I just watched the 1978 film Magic tonight. First time seeing it. You've likely seen it or at least heard the basic outline, so I won't go into plot synopsis. I will say that Fats is one nightmarish puppet. They didn't fall short there. Anthony Hopkins apparently wanted to get rid of the prop, but obviously they couldn't until the movie was complete. Suffering for your art and all that.
Burgess Meredith is quite good as the concerned agent. Who smokes some long-ass cigars. Meredith seems to have gotten typecast as characters with Freudian smoking habits.
2 comments:
I know I never saw this so I doubt Jer did either. What surprised me particularly was seeing the cast of the movie. Other than Burgess Meredith, who was a great surprise, there was also Anthony Hopkins, Ann-Margaret and David Ogden Stiers among other respectable actors in what appears to be a decidedly 'B' movie - well, horror movies usually are.
I'm not big on slasher movies anyway and jump scares always work on me, but the films I dislike the most are the ones that involve maniacal dolls and, especially ventriloquist's dummies. I think what initiated that reaction in me was seeing 'The Dummy' - the old Twilight Zone episode with Cliff Robertson in the lead role. When he decided to get rid of the prop the results were less than optimal.
Funny you should mention that. As to the big name cast, there's an explanation. Magic was directed by Richard Attenborough, just a couple of years before he made Gandhi. So there's a little more of a budget, comparable to The Exorcist (with Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, etc.) Stiers is only in one scene, but he does well. I have to admit that I'm only a little familiar with his best known role, since I always drift away from Mash after Frank Burns leaves.
I do remember that Twilight Zone, I mean who could forget? There was also a segment in Dead of Night where much the same happened to Michael Redgrave. In this it must be said that the (huge) dummy is obnoxious even before he's scary, and looks just enough like Hopkins to add to the creep factor.
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