After Charles "Corky" Withers fails in his first attempt at professional magic, his mentor Merlin says that he needs a better gimmick. Corky comes back as a combination magician and ventriloquist with a foul-mouthed dummy named Fats, becoming a huge success. Corky's agent, Ben Greene, is on the verge of signing him for his own television show, but Corky bails for the Catskills, where he grew up, since he does not want to take the TV network's medical examination because the doctors might find out that he suffers from severe mental issues and cannot control Fats (a manifestation of Corky's id).
In the Catskills, Corky reunites with his high-school crush, Peggy Ann Snow, who is stuck in a passionless marriage with Duke, Corky's friend from high school. A magic trick with a deck of cards charms Peggy into thinking they are soulmates, and the pair make love. This sparks jealousy in both Duke and Fats.
In the midst of an argument "between" Corky and Fats, Greene confronts Corky, discovering the truth about his state of mind. Greene leaves to contact doctors, but Fats convinces Corky to kill him. Corky bludgeons Greene with Fats' wooden head and then drowns him.
The next morning, Corky says that he plans to elope with Peggy and leave the dummy behind. Suspecting his wife has cheated on him, Duke talks with Corky by the lake and confides that he loves Peggy and is worried about losing her. Duke suddenly spots the unconscious body of a man on the edge of the lake and goes to check him for an ID. Believing he could still be alive, Corky is sent to get help while Duke administers the "kiss of life".
Curious, Duke searches Corky's cabin. He discovers that the drowned man was Corky's agent, Greene, and is stabbed to death by Fats with "help" from Corky.
Corky composes himself and persuades Peggy to run away with him, but she insists on waiting to tell Duke. Fats then "comes alive" and reveals that Corky's card trick is a ruse he uses to seduce women. Repulsed, Peggy rejects Corky and locks herself in her bedroom. Fats orders Corky to kill Peggy.
Corky, using Fats' voice, apologizes to Peggy through her locked door and leaves her a wooden heart that he carved. A short while later, he returns with a bloodstained knife. Fats seems pleased until he learns that Corky fatally stabbed himself to prevent further murders by Fats. Corky and Fats each feel faint, wondering which of them will die first. Moments later, Peggy returns to the cabin, happily calling out that she has changed her mind and decided to run away with Corky. As she speaks, she playfully changes her voice to impersonate Fats, tossing the wooden heart in the air.
In March 1976, Joseph E. Levine had purchased the film rights to Goldman's novel for $1 million, with Goldman hired to write the screenplay.[2] By June 1976, Norman Jewison had been hired to direct the film.[3][4] Jewison wanted Jack Nicholson to star, but Nicholson turned it down, claiming he did not want to wear a hairpiece.[5]Steven Spielberg expressed interest in directing the film and considered casting Robert De Niro for Corky.[6] Richard Attenborough, who had directed A Bridge Too Far with Goldman and Levine, then agreed to direct.
Laurence Olivier was offered the role of the agent but was unable to do it, and then Burgess Meredith was cast.[5] Meredith landed the role after walking into the 21 Club one night when Levine was there – Levine cast him on the spot. Meredith modelled his performance on the agent Swifty Lazar, even shaving his head to look like Lazar. "I tried to get his cool, understated manner, his sharp clothes, and most of all, his way of speaking softly so that you've got to lean over to hear what he's saying", said Meredith.[7] Goldman later wrote about the film that "Burgess Meredith was perfect and Tony Hopkins...was so wonderful here. But running stride for stride with him was Miss Olsson. I think Ann-Margret is the least appreciated emotional actress anywhere."[8]
Ann-Margret and Anthony Hopkins were each paid around $300,000 for their performances.[9]
Filming
Exteriors were shot in Ukiah, California.[10] Most of the exterior shots were shot at Le Trianon resort on the Blue Lake in Upper Lake, California.
Music
The score was composed and conducted by Jerry Goldsmith.[11] The complete soundtrack was released on CD through Varèse Sarabande in April 2003 and features 22 tracks score at a running time of 42 minutes.[12] It was subsequently reissued by La-La Land Records.
Home media
Because Disney via 20th Century Studios never owned complete rights to this film, other companies (especially Embassy and, currently MGM) have been able to release home video versions of Magic under different licenses. However, legal complications kept the film from being formally reissued on VHS and DVD in the last decade[when?] due in part to Embassy Pictures' corporate holdings being split among different entities. Recently, the rights were acquired by the American Movie Classics division of AMC Film Holdings, LLC, and the TV rights are handled for syndication by Trifecta Entertainment & Media (under Paramount Television Studios). An unedited version is available on widescreen DVD and Blu-ray.[citation needed]
Reception
Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film a complete four-star review, explaining it was because "[the film] scared me, because I admired Hopkins' performance as much as any in this year, and because it would have been so easy for a film such as this to fail."[13] He later ranked it at number 9 on his list of the 10 best films of 1978.[14] On the syndicated film review program Sneak Previews, Roger Ebert admired Hopkins' and Burgess Meredith's performances, and Attenborough's direction but expressed disappointment at the final act, stating "I don't think the screenplay does justice to the talent of the people who get into the picture."[15]
Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote that "Magic is neither eerie nor effective. It is, however, very heavy of hand." He praised Hopkins' performance, but criticized the screenplay for spending "too much time on irrelevant details, including flashbacks and jumps forward that neither inform nor amuse but simply look trendy in the dated fashion of that word."[16] Similarly, Dale Pollock of Variety wrote: "The dilemma of 'Magic' is that the results never live up to the standards established in the film's opening half-hour. Through flashbacks and claustrophobic editing by John Booth, the relationship between Hopkins and his eerily-realistic dummy, Fats, is well-documented. So is the introduction of Burgess Meredith, well cast as a Swifty Lazar-type of superagent ...It's this stereotyped plotting and conclusion that robs 'Magic' of its initial, special quality".[17]Judith Martin, reviewing for The Washington Post, ended her review, writing "the thrills of a conventional horror story have been blown up so pretentiously that they're no more scary than balloon monsters."[18]
However, The Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Film Review 1990 writeup of the film remarks that Hopkins appears stiff in the lead role, but praised the supporting cast: "Ann-Margret...invests her role with a considerable sparkle. Particularly good is the great and underrated Burgess Meredith whose sharp and alert Hollywood agent is a real plum of a performance. Jerry Goldsmith also adds a fine nervy carnivalesque score."[19] The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 87% of 23 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 6.8/10. The site's consensus reads: "Thanks in large part to Anthony Hopkins' layered performance, Magic is an unusual albeit creepily effective experience".[20] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 49 out of 100 based on 10 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[21]
Madness resulting from one person living two personas through a ventriloquist's dummy has been portrayed several times before in film and television, most notably:
"Read My Lips", a 1993 episode of Batman: The Animated Series, features a villain called the Ventriloquist, who leads a group of criminals through the persona of his dummy Scarface.
Generation 13 is a 1995 concept album by Saga partly influenced by Magic.
