1926
Directed by Rex Ingram
Starring: Paul Wegener, Alice Terry, Ivan Petrovich and Firmin Gemier
It was nearly 30 years ago when I was first introduced to Rex Ingram's 1926 film The Magician while reading William Everson's Classics of the Horror Film. The stills alone were captivating and Everson's synopsis was intriguing.
Now, thanks to the internet, I was able to track down this little known classic of the silent era. (I've missed it whenever it has been shown on TCM) I've never seen any of Ingram's works but I've read he was more interested in the image rather than the drama. Unfortunately, the print I viewed didn't display the rich black and whites and crisp images. I was surprised, though, by the thoroughly entertaining storytelling.
SPOILERS FOLLOW
After a sculptress, Margaret, is nearly killed when her statue falls on her, is operated on by a young surgeon, Arthur, who reverses her paralyses. She and the young Doctor fall in love. Margaret also gets the attention of Oliver Haddo, a magician who scoffs at the ability of the young surgeon's ability to save life when he has the ambition to create life.
In an occultic book, Haddo discovers a page describing the procedure which reqires the heart's blood of a blond blue eyed maiden. Haddo sets his sights on Margaret. During a scene at the fair, Haddo looses a poisonous viper, allowing it to bite him without harm to display his magic. Tragically, a female onlooker is struck by the serpent and succombs to the poison. Arthur and Margaret were also onlookers and Arthur rushes the victim to the hospital. Margaret becomes caught up in Haddo's hypnotic eyes.
Haddo begins to stalk Margaret and confronts her in her home while no one else is at home. He hypnotizes her stating "If you wish to see strange things I have the power to show them to you" Margaret slips into a dreamlike trance where she finds herself in a scene from hell filled with pagan rites and a Pan-like creature embracing her while a horn haired Haddo looks on.
Haddo leaves after leaving her his card and has successfully gained a hypnotic control over her.
On the day of her wedding to Arthur she leaves with Haddo, leaving Arthur a note of her departure.
Arthur and her uncle, go in search of her and find her in Monte Carlo where she is gambling under Haddo's control and his magic is reaping winnings. Haddo leaves Margaret behind in her hotel room while he and his dwarf servant embark for Haddo's village home to prepare for his experiments in his sorcerer's castle.
Arthur finds Margaret and she confessess to him she believes Haddo intends to kill her and says, " It was something in me over which I had no control. I have no longer a will...no longer a soul I can call my own."
Arthur takes her home and hides her out in a sanitarium. Arthur and her uncle find papers which reveal Haddo is indeed mad and find upon their next visit to the sanitarium that Margaret is missing and only a threatening note left by Haddo.
Arthur and Margaret's uncle leave for Haddo's village. An atmospheric stormy night prefaced in a title card. "Light...and the lights of the sorcerer's tower gleaming through the storm like two evil eyes" is the back drop of the final scenes taking place inside the sorcerer's tower. Haddo makes final preparations in his lab as Margaret is tied down awaiting her fate. Haddo removes his scalpel as he goes over his notes instructing him the need for the Heart blood of a maiden. Before Haddo can plunge the blade in Margaret's chest, Arthur arrives and he and Haddo grapple in a climactic fight scene wheich ends with Haddo falling into a burning furnace he intended for Arthur.
Arthur and Margaret's uncle release her and the castle tower explodes behind their escape.
This movie should be on every horror fan's list of must see films. The film forshadows much of what helped Universal succeed in the genre as well as reaches back and uses influences from the past.
During Margaret's vision of Hell one is reminded of scenes from Benjamin Christensen's Haxen. Both James Whale's Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein both appear to be influenced by The Magician.
Wegener's Haddo is supposedly inspired by the occult magician Aleister Crowley, who also was the inspiration for the antagonists in 1932's The Black Cat and 1958's Curse of the Demon .
