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The Magician (1926)
Jan. 13th, 2009 10:18 amThe Paramount Theater is in the midst of one of its semi-annual month-long four-film silent film series. Last night Scott K and I went to see the Rex Ingram film, The Magician. I've been wanting to see this movie -- or anything by Ingram -- for years, but since nothing of his is available on DVD, this was my first chance. Ingram is interesting because he stopped making movies with the advent of sound. A lot of actors and actresses were unable to make the transition to sound, but he is one of the few directors I've heard of who didn't make it, although apparently more from preference than from inability. The reason I've been looking forward to seeing his films is that he's known as a supreme visual stylist. His background was in sculpture and painting.
The Magician is based on the 1908 Somerset Maugham novel, which in turn is based on the sinister figure of Aleister Crowley, the renowned British occultist. The Crowley character, Oliver Haddo, is played by the German actor and director, Paul Wegener, who is perhaps most famous for his 1920 adaptation of Der Golem. Haddo develops an unhealthy interest in the virginal Margaret Dauncey (played by Ingram's wife, Alice Terry). He needs the blood from a maiden's heart for his magical experiment in creating life. Haddo mesmerizes Margaret to bend her to his will in this project.
The story is perhaps a bit obvious, and the modern mind might be forgiven for thinking that young Margaret should just give up the cherry to her doctor fiance and be done with the menace. Still, it is a very beautiful movie (and it was a very nice 35mm print), with a number of dramatic and bizarre sequences, most flamboyantly a nightmare vision of frolicking fauns chasing nubile women with unseemly intent. Perhaps oddly, there's more male flesh than female exposed in this frenetic scene. Ingram shows an artist's eye in his compositions, and as Scott pointed out, he was very good at creating layers of depth.
Ingram has the reputation of having been influenced by the Weimar film-makers who are often referred to collectively as German Expressionists. Certainly in the faun sequence Haddo is made up and lighted in a way that immediately reminded me of Mephisto in Murnau's Faust (1926), although it's hard to know who influenced whom since both films were released the same year. The Magician also made me think of '30s horror films. Wegener's mesmerizing gaze could have been the model for Bela Lugosi in Dracula (1931) or John Barrymore in Svengali (1931). The tower-based laboratory at the end of the movie seems pretty clearly to have had an influence on James Whale's Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935).
Of all these movies the feel of The Magician is probably closest to Svengali (based on the novel Trilby). A passive young society woman is menaced by a domineering charmer. The modern mind might be forgiven for wishing she'd find the spine to tell the bug-eyed creep to stuff himself, but there's an interesting psychological moment when Margaret confesses to having lost her will and her soul. Shades of the Aristotelian view of the psyche, where lovesickness is viewed as possession by the spirit of the beloved. The Magician may lack dramatic tension, but there are troubling ideas lurking beneath the pretty surface.
The Magician is based on the 1908 Somerset Maugham novel, which in turn is based on the sinister figure of Aleister Crowley, the renowned British occultist. The Crowley character, Oliver Haddo, is played by the German actor and director, Paul Wegener, who is perhaps most famous for his 1920 adaptation of Der Golem. Haddo develops an unhealthy interest in the virginal Margaret Dauncey (played by Ingram's wife, Alice Terry). He needs the blood from a maiden's heart for his magical experiment in creating life. Haddo mesmerizes Margaret to bend her to his will in this project.
The story is perhaps a bit obvious, and the modern mind might be forgiven for thinking that young Margaret should just give up the cherry to her doctor fiance and be done with the menace. Still, it is a very beautiful movie (and it was a very nice 35mm print), with a number of dramatic and bizarre sequences, most flamboyantly a nightmare vision of frolicking fauns chasing nubile women with unseemly intent. Perhaps oddly, there's more male flesh than female exposed in this frenetic scene. Ingram shows an artist's eye in his compositions, and as Scott pointed out, he was very good at creating layers of depth.
Ingram has the reputation of having been influenced by the Weimar film-makers who are often referred to collectively as German Expressionists. Certainly in the faun sequence Haddo is made up and lighted in a way that immediately reminded me of Mephisto in Murnau's Faust (1926), although it's hard to know who influenced whom since both films were released the same year. The Magician also made me think of '30s horror films. Wegener's mesmerizing gaze could have been the model for Bela Lugosi in Dracula (1931) or John Barrymore in Svengali (1931). The tower-based laboratory at the end of the movie seems pretty clearly to have had an influence on James Whale's Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935).
Of all these movies the feel of The Magician is probably closest to Svengali (based on the novel Trilby). A passive young society woman is menaced by a domineering charmer. The modern mind might be forgiven for wishing she'd find the spine to tell the bug-eyed creep to stuff himself, but there's an interesting psychological moment when Margaret confesses to having lost her will and her soul. Shades of the Aristotelian view of the psyche, where lovesickness is viewed as possession by the spirit of the beloved. The Magician may lack dramatic tension, but there are troubling ideas lurking beneath the pretty surface.
