BEFORE: It's the first day of summer, so that means two things - I've shaved off my mustache to keep my face cooler, and also, I'm just a couple days away from the start of my Summer Music (and Documentary) Concert series. This practice began back in 2018 when I watched 52 rock concert films and documentaries in a row, and they all linked together. The year may not have been "perfect", but the documentary chain was. Since then I've done smaller chains, here and there, focusing on art, politics, actors and some of the rockers I missed that first time around - this year I've got 44 planned, but a couple of them MAY not be available on streaming, so I should probably double-check the whole list before I start watching, in case I need to re-arrange things a bit.
Anthony Hopkins carries over again from "The Two Popes". "Magic" has been on my DVR for two whole damn years now, and I have not been able to fit it in to any of my October horror chains, and I'm planning this October's chain now, it looks like there's no slot for this AGAIN - so, enough is enough, that's just not going to happen, let me burn it off here and clear up some space on the old DVR.
THE PLOT: A ventriloquist is at the mercy of his vicious dummy while he tries to renew a romance with his high school sweetheart.
AFTER: We're going all the WAY back to 1978 for this one, and you must realize, it was a very different time. The country was still recovering from the political scandals of a President who did illegal things to stay in power, Russia was planning to invade a country where it didn't belong, and America was being entertained by the adventures of a young Luke Skywalker and an older Obi-Wan Kenobi. OK, so maybe things weren't THAT different...
We're introduced to a struggling magician named Corky, and he bombs with his card tricks on Amateur Night at a club. But then, a year later, he's found a way to combine magic tricks with ventriloquism, and this proves to be a hit. He finds he doesn't have to perform the tricks perfectly, because people are so distracted by the R-rated humor of the dummy, they don't care so much about the magic. (Back then, there was no "America's Got Talent" to audition for, or this guy would have gone far...). But a talent agent still discovers him, and soon he's on track to be the next Rich Little or Steve Martin. (Umm, back then Steve Martin was a stand-up comic and novelty songwriter, not an actor. But he played the banjo back then, as he does now.)
One big hitch, before giving Corky his first TV special, the network wants him to take a physical exam - standard stuff, except Corky won't agree to it. Instead he takes off from the city and heads to upstate NY, where he grew up. He rents a lake cabin from his old high-school girlfriend, and they pretend at first not to recognize each other. (Umm, awkward...). But before long they've reconnected, and he introduces her to his dummy, Fats.
Before long, we start to realize why Corky wouldn't get the medical exam - because he's not right in the head. Really, the whole ventriloquism thing should have been a tip-off, right? Hey, has anybody got eyes on Jeff Dunham? It's OK to talk to yourself - but when it becomes a two-way conversation, then I think someone really need a "check-up from the neck up". Look, the whole ventriloquism thing is weird enough, but when the dummy's in control and tells his handler to start killing people, we've got a big problem.
The screenwriter here is William Goldman, who also wrote the screenplays for "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", "The Stepford Wives", "All the President's Men", "Marathon Man", and "The Princess Bride". But I wish he hadn't titled this film "Magic", because it's not really about magic tricks, it's mostly about ventriloquism, and those are two very different things. Goldman seems to only have the most basic understanding of magic tricks, he knows what a card force is and the line "Was THIS your card?" and that's about it. Couldn't he have researched a few more tricks?
The film also never really picks a lane regarding what, exactly is going on here - this could be a case of mental illness, Dissociative Identity Disorder, which of course is also different from straight ventrilioquism. Or the dummy could really be possessed, which would make this a true horror film - but I guess we'll never really know for sure. I'd avoid all ventriloquists if I were you, just to be on the safe side.
Also starring Ann-Margret (last seen in "Going in Style"), Burgess Meredith (last seen in "Second Chorus"), Ed Lauter (last seen in "Not Another Teen Movie"), E.J. André (last seen in "Papillon" (1973)), David Ogden Stiers (last seen in "The Cheap Detective"), Jerry Houser (last seen in "Slap Shot"), Lillian Randolph (last seen in "At the Circus"), Joe Lowry, Beverly Sanders, Robert Hackman (last seen in "Hooper"), Mary Munday, Scott Garrett, Brad Beesley,
RATING: 4 out of 10 Bob Dylan wanna-bes
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