Magic (1978)

 Richard Attenborough's Magic (1978) is a film that you'd figure I'd have watched twenty or so years ago. Or, at the very least, the film would have been essential for so many reasons, including its content as a deeply disturbed young man grappling with a personality disorder, the horror "prop" of the Ventriloquist's Dummy sort of serving as a "comfort tool" for its "handler", the unusual director of it (Attenborough just doesn't seem to be the kind of filmmaker you'd see ever helming this kind of product), and the peculiar cast of Anthony Hopkins and Ann-Margret in the roles of magician/performance artist and the woman from high school (his "crush") he always pined for and desired. Burgess Meredith is the "super-agent" from William Morris, who realizes his client could very well be mentally unbalanced and in need of psychiatric help in order to ever be any kind of real success (NBC demands Hopkins' Corky take a medical exam in order to dedicate a television show to him). Ed Lauter is the hunter/fisherman husband of Ann-Margret's Peggy Ann Snow, the two renting a cabin to Corky for his Catskills stay. Before the film is over almost everyone is dead except one...and that survivor will be Fat's mouthpiece. Fats is the lookalike (disarmingly, so, eerily close in resemblance to the point the Dummy is unnerving) Dummy of Corky, adopted as a tool to help with magic tricks and performing in front of audiences.

Now I think why perhaps I didn't watch this sooner was I once frequented the IMDb Horror Message Board and there was this one fan of Magic who would bring it up ALL THE TIME. Among the topics he was obsessed with: Magic, Fright Night's Stephen Geoffreys' sexuality, and his love for 80s horror comedies like Ghostbusters and Beetlejuice. He had a lot of brief reviews with "You May Also Like" followed by his favorite film's list. But Magic was that film he would at least review three times a month, just to make sure we read about it. In a similar scenario, there was this guy who always appeared on horror community podcasts I follow, never forgetting to mention the remake of Suspiria from 2018. He would emerge on some YouTube stream with members of his community, never failing to bring up Suspiria as an option for almost everyone. Perhaps that is why I haven't watched that one, either.

I do think Magic does work for the most part, but I would have liked to see more of Corky before he split for the Catskills, leaving behind Meredith's Ben Greene and a potential NBC career. It would seem that if Greene hadn't showed up at the Catskills cabin, none of the violence that happens afterward would have. I would love to have seen the film explore what brought about Fats, more of Corky's splintering personality, and how he came to be. But there was very little about his emergence as a struggling magician bombing on stage before Fats came to fruition. There is very little about Corky and Fats' symbiosis. But that would have tacked on probably 20 or so more minutes. Maybe it was just as well the film gave us a sneak peak into Corky's emotional problems and failures without too much of a deep dive.

The film shows a love triangle emerging as Corky and Peggy Ann Snow eventually fall in love, while Lauter's gruffy-bearded Duke gets suspicious (not helping his crippling insecurities). Greene threatening to get Corky help sends Fats off the deep end (okay, you could say the Fats personality goes off the deep end and pushes the Corky personality to crack his brain with a wooden head over and over), leading to head injuries, drowning, and eventually a corpse found on a shore by Duke.

I have read that critically the film has its detractors. Hopkin's performance, I understand, isn't completely praised. That he's "too stiff", just "miscast", and that a real comic / comedian of a Gene Wilder would have been better. I felt differently. I thought Hopkins' almost child-like behavior, these blank stares, the addictive, obsessive need to have Fats with him, as if the Dummy were a security blanket to hide behind, only occasionally speaking for himself without the need for that crutch. He doesn't always need Fats when talking to Peggy Ann Snow, not depending on the Dummy to always charm her. There is an intense scene, though, where Corky insists that Peggy Ann Snow remain focused and dedicated to a "telepathic card trick", as if success were essential or else he'd have some sort of nervous breakdown...Hopkins' intense pressure, with eyes watering, as if tearing up, and Ann-Margret practically frightened by him if the trick isn't a success, is incredible to watch. The greatest scene of the film, to me, is when Greene challenges Corky to not let Fats speak for five minutes...how Hopkins sells the torment, the obvious need to get back to his Dummy, asking Meredith how much time was left, and the thick air of unease that just lays right on screen between them is a phenomenal piece of acting. Meredith's sure-footed stance that he needs help is justified by Hopkins immediately grabbing the Dummy and speaking through it for an entire set of jokes without a break. You see that Hopkins simply cannot function without the Dummy, that their symbiosis is tethered psychologically. It is uncanny. There is this brief moment where I considered Fats was more than just an extension of Corky when he briefly moves away from the Dummy and Fats' eyes keep moving, but I later learned this was a possible unintended mistake by Attenborough. Though there is a stabbing to a character where you see the knife in the Dummy's hand, when Corky emerges from behind the chair Fats' was sitting, it seems to negate supernatural possibility. No other time during the film do we see Fats moving or talking without Hopkins "operating the controls".

Ann-Margret is sensational. You see the woman who wanted to get away from her hometown and experience something more. Hopkins is potentially an option, while Lauter seems forever stuck right where he is. Too bad Hopkins breaks and Fats decides to choose a new acting partner. The final moment before the closing credits was bizarre...as intended. Corky thought if he went, Fats would go also...I guess Fats "had other plans". 4/5