The Genii Forum

..just popped into my head so I'll mention the fragmentary info on them here for anyone who might be interested.

First one was an old movie, Eternally Yours (1939) featuring David Niven as a stage magician. Something of a dark and romantic comey, Niven engages in some death defying stunts as well as magic. Availaable on VHS according to the IMDB.

- name unknown- This was a 30's ish movie. I can't recall the name of the movie or any of the actors so I can't look it up in IMDB, but it was about a state magician who discovers he has the ability to hypnotise people. Several tragic events happen as the result and I think he ends up a broken man, but again I haven't seen this for 30 years.. The name Svengali comes to kind, but I don't know if this is that movie.

Speaking of old magic shows, does anyone know if/when we're likely to see the Bill Bixby TV series _The_Magician_ released on DVD? I loved that show. Last I saw of it the sci-fi channel showed it once a few years ago. It appeared to have been shot on high quality film which would transfer well to DVD. Sure the magic was fun and the cameos by people like Dai Vernon and Mark Wilson were neat, but what makes the series memorable for me is the 1970's kitsch presented as cutting edge items. LED Digital watches. Car phones that had handsets with coiled wire to the base unit, etc :) . God I wish we could see this again.

There has been someone selling a few episodes on eBay recently. Not sure how legal this is but do a title and description search for Bill Bixby/magician and you should find them.

Frank Yuen

but it was about a state magician who discovers he has the ability to hypnotise people. Several tragic events happen as the result and I think he ends up a broken man, but again I haven't seen this for 30 years.. The name Svengali comes to kind, but I don't know if this is that movie.

Probably John Barrymore's version of Svengali, from 1931.

In "Eternally Yours", real-life magician, Fred Keating, has a small role as a nightclub M.C./Bandleader.
Keating also did at least one movie with Bing Crosby, can't remember the name, but Crosby was with Paramount back then.

Also, the guy in the kitchen doing card manipulations in "Eternally Yours" is non other than Paul Braden, otherwise known as LePaul...

Best, PSC

I was watching "Rio Bravo" (1959; directed by Howard Hawks--starring John Wayne & Dean Martin) tonight: Angie Dickinson does a couple of nifty color changes with a pack of cards (and it was her, no close-ups on just the hands).

Dustin

Originally posted by Robert Allen:
- name unknown- This was a 30's ish movie. I can't recall the name of the movie or any of the actors so I can't look it up in IMDB, but it was about a state magician who discovers he has the ability to hypnotise people. Several tragic events happen as the result and I think he ends up a broken man, but again I haven't seen this for 30 years.. The name Svengali comes to kind, but I don't know if this is that movie.

Robert:

The name of the movie you're thinking of is The Clairvoyant (aka The Evil Mind) released in 1934. In this summary from IMDB we read --

Maximus is a low budget trickster who puts on a fake clairvoyant act with his young wife Rene. Act turns to reality when, in the presence of another young lady(Christine), he starts to make startlingly correct predictions. His name becomes famous and he gets richer as he correctly predicts a train wreck and the Darby winner. Being around Christine so much causes jealousy to flare in his wife. He only manages to hold on to Rene by promising to stop using his clairvoyance. But then he abruptly predicts a horrific mining accident with 200 deaths. He attempts to warn the miners himself but they reluctantly return to work. When the accident does occur, Maximus finds himself on trial as its cause.

Here's the cast:

Claude Rains as Maximus

Fay Wray as Rene

Mary Clare as Mother

Ben Field as Simon

Jane Baxter as Christine Shawn

Athole Stewart as Lord Southwood

C. Denier Warren as J.J. Bimeter

I've have a VHS copy of the film and am fascinated by it because it dwells on the system work of the Maximus and Rene. Humorous blunders and missteps are part of their fledgling act until... DUH-DUH-DUN!

You can rent it from some of those indie movie rental places.

Cheers --

Steve Snediker
wondermaker@mac.com

The Midnight Shadow is a 1939 movie with an all black cast. One of the characters is a black mentalist, Prince Alihabad.

I haven't seen it (and probably won't), but if you are so inclined, it available in full on Youtube.

...on IMDB I recently found The Magician's Daughter (MGM 1938), an 18 minute short subject, has anyone seen this? Love lost and found over the issue of exposure of her father's magic!

Eleanor Lynn played the daughter (who sings two songs about her life), Frank Albertson played the reporter, and Maurice Cass played the magician, Professor Murdock. Cass was the older European type, who usually wore pince-nez glasses and played "eccentric professor" types, like the scientist who discovers kryptonite in Adventures of Superman. The film was directed by Felix E. Feist, who was later married to Lisa Howard, who played Princess Narda in the 1954 TV pilot Mandrake the Magician.

Storyline
"News photographer/journalist Bob Wilson is assigned to get photographs showing how a popular local magician, Professor Jasper Murdock, does his tricks. Wilson wrangles a dinner invitation to Murdock's home and takes a keen interest in the magician's daughter, Dolores. He also takes a liking to the family and tells his editor that he isn't going to take the photos. The editor however assigns someone else to the task and when the story is published, Dolores believes Bob has double-crossed them so he must prove himself to her and sort out the mess he finds himself in."

The two reviews posted on the site say "The magic tricks look horribly fake and the so called love story is very minor. Not too many laughs either."
"The real weakness is that the show biz tricks supposedly done on stage would be impossible to perform in person. They're strictly traceable to movie magic, the kind of visual tricks about disappearances and disembodied humans that can only be performed on film and not possible on stage. Audiences were expected to swallow this ruse in the '30s and not question it."
Kind of like the masked magician.

On TMC tonight was a dandy little flicker from 1953 titled "Siren of Bagdad" [sic on Baghdad] starring Paul Henreid (who you might know better from "Casablanca"). As “Kazah the Great,” Henreid does a small amount of “real” (our kind of) magic and a quite a bit of movie magic. Hans Conried plays his daffy assistant/sidekick (who is seen in a “Without a Middle” illusion in an early scene) and there are a fair number of lovely ladies vying for the dashing magician’s attention.

Bob Haskell (The Split Deck) is credited for the “magical effects.” This was a year before he did “The Mad Magician.”

Disney fans might recognize the voice of Paul Frees as well.

Robert Osborne introduced the movie and warned us not to expect much. I didn’t, so as a result, I enjoyed watching it.

Dustin

I'd start a discussion with the works of Melees and his peers. They were exploring what cameras/film can do at a time when magic lantern shows were popular.

Somewhere in the space bounded by conmen, the brave little tailor and the antics of overdressed boors we have lots of room for tricksters and magii in movies.

I was watching TV just now and Eternally Yours came on; on a hunch I checked YouTube--it's there.

Paul LePaul for 30 seconds at the 1 hr and 2 minutes mark:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NHiXMBw9V0

Wow, 12 years later. Ok here's another one:

The Silver Chalice (1954) - with Jack Palance as Simon the Magician. He's a central character and throughout the movie is seen using various types of apparatus modified to look in period.

Lets see if this link works to Multum In Parvo

https://ok.ru/video/2101851916963?fromTime=1594

Jack, thanks for the tip. I can't believe that this is the first time I've seen LePaul on film after all the years that I've been in magic. He had a great personality on film and I'm sure on stage. He was my idol when I started and I will always cherish his book.

Bill Mullins wrote:The Midnight Shadow is a 1939 movie with an all black cast. One of the characters is a black mentalist, Prince Alihabad.

I haven't seen it (and probably won't), but if you are so inclined, it available in full on Youtube.

Hmmm, I will give it a try tonight. I will have a day off tomorrow so can enjoy watching something new this evening at my property in Rome. I will post my review here after for sure

It looks like "Midnight Shadow" video is no longer available.

But, "The Lady Objects", a 1938 film with Roy Benson doing some magic is now on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oXXksGrXIE

I haven't watched it fully, but he does a routine at 31:43
https://youtu.be/5oXXksGrXIE?t=1903

Enjoy!

Larry