talkmagic.co.uk

By a very strange coincidence, my youngest son just emailed a link to a story featuring not only Michael Caine, not only a film, but a film about
a group of magicians who use their skills to rob banks.

See http://www.metro.co.uk/film/899275-mich ... f-new-film

It all depends on how you define good. What is good to one magician is often not so to another.
But films to see & JUDGE for YOURSELF :
THE MAD MAGICIAN with Vincent Price
LILLI based on Paul Gallico's Love of 7 Dolls--great Floating Ball--uncredited byt arranged by Dante
HOUDINI--with Tony Curtis. Hopelessly inaccurate historically (not as bad as the Guy Pearce recent version) BUT tons of magic well performed by TC
BLACK MAGIC with Orson Welles
A HAUNTING WE WILL GO..Laurel& Hardy & DANTE
BUNCO SQUAD.. dante in the last 25 minutes of the film
MIRACLES FOR SALE.
THE ESCAPE ARTIST
THE MAGIC SHOW with Doug Henning
DANTE's MYSTERIES.. 1930 with Dante
STARS ON PARADE with a longish act from Horace Goldin
THE GREAT HOUDINIS with Michael Paul Glasser (of Starsky & Hutch)
THE FILMS OF FU MANCHU this is David Bamberg not the Sax Rhomer villain. There are 3 or 4 availale from Todd Karr: The Miracle Factory
THE STORY OF MAGIC.. 2 parts CENTURIES OF DECEPTION & MYSTERY IN AMERICA
F FOR FAKE Orson Welles
THE DAVID COPPERFIELD FILMS; TERROR TRAIN--JUDEX--
ROCAMBOLE & Lo SCEICCO ROSSO (The Red Sheik) CHANNING POLLOCK
FOLLOW THE BOYS with part of Orson Welles' Mercury Magic Show & Marlene Dietrich as his assistant. Should have been Rita Hayworth but!!
THREE LITTLE WORDS with Fred Astaire as Bert Kalamar (famous song writer & amateur magician)

There are others! HOW many do you want?

Allen Tipton

I watched Hugo today which has magicians in. Lovely movie with a great story and a real sense of magic.

Jobasha wrote:I watched Hugo today which has magicians in. Lovely movie with a great story and a real sense of magic.

I concur absolutely. Great film.

A great old black & white movie that I don't think has been mentioned yet is the Clairvoyant with Claude Rains. It's about a 2 person mind-reading act touring the UK. Suddenly the man starts to find out that he can... do it for real!!! Actually, it's a great film on several levels. Not least of which is seeing how the old 2 person telepathy code acts used to work. You can pick it up nice & cheap on Amazon.

themagicwand wrote:

Jobasha wrote:I watched Hugo today which has magicians in. Lovely movie with a great story and a real sense of magic.

I concur absolutely. Great film.

A great old black & white movie that I don't think has been mentioned yet is the Clairvoyant with Claude Rains. It's about a 2 person mind-reading act touring the UK. Suddenly the man starts to find out that he can... do it for real!!! Actually, it's a great film on several levels. Not least of which is seeing how the old 2 person telepathy code acts used to work. You can pick it up nice & cheap on Amazon.

Oh, that sound great; love Claude Raines!

Not exactly a magician, but there's a sequence in Dead Of Night (1945) in which a young Michael Redgrave's dummy slowly takes him over. Very creepy indeed, and boy can the guy act!

You should have seen MR, in the early 50's, at Stratford, Tomo. Playing Richard 11, King Lear, Antony in A & Cleopatra, Shylock in Merchant of Venice--that was Great Classical Acting at its finest.

There was magic indeed

Allen Tipton

Invincible has some interesting mentalism/bizarre sequences featuring Tim Roth playing Hanussen. A blister effect is included.
T.

Madelon Hoedt wrote:

themagicwand wrote:

Jobasha wrote:I watched Hugo today which has magicians in. Lovely movie with a great story and a real sense of magic.

I concur absolutely. Great film.

A great old black & white movie that I don't think has been mentioned yet is the Clairvoyant with Claude Rains. It's about a 2 person mind-reading act touring the UK. Suddenly the man starts to find out that he can... do it for real!!! Actually, it's a great film on several levels. Not least of which is seeing how the old 2 person telepathy code acts used to work. You can pick it up nice & cheap on Amazon.

Oh, that sound great; love Claude Raines!

It is on the internet archive for free, never sure of the legalities of these sites. But Claude Rains and Fay Wray is a winner of a combination. Claude Rains introduction is superb

http://archive.org/details/The_Evil_Mind

The Archive only stores out of copyright materials, I think, so it should be okay. I love the old black'n'white films, and I adored Raines in The Invisible Man.

Madelon Hoedt wrote:I adored Raines in The Invisible Man.

The makeup was fantastic.......

I think the phantom of the opera remains one of my favourite of his Universal movies, but so many good roles. I love his delivery of lines. One of my previous flatmates used to quote lines from his films all the time. She became a bit obsessed.

Jobasha wrote:I think the phantom of the opera remains one of my favourite of his Universal movies, but so many good roles. I love his delivery of lines. One of my previous flatmates used to quote lines from his films all the time. She became a bit obsessed.

Are you trying to tell me something?

I just quote from Frankenstein.

And Fredric March's Jekyll and Hyde.

The usual stuff.

Madelon Hoedt wrote:I just quote from Frankenstein

I prefer to quote from Bride of Frankenstein....It's my only weakness.

A few more of the Golden Oldies anf Forgottens

The Ilusionist..NO not that one. 1939--MGM directed by Paul le Paul
Eternally Yours. 1939 David Niven as a magician/mentalist/escapist
The Shadow. 1940 Columbia. Victor Jory (like Chaney Senior, an amateur magician) based on the books by Walter Gibson
Honky Tonk. 1941. Gable too lazy to learn had John Calvert in the opening card sharp scene doing false cuts , second deals for him
Blue White & Perfect. 1942 based on 'Clayton Rawson's' Footprints on the Ceiling
The Man Who Wouldn't Die.1942 again based on CR's book
This Gun For Hire. 1942 Veronica Lake does a magic routine, wrtten by Bert Kalmar(played in 3 Little Words by Fred Astaire.) and she was coached by Jimmy Grippo
Journey Into Fear 1943 Orson Welles Opens with some magic. Based on Eric Ambler's book
Are These Our Parents. 1944. John Calvert as The Great Gaspar
The Corn Is Green. 1945 Bette Davies & Pat Hayes who was coached for picking pockerts by Mark Raffles. Based on the Emlyn Williams play
Nightmare Alley 1947 Tyrone Power as a carnival mentalist
Devil's Cargo. 1948 John Calver doing his cig manips
Tarzan's Savage Fury. 1952, Directed b y Cy Endfield(amateur magician & author of a great card book) Technical advisor..Charlie Miller (see old Geniis)
Siren of Bagdad 1952 Features some classic box tricks and the Disembodied princess,
The Mad Magician 1954 Vincent Price
The Silver Chalice 1954 John Calvert directed the magic secnes and devised the props. I think this was PaulNewman's first film Jack Palance stars
The Intimate Stranger 1956 June Merlin does her regular stage act and other tricks

MORE LATER. I have just missed an important, to me, train.

MANDRAKE: You should list all the films mentioned for future Talke Magicers

Allen Tipton