THE MAD MAGICIAN is an elegant little period shocker, with a nicely modulated performance by Vincent Price, which gives a whole new meaning to ‘Buzz-kill’.

America in the late 1890s: talented but diffident designer of magic tricks Don Gallico (Vincent Price) is about to fulfil his long-held ambition to become a stage magician in his own right, but on the night of his first performance his dream is cruelly dashed by his impresario employer, whose contract guarantees him every trick Gallico will ever invent. Goaded beyond endurance, Gallico embarks on a killing spree, turning his own magic devices into murder weapons and impersonating some of his victims. Since he is not merely an ingénieur of genius but also an accomplished mimic, it looks as if he may escape justice – until he is confronted by a different kind of magic, the newly-imported technique of fingerprinting…

Viewers expecting a camp extravaganza may be disappointed …

Despite its necessarily lurid content, THE MAD MAGICIAN proves to be an elegantly-constructed little film, wrapping up its fast-moving story within 75 minutes and cleverly incorporating both period detail and an affection for behind-the-scenes theatrics. The film’s age and the limitations of the horror genre mean that it is hardly devoid of unintentional comedy; however, viewers expecting a camp extravaganza may be disappointed, and the body-count is surprisingly low. As might be expected, its main interest is a central performance from Vincent Price which expertly captures Gallico’s mixture of madness and melancholy. Beginning somewhat against type in hushed and humble understatement, Price builds towards the sort of booming-voiced, eye-rolling grand guignol performance that he made his own. (As Gallico himself admits, ‘I guess I’m just a ham at heart.’) The dialogue is rarely less than workmanlike and occasionally a good deal more, as when Gallico’s flirtatious and materialistic ex-wife turns up after various escapades overseas and he wearily observes, ‘You look terribly expensive.’ (This scene in particular, in which Price displays an unexpected machismo as he hammers away at an anvil, has an oddly surreal quality that brings to mind moments in Buñuel’s Mexican films.)

After Gallico carelessly loses the head of his first victim, he embarks on a hansom cab chase …

There are some obvious missteps within the generally purposeful plotting. After Gallico carelessly loses the head of his first victim, he embarks on a hansom cab chase for it round New York, only to discover it has been handed over to the police; but in the next scene he remains at large, with a throwaway explanation as to how he evaded detection. It is also far from clear why he continues to dress as his victim to rent a room, or indeed why he needs a room in the first place. Still, this is not such a bad thing, since it introduces some much-needed comedy – intentional this time – in the form of the busybody crime novelist Alice Prentiss (Lenita Lane) and her supremely henpecked husband (Jay Novello), the owners of the house where the disguised Gallico lodges. The rest of the cast do what they can with their thinly-written roles, though Eva Gabor makes the most of her brief screen-time as Gallico’s errant ex-wife. The film’s nominal leading lady Mary Murphy, playing Gallico’s sometime assistant Karen (for whom he nurses a growing, and effectively creepy, obsession), never really gets beyond the first, demeaning description of her as ‘the little one with the legs’.

Though 3D’s brief 1950s heyday tends to be associated with colour films, THE MAD MAGICIAN is in black and white. Deftly directed by veteran John Brahm (perhaps best known for the similarly homicidal HANGOVER SQUARE, made some ten years earlier), the film is nonetheless flatly lit, which may be due to the limitations of its format. Its 3D moments are restricted, suitably enough, to a handful of magicians’ illusions.

THE MAD MAGICIAN screens on 5th September at 22.30 as part of the Cambridge Film Festival programme.

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