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The Magician (1926 film)

The Magician
The Magician.jpg
original movie poster
Directed by Rex Ingram
Produced by Rex Ingram
Written by Rex Ingram
W. Somerset Maugham (novel)
Starring Alice Terry
Paul Wegener
Iván Petrovich
Cinematography John F. Seitz
Edited by Grant Whytock
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • October 24, 1926 (1926-10-24)
Running time
83 minutes
Country United States
Language Silent film
English intertitles

The Magician is a 1926 horror film directed by Rex Ingram about a magician's efforts to acquire the blood of a maiden for his experiments to create life. It was adapted by Ingram from the novel The Magician by W. Somerset Maugham. It stars Alice Terry (the director's wife), Paul Wegener and Iván Petrovich. Critic Carlos Clarens wrote that it was "perhaps the most elusive of lost films." However, since the time Clarens wrote this, various prints of the film have surfaced. Some have screened at independent movie festivals from 1993 onwards, and the film has also been shown on Turner Classic Movies. It remained commercially unavailable being released on DVD in the Warner Brothers Archive Collection in 2011 (with a running time of 88 minutes).

In the Latin Quarter of Paris, sculptor Margaret Dauncey is injured when the top of the huge statue of a faun (see poster) she is working on breaks off and falls on her. After successful surgery by brilliant Dr. Arthur Burdon saves her from paralysis, she and Burdon fall in love.

The surgery is watched by various doctors and others, including Oliver Haddo, a hypnotist, magician and student of medicine (a character in Maugham's original novel based on real-life occultist Aleister Crowley). Later, in the Library of the Arsenal, Haddo finds what he has been searching for: a magic formula for the creation of human life. One of the ingredients is the "heart blood of a Maiden". He rips out the page and presents the old book to Dr. Porhoet, Margaret's uncle and guardian, who has also been looking for it.

When Margaret, Burdon and Dr. Porhoet go to the Fair at Leon de Belfort, they encounter Haddo, whom Margaret dislikes immediately. When Dr. Porhoet claims that the snake charmers use harmless snakes, Haddo refutes him and demonstrates his powers by letting a deadly horned viper bite him. He then magically makes the wound disappear. Porhoet remains unconvinced until the discarded viper strikes a young woman performer. Burdon has to rush her to a hospital.


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Wikipedia

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