The Magician (I) (1926)

A magician/alchemist, seeking to create life, finds that he needs the "blood of a virgin" to continue his experiments. He sends out his dwarf assistant to pick out the right girl.

Director:

Rex Ingram

Writers:

W. Somerset Maugham (novel), Rex Ingram (adaptation)

Stars:

Alice Terry, Paul Wegener, Iván Petrovich

Cast

Cast overview:
Alice Terry	...	Margaret Dauncey
Paul Wegener	...	Oliver Haddo, the magician
Iván Petrovich	...	Dr. Arthur Burdon
Firmin Gémier	...	Dr. Porhoet
Gladys Hamer	...	Susie Boyd
Henry Wilson	...	Haddo's Servant
Hubert I. Stowitts	...	Dancing Faun (as Stowitts)

Storyline

A young girl, Margaret Dauncey, is caught between the forces of a charlatan magician, Oliver Haddo, whom she is unable to resist,and the love of a young surgeon, Arthur Burdon, who has saved her from being a helpless cripple by performing a delicate operation on her spine which startled the medical world.

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Plot Keywords:

dwarf | magician | surgeon | virgin | crippled child | 

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Taglines:

Never such a thrilling struggle shown in films! (original ad)

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Genres:

Drama | Fantasy | Horror | Romance

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Certificate:

Passed

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

24 October 1926 (USA)

Also Known As:

Der Dämon

Filming Locations:

Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

83 min

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

User Reviews

Pioneering supernatural silent

In the 1920s films dealing with supernatural evil were extremely rare. However, director Rex Ingram, obviously influenced by earlier German forays into the supernatural, cast German actor Paul Wegener of DER GOLEM in this adaptation of Somerset Maugham's novel THE MAGICIAN. Wegener's menacing performance as an evil Yogi in LEBENDE BUDDHAS (1925) made him a good choice to play Oliver Haddo, obsessed with creating life from an ancient formula requiring the heart's blood of a maiden, played by Ingram's wife Alice Terry.

John F. Seitz' cinematography is superb, especially in the depiction of the heroine's hallucinatory descent into Hell where she is figuratively ravished by a lustful and athletic satyr. And although Haddo doesn't succeed in creating the grisly, half-complete humans as in the novel, the controversial subject matter was nevertheless strong enough to insure the film's failure at the box-office in 1926.

Interesting comparisons have been made between this film and James Wale's FRANKENSTEIN, but the subject of black magic also invites comparison with later films - THE BLACK CAT (1934), THE NIGHT OF THE DEMON (1957), and THE DEVIL RIDES OUT (1968) - featuring characters who like Oliver Haddo were modeled on real-life occultist Aleister Crowley.