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Magic

1978
Dir. Richard Attenborough

Down on his luck magician Corky (Anthony Hopkins) finds success when he introduces a ventriloquist's doll into his act. The doll, Fats, seems to have a mind of its own though and spookily exerts control over Corky. When Corky seeks solace in the countryside and begins a relationship with his high school sweetheart Peg (Ann-Margaret), Fats takes matters into his own murderous hands...

With a script by William Goldman and director Richard Attenborough at the helm, Magic is indeed a classy affair that exhibits a surprising amount of nuance, subtly and stellar performances - especially from a young Anthony Hopkins. This is after all a movie about a killer doll. Isn't it? The film successfully juxtaposes the bizarre with the mundane, and mixes elements of psychological horror with the blatantly supernatural. This is highlighted perfectly in the opening shots of a cluttered flat full of bizarre bric-a-brac that sit alongside everyday household objects.

Corky is a struggling entertainer who fails to even hold the attention of his audience, let alone convince them of his talents. He returns home downcast and defeated. We then cut to several months later and suddenly Corky seems to have emerged as a strange overnight success. His burgeoning reputation leads to him being offered his own TV show. Bizarrely though – and in the first indication that all is not what it seems with Corky and Fats – he refuses this opportunity because he will have to undergo a medical exam. He flies into an unhinged rage when his agent Ben (Burgess Meredith) tries to make him see sense. Fleeing to the countryside, Corky rents a secluded and rustic lakeside cabin from Peg, and at this point the narrative begins to chart the rekindling of their relationship. 

Magic is positively peppered with bizarre and creepy moments. The quiet scenes, in which Corky converses with Fats when they are alone, are immensely creepy. While Corky appears to be a kooky eccentric, there is nonetheless a genuinely dark and worrying slant to his character due to the privileged vantage point we see him from. Something very sinister is obviously afoot. When Corky arrives at the cabin Fats begins to call out from the suitcase he’s been stuffed into. Everything remains ambiguous until the final moments - is Corky insane? Or is Fats really alive and bumping off the cast?

An already tense atmosphere is gradually brought to boiling point when Ben tracks Corky to the cabin and, after he walks in on Corky and Fats having a full scale argument, confronts him in an unbearably intense scene. A protracted and taut sequence of events follows, and a wonderfully macabre shot of Fats 'watching' from the window of the cabin, framed in darkness, is sufficiently chilling. When Peg realises that Corky is faking a phone call and that her husband has disappeared the tension becomes almost too much. The final shot of the film as Peg races to the cabin clutching the wooden heart Corky left for her is spine-chilling, and totally shocking.

Magic boasts top notch performances from all involved. Hopkins seems gentle, charming and quite timid: even before Hannibal Lector came along, he was already convincing as a softly spoken, gentle mannered psychopath. As with other similar films such Dead of Night, Pin and Devil Doll, the uncanny appearance of the actual ventriloquist’s doll is where much of the tension comes from – as we constantly wait for it to move - so lifelike and yet, not alive.

Interestingly the film touches on a number of aspects of ventriloquism no longer really associated with the art. Nowadays it is associated with entertainment and the subject of creepy old movies (ho-hum!) – however in pre-Christian times ventriloquism actually originated from the practice of necromancy. All along the audience are led to believe that what they are watching is a character study charting the mental disintegration of a man who is coming to terms with newfound fame and success and he is eventually driven mad by it. However when one views Magic from the perspective that Corky has perhaps been dabbling in black arts and occultism, it throws yet another fascinating layer into the mix and ensures the film retains an appeal that endures after multiple viewings. It is testament to those involved in the making of Magic that this revelation never feels like a cop out.

Check out Ventriloquism: A Disassociated Perspective by Angela Mabe – a paper that charts the origins of the act of ventriloquism from its roots in necromancy.
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