Sir Guy Grand (Peter Sellers), the richest man in the world, adopts a homeless boy, Youngman (Sir Ringo Starr). Together, they set out to prove that anyone, and anything, can be bought with money.
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Title: The Magic Christian (1969)
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Cast
| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Peter Sellers | ... | Sir Guy Grand | |
| Ringo Starr | ... | Youngman Grand | |
| Isabel Jeans | ... | Dame Agnes Grand | |
| Caroline Blakiston | ... | Hon. Esther Grand | |
| Wilfrid Hyde-White | ... | Captain Reginald K. Klaus (as Wilfrid Hyde White) | |
| Richard Attenborough | ... | Oxford Coach | |
| Leonard Frey | ... | Laurence Faggot | |
| Laurence Harvey | ... | Hamlet | |
| Christopher Lee | ... | Ship's Vampire | |
| Spike Milligan | ... | Traffic Warden 27 | |
| Roman Polanski | ... | Solitary Drinker | |
| Raquel Welch | ... | Priestess of the Whip | |
 |
Tom Boyle | ... | My Man Jeff |
| Victor Maddern | ... | Hot Dog Vendor | |
| Terence Alexander | ... | Mad Major | |
Edit
Plot Summary
|
Add Synopsis
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Storyline
Sir Guy Grand (Peter Sellers) adopts homeless bum Youngman (Sir Ringo Starr) to be heir to his obscene wealth, and immediately begins bringing him into the intricacies of the family business, which is to prey upon people's greed by use of the vast holdings of the Grand empire. They leave no stone unturned as sporting events, restaurants, art galleries, and traditional pheasant hunts turn into lurid displays of bad manners and profiteering. Things climax at the social event of the season, the inaugural voyage of the new pleasure cruiser, "The Magic Christian". Written by Ed Sutton <esutton@mindspring.com>
Plot Keywords:
ten pound note | big ben | napoleon bust statue | sleeping on the ground | brushing teeth |Taglines:
The world's richest man and the world's poorest boy are getting it ready now...and everybody, everywhere, will be a little worse off for it. See more »Genres:
ComedyParents Guide:
View content advisory »
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See full technical specs »
Details
Country:
UKLanguage:
EnglishRelease Date:
12 December 1969 (UK) See more »Also Known As:
Magic Christian See more »Company Credits
Show more on
IMDbPro »
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Sound Mix:
Mono (RCA Sound Recording)Color:
Color (Technicolor)Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1
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See more »
Written by Paul McCartney
Recorded by Badfinger (as Bad Finger)
See more »
Did You Know?
Trivia
Youngman (Sir Ringo Starr) wasn't in the original book. The part was written especially for him, with many of Guy's early exploits adapted as Youngman's. See more »Goofs
At Auchengillen Station, Guy Grand's car is blocked by a police car which pulls to a halt across its path. After a brief conversation, Grand's car drives off unimpeded. The Police Car has shifted to the side. See more »Quotes
Sir Guy Grand KG, KC, CBE: [voiceover, as a £10 note appears onscreen] Ladies and gentlemen, this is what is commonly known as money. It comes in all sizes, colours, and denominations - like people. We'll be using quite a bit of it in the next two hours... luckily I have enough for ALL of us.See more »
Alternate Versions
Also released in shortened (75 min. and 88 min.) versions. See more »Soundtracks
Come and Get ItWritten by Paul McCartney
Recorded by Badfinger (as Bad Finger)
See more »
Frequently Asked Questions
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One day the fabulously wealthy Sir Guy Grand who is Peter Sellers with a much larger nose finds a young orphan kid in a park. On the spur of the moment he adopts young Ringo Starr, probably because Ringo has a well known honker in real life and Sellers sees something of himself in Ringo.
The idea is that Sellers has to have someone not just to leave his money to, but someone to impart his accumulated wisdom of the years which is boiled up into one single thought; that EVERYBODY has his price.
The rest of the film is a Monty Pythonesque group of skits in which Sellers tries to prove just that to Starr. They range from Laurence Harvey doing a striptease while doing Hamlet's soliloquy to a beat cop eating a parking ticket for 500 pounds. The title The Magic Christian refers to a Titanic like cruise ship that only caters to the upper crust. Sellers and Starr integrate that ship's maiden voyage in a most interesting fashion.
That the film is like Monty Python is no accident with Graham Chapman and John Cleese doing the writing. Ringo's former Beatle companero, Paul McCartney wrote The Magic Christian theme, Come and Get It which sums up the philosophy of the film.
After almost 40 years, The Magic Christian is acidly funny, but a still unsettling.