The Mad Magician FINALLY Hits DVD

[Richard Kaufman]

From dvddrive-in.com:

Vincent Price is THE MAD MAGICIAN!

On July 3, another Vincent Price horror classic makes it was to DVD when Sony releases THE MAD MAGICIAN (1954) under it Columbia Classics banner. Price is at his terrifying best as Gallico the Great, an inspired inventor of magic acts who longs to perform his creations himself. When he finally gets his chance, the production is closed by Gallicos cruel manager, who wants a rival magician to perform Gallicos greatest trick, The Lady and the Buzz Saw. An enraged Gallico turns into a homicidal maniac, taking out his victims with the same methods he used to create his illusions. The film also stars Mary Murphy, Eva Gabor and Patrick ONeal (CHAMBER OF HORRORS). Originally shown in 3-D, the DVD will be the flat version, but presented widescreen anamorphic.

[Richard Kaufman]

Review of the DVD here:
http://www.dvddrive-in.com/reviews/i-m/ ... cian54.htm

[hugmagic]

Too bad they did not do it in 3-D but maybe the technology is not up to todays standards. But a great movie not the less.

Richard

[Kelly Rusk]

Unfortunately, this is the only way one can get it from Amazon:

"This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

This product is expected to play back in DVD Video "play only" devices, and may not play in other DVD devices, including recorders and PC drives."

Anyone know where to get the actual DVD??

[Richard Kaufman]

Like hundreds of new DVDs being released these days, it's made on demand (MOD). It is an "actual" DVD, but it's burned rather than pressed. There is no other option.
Demand for DVDs has dropped dramatically and older titles that were on pressed DVDs are now available only as DVD-Rs.

[Kelly Rusk]

Thanks for the info. I play DVDs on my PC and hate the hassle having to return things. Maybe I'll give it a try, though...

[Jim Riser]

Too bad they did not do it in 3-D but maybe the technology is not up to todays standards. But a great movie not the less.

Richard

Richard and others,
If you are using a Roku box, you can view the Mad Magician in glorious 3D for free. It is in the Drive-In Classics channel under Classic 3D. It looks good on my Roku 2xs HD box and big HD flat screen TV.
Jim

[Richard Kaufman]

Jim, I assume you have a 3D TV? Are you using shutter glasses or anaglyph?

[John Signa]

The Flickstream 3D movies use Anaglyph, so don't need a 3-d Tv
You can also access the same Drive-in Classics movies via the Drive-in Classics movie viewer app for iPad and iPhone which can stream them to Apple TV via AirPlay.

[Jim Riser]

Richard,
Anaglyph. Several years ago I bought a software program for making 3D images and movies. It and the OTA movies need the red/cyan glasses. Roxio and others sell nice glasses, as well as, the cheap cardboard versions.

The software uses the usual image pairs for stills but pulls adjacent frames to create artificial stereo to create 3D movies. The traditional method would have been to use double lenses.
Jim

[Richard Kaufman]

I'm afraid I don't have any of the gizmos required to actually receive those cable channels (no roku box, etc.)

I do have the old laser disc of The Mask, but the anaglyph 3D doesn't work very well at 420.