Richard Attenborough
Cast
Anthony Hopkins - Corky/ voice of Fats
Ann-Margret - Peggy Ann Snow
Burgess Meredith - Ben Greene
Ed Lauter - Duke
E.J. Andre - Merlin
I'm nearing my first 100 horror movie's on this blog. And I wanted to put the 1978 psychological horror film Magic among the first hundred movies.
It's a film I've had in my movie que for sometime. I've heard little about this movie, but I've seen it included in lists of films about evil dolls such as Dead of Night (1945), Devil Doll (1964), Puppet Master (1989), Dead Silence (2007), Dolls (1987), and Child's Play (1988). The presence of Anthony Hopkins working alongside a ventriloquist puppet sold me right away.
With none other than Richard Attenborough in the director's chair, Burgess Meredith (one of my all time favorite actors) also in the movie, and composer Jerry Goldsmith (Gremlins, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Alien, First Blood) creating the music, I knew this needed... yes, needed... to be seen by my eyes.
Since I've watched it, I keep thinking about it. Something about this makes me want to treat it with a little more reverence. There are no jump scares, or frightening monsters lurking in the shadows. Yet there's a general odd and uneasy atmosphere wafting through the scenes like a thin but visible fog.
Based on a novel by William Goldman, the author of The Princess Bride, Magic is a movie that seems to receive less attention than it deserves.
Goldman, by the way, is no stranger to horror as he worked on screenplays for a few Stephen King movies - Misery, Hearts in Atlantis, and Dreamcatcher. He was also consulted on the King movie Dolores Claiborne.
As fantastic and revered an actor as Anthony Hopkins is, being among one of my favorite actors, I initially thought watching him work along side a ventriloquist dummy was going to really seem beneath him.
How wrong I was.
Hopkins plays professional magician Corky Withers whom we see performing card tricks and so forth for a rather meager and uninterested crowd at a night club. He doesn't take their lack of attention well, and yells at them.
Merlin (E.J. Andre), his mentor, suggests he start using a gimmick to bolster his audience's interest - something much more entertaining than just card tricks. His audiences have seen card tricks before.
So, after a year, Corky develops and perfects an act were he mixes magic with ventriloquism.
His new partner is a cynical, often vulgar, ventriloquist puppet he calls "Fats."
Fats proves to be a successful addition. And Corky's agent, Ben Greene (Burgess Meredith) wants to get the team on television.
This becomes overwhelming for Corky, and he escapes to a secluded location in the Catskills where he grew up. He claims fear of success is the driving reason he's running away from it all.
However, the truth is Corky is worried about the network's requirement that he take a medical exam which would very likely reveal he suffers from mental issues.
When he arrives at the cabin in the Catskills, Corky runs in to Peggy Ann Snow (Ann-Margaret) whom he knows from high school.
Corky had a major crush on Peggy back then. Little does he know that she, too, had strong feelings for him as well back in the day.
As the two become reacquainted, Peggy tells him she's in a stagnant marriage with one of Corky's old high school buddies, Duke (Ed Lauter).
They soon reveal how they felt about each other back in high school. Corky then impresses her with Fats and a card trick.
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| Anthony Hopkins as Corky in Magic (1978) |
She's then convinced their soulmates, and they soon... get it on.
Soon, Fats starts becoming jealous as Corky has conversations with his puppet when they're alone.
During an argument Corky is having with Fats, Greene unexpectedly arrives to his cabin.
He addresses his concern that Corky is suffering from some kind of mental instability. Corky tries to laugh it off using Fats as a means to lighten the mood. Greene challenges him to "make Fats shut-up for five minutes."
Corky blows off the challenge as no big deal, and sets the puppet aside.
But within a minute, he is clearly growing agitated as the five minutes ticks on.
He finally breaks before the time is up, spewing line after line in Fats voice.
Greene insists Corky receive help, and then leaves to contact a doctor.
Right after Greene leaves, Fats tells Corky to stop him, and Corky runs after him.
He beats Greene over the head with his puppet, knocking him unconscious.
Thinking he's dead, Corky takes him to the middle of a lake to make it appear as though Greene drowned.
But Greene regains consciousness and attacks Corky.
He drowns Greene, leaving his body in the water.
After this murder, Fats becomes more demanding and possessive of Corky. The audience sees what this is doing to Corky as he grows more and more tense and unstable while making plans to run off with Peggy.
The movie starts off a bit slow, but does gradually pick up to a moderate pace with enough tension and intrigue to keep the audience absorbed.
It's not an in-your-face type to horror film. It utilizes uncertainty and emotion to draw in the audience and makes them ask themselves what's real.
Trying to determine if Fats is an outlet for Corky's split personality, psychosis, or compulsiveness, or if he's actually possessed by a spirit or demon, or if he's sentient is difficult to tell. There are indications that all might be the case.
When Corky is controlling Fats, the puppet's movements - especially his rapid eye movements - seem to show he may be alive. Otherwise, Corky may just be great at animating Fats.
The mere fact he only moves under Corky's control indicates he's an outlet for Corky's mental instability.
He only opens his mouth to talk when Corky is controlling him. Other times he still talks when Corky is elsewhere in the room, without opening his mouth.
Corky is afraid, after all, of the TV studio requiring he undertake a medical examination and discovering mental issues.
In a later scene, Fats ends up stabbing Duke when he goes to look for Corky in his cabin, but Corky doesn't seem to be inside. But this death also seems like it happened through complete chance.
There is one scene were the camera angle moves to align Fats' head with Corky's during a performance - a subtle angle that gives the impression it's really Fats possessing or controlling Corky.
Whichever the case, Magic is very much a psychological thriller. It doesn't leave the audience with any clear answer, and that works in the movie's favor.
Anthony Hopkins is great in this role. He shifts from self-constrained to terrified.
He puts in a believable sense of urgency and fear in his role.
And Burgess Meredith is a master actor. In the scene where his character tells Corky to make Fats quiet for five minutes, he doesn't take his eyes off Corky and keeps a slight smirk on his face.
There's a lot going on just in his expression. He knows what the outcome is going to be. Greene knows that Corky is really suffering a severe mental state. And yet, he still wants to be fair to him. He also wants Corky to admit what's already known. Meredith is a master when it comes to such small details.
I'm rather bias, I admit, when it comes to Meredith as he is one of my most favorite actors of all time.
Just listening to him in interviews on how he would prepare for roles, and act out specific scenes is fascinating in themselves. He is a true legend!
Wilder was asked years later at a book signing if there was a role he wished he had but didn't. His answer was "Corky."
If there's an alternate universe out there where Wilder plays Corky in Magic, I would love to see it. Though Hopkins is fantastic in the role, seeing Wilder play Corky would be amazing. I can see his portrayal being lighthearted, yet severely tragic. What could have been!
What is, though, is a great psychological thriller that deserves more attention.
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