Hellen
I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much
Huievest
Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.
Kirandeep Yoder
The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.
Scott LeBrun
"The Mad Magician" is a thoroughly enjoyable follow-up to the earlier Vincent Price classic, "House of Wax". Rather reminiscent of that favourite, it stars Price as Don Gallico, a magician & master of illusion furious with his conniving employer, Ross Ormond (Donald Randolph). Ormond intends to pass on Gallicos' "buzz saw" bit to Gallicos' egocentric rival, Rinaldi (John Emery). So Gallico uses his talents to commit murder, and commit more murders in order to keep his secret. Alan Bruce (Patrick O'Neal), a young police detective, utilizes cutting edge new techniques such as fingerprinting to work the clues.This movie is not going to be as memorable as "House of Wax", which was largely responsible for launching Price as a new star of the horror genre. It's rather formulaic, and predictable, but it's richly photographed in black & white by Bert Glennon, and director John Brahm, an expert in period genre productions such as "Hangover Square" and "The Lodger", keeps the pace consistent. What viewers may marvel at is the makeup (by George Bau and Gustaf Norin), which is pretty impressive for any era in filmmaking."The Mad Magician" also provides great evidence of what a talent Price was. It's a fun vehicle, and the more unhinged Gallico gets, the more enjoyable Price is to watch. The supporting actors are good - leggy Mary Murphy as the assistant Karen Lee, Eva Gabor as Claire, the greedy, grasping woman who'd married both Gallico and Ormond, Jay Novello as landlord Frank Prentiss, and especially Lenita Lane as Prentiss' wife Alice, who has a second career as an author of murder mysteries. Corey Allen, Conrad Brooks, Roy Engel, and Lyle Talbot have uncredited parts.This amusing plot, contrived by Crane Wilbur, leads to an exciting and incendiary finale.Seven out of 10.
mark.waltz
Revenge is mine saith the magician, and here, he's on a quest for revenge against the people who have prevented him from utilizing his own magic trick invention. Those who stand in his way meet brutal ends which includes having their head sawed off, being burnt to death and other means of torturous demises. Hiding behind the mask of several of the victims is the victim of fraud himself, the former master of wax dummies who has switched to trickery in this variation of a story he had just done. You guessed it, Vincent Price, the tall, gangly seemingly milquetoast who discovers in the middle of a performance as he tries to introduce his newest invention that he's under the thumb of his employer whom he despises for stealing his wife. A clever bit of trickery turns revenge into a gory end for the rascal, and when there's murder (no matter what the motivations), madness is sure to follow for the perpetrator. Enter ex-wife Eva Gabor who finds that blackmail doesn't quite always end in a cash settlement and magician rival John Emery who is really burnt up about the threat he has to his title as the world's greatest illusionist.With the help of a nosy murder mystery writer (a very funny Lenita Lane), New York detective Patrick O'Neal investigates the common fingerprints found at the scene of a murder in Lane's boarding house and all doesn't add up. Murderers gain confidence and become clumsy as they begin to think they're fool-proof, and in the case of Price, it's only a matter of time before he slips up. There isn't really a mystery here, only the fun of watching Price getting away with his gruesome actions and the knowledge that his retribution will be equally as gory as the crimes he's already committed. Mary Murphy plays his assistant who also slowly becomes aware of Price's nefarious plots while Don Randolph is slimy as Price's boss whose sneaky actions send Price over the edge.Certainly not as colorful as its predecessor "House of Wax" (made the year before and certainly the inspiration for this), the film still is quite enjoyable and has some genuine thrills that are bone-tingling. The mixture of comedy and horror always made even the most maudlin of Price's films seem much better, and in the case of "The Mad Magician", there are some moments that will live in your cineramic memory long after you've seen this film. There's a very funny conclusion which will have you in hoards of laughter after the gruesome climax that came just before.
geraldboss66
The line went all the way around the Elm Theater in Elmwood, Ct., when this was shown in 1954.It wasn't screened in 3-D, but still scared me silly! I now own a film print of it, as well as a 35mm 3-D print of House Of Wax. Wax had bigger budget, stereo sound called WarnerPhonic if I recall. Both are excellent, and the two together are definitely my choices for Price's best, followed by SHOCK and DRAGONWYCK. I know many will like his later films, which have many great titles also; House of Usher, Comedy of Terrors, The Raven, Theater of Blood,.....I could go on and on. And I should have included THE TINGLER and HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL in my favorites....especially THE TINGLER, which also had a color partial scene in it, and was definitely equal to WAX and MAGICIAN in its terror.Gotta love VP for being so "swarmy"!!!!
wes-connors
This was enjoyable, but certainly no classic. It's fun to watch the actor Vincent Price in these insane roles. I was surprised to read, in the credits, Eva Gabor was a player; I thought she looked familiar, but she did not have the familiar wig from later years. The furnace was hot, but the disguises were easy to see through, I thought. The final scene had good suspense, but I knew Mr. Price's character was going to hop on that conveyor belt.Lenita Lane and Jay Novello seemed very familiar as the Prentiss couple. They must have played these kind of roles in other films; they should starred in a TV sit-com together. ***** The Mad Magician (5/19/54) John Brahm ~ Vincent Price, Mary Murphy, Eva Gabor
