Product: Magic [VHS] (1978)
Rating: 4.0
Melancholic and creepy, with a tragic love story
I'm sad to learn from the other reviewers that the only version of the film available is an EP edited version; a bad dub with the language chopped up. Hopefully it'll someday be released un-edited on DVD, but the reviewers here have been wishing for it (and even teasing it) for over 5 years. Doesn't bode well.When I first saw MAGIC on television as a 10-year old boy, I was scared-out-of-my-wits and couldn't sleep... despite not understanding the schizophrenia element. (I thought Fats, the dummy, had REALLY COME TO LIFE and was committing the murders.) Needless to say, I was completely freaked-out about ventriloquist dummies from then on; an abnormal fear that sort of continues to this day, as I near forty.The music is moody and the setting - with its bare trees and murky lake - is melancholic. Add a creepy-looking dummy capable of infinite facial expressions (and filmed like a living actor), and you get this scary and atmospheric film concerning a sympathetic but emotionally unstable ventriloquist and a tragic romance that's sadly doomed to fail. (One of the lovers is married and the other insane.)Anthony Hopkins turns in his usual flawless performance, this time offering us a prelude to his later Hannibal Lecter role. The beautiful and sexy Ann-Margaret is costumed in frumpy shapeless sweaters but is still unavoidably desirable. Here she does great supporting work as a woman trapped in a bad marriage, dreaming of a more magical love - perhaps in the arms of Corky, the fated main character. But of course, we know that's not to be... and it pains us.Lots of creepiness and doom and gloom perhaps, but nonetheless an exceptional film. The acting, the tragic love story, and the mood-appropriate cinematography combine for an A-minus movie.