dummy, Fats, and lends his unique voice talents to create a very disturbing, eerie screen presence. The dummy is in many ways larger than life, and he steals almost every scene he is in. No supernatural puppet coming to life here, yet the character of Corky(Hopkins) gives his life to this dummy in a very unique way. The film is suitably creepy with some very atmospheric shots. As one reviewer noted, the scene where Hopkins is to not speak through the dummy for five minutes is easily the best. Each moment of that scene passed with incredible tension. It is downright chilling in fact. The other actors do very well. Burgess Meredith is made out to be much older that he was at the time, and I think he did a fantastic job. What can I say about Ann-Margaret. Stunning. She does a credible job acting, and let's face it, she looks like a million bucks(she even shows us more than expected as well). A spooky film, and a great screen performance by a much younger Anthony Hopkins.

Ventriloquist "Corky" is about to hit the big time when he starts to realize fame and fortune isn't all it's cracked up to be. He retreats to a lakeside cabin owned by the woman he fell in love with as a teenager but things turn nasty. He is suffering from schizophrenia and uses the dummy to voice the things he can't bring himself to say. This is done superbly and Anthony Hopkins plays it all extremely convincingly. Ann-Margret puts in a mostly believable performance too although at times she seems a little unlikely. It doesn't detract though, her screen presence adds a lot to the movie and she looks radiant as ever. For a while when watching this film I had a horrible feeling that the dummy would turn out to have an intelligence of its own and would start walking around with a knife in its little wooden hands. Thankfully this doesn't happen and it's a much more sinister and impressive film for it. Overall this was surprisingly watchable, well made and at times genuinely scary. The violence is filmed well and doesn't resort to bloodfests to get the message across. One of the few 70's horror flicks I've seen with good acting and a credible plot, well worth watching!

I liked Magic. Its a far more sophisticated movie than Child's Play, Bride of Chucky and other unrealistic horror movies with doll's taking on a life of their own. In fact, Magic is less horror and more a study of a deeply disturbed man. Hopkins is the shy unsuccessful magician who creates an alter-ego in the form of Fats, his puppet. Together, the magician and Fats make for a very successful act and the magician starts to achieve notable success. When asked to give a health test in order to sign on for a lucrative TV deal, he refuses and runs away. He stays at an isolated island as a paying guest with his now unhappily married college crush - played by Ann-Margret. As romance starts to blossom, the Fats side of Hopkins personality also starts to take over.

Magic reminded me of The Wicker Man - a low budget but chilling Brit horror flick. To be honest, I thought Magic was the better of the two. The similarities it shares with Wicker Man are low budget, reliance on atmosphere, relative realism for the horror genre, a macabre performance by the leading man Hopkins/Christopher Lee respectively and an isolated setting close to the sea. Magic draws the viewer in more because of Hopkins performance which shows likability and vulnerability. 60's sex symbol Ann-Margret, a talented actress, has yet another small role that completely under utilises her.

I can't understand the reason for the low rating on IMDb and obscurity of this film. Even after Hopkins carved out a name for himself in the celebrated horror movie Silence of the Lambs, this was never revisited.

Hopkins doesnt seem to mention Magic much. While it isnt the fastest pace movie around,it is creepy,thoroughly well acted,and I dare you to find a movie with better use of a harmonica/accordian in its soundtrack. But my all-time favorite thing about Magic is the puppet- "Fats". A truly overlooked classic character. FACT: Fats was designed by Disney employees,but Disney didnt want to be associated with such a dark film. Also,the films Production Designer went on to win several Oscars.

This somehow has become a forgotten movie which seems odd that after the subsequent success and recognition of Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs that more people didn't look back at his 1978 performance in this psychological/horror gem. William Goldman has quite a record of novels being adapted to film or screenplays by him which include No Way to Treat a Lady, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Stepford wives, The Great Waldo Pepper, All the Presidents Men, Marathon Man, Misery and A Bridge Too Far among other memorable films. Actor/Dirctor Richard Attenborough who is notable for directing Ghandi, Chaplin and A Bridge Too Far teams up again with Goldman to bring us Magic. Anthony Hopkins as the ventriloquist also provides the voice of his menacing dummy. Bergis Meredith turns in a great performance as usual as well as Ann Margaret. This is Hopkin's film though and he is superb in lead role. I saw this in the theater during it's initial release and have only seen it once since then. Don't know why this doesn't make on TV more often. I would give this an 8.0 out of 10 and recommend it.