Great Vincent Price Performance!
The Mad Magician stars Vincent Price as a nice guy driven mad by mistreatment. He is a magician whose best secrets are stolen by unscrupulous rivals. Once he kills one, he can’t stop and has to continually cover up. As usual he is fantastic in this role and being the star has a lot of screen time. Sometimes he is in disguise and what impressed me the most was how he changed his voice during these times. I wonder if he really was able to change his voice that much or if it was dubbed during those scenes. Anyone know? He plays a real Jekyll and Hyde, being nice to people’s faces while hiding his crimes.
This is a short movie which will easily hold even a child’s attention. Whether kids should see it, well, there are three murders (no blood or anything graphic), disposing of a body, one attempted murder, and one death which could be termed self defense. There is domestic violence, as he strikes his ex-wife, played by the lovely Eva Gabor, and does other things which can’t be described without creating spoilers. The ending may be upsetting to younger and sensitive viewers. Is this all right for your children? Who knows, the little monsters might love it.