Black Magic (1949)

Just perfect...

i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

The necklace scandal of Marie Antoinette's was always an impossible subject to do anything about in literature, drama or film, since it was a totally undramatic intrigue of a rather foolish kind depending entirely on stupid people's duplicity. Cagliostro had nothing to do with it, except that he observed it from above with some glee and might have had a hand in its manipulation. The real architects and victims of the plot are not even mentioned in the film: the Cardinal de Rohan and the adventuress Jeanne de la Motte, who got brandished and banished for her part and kept writing hateful pamphlets against Marie Antoinette all her life although the Queen was entirely innocent - she never wanted to buy the necklace in the first place.But the scandal fascinated all the gossips and minds of Europe, and Alexander Dumas wrote three or four volumes of novels about a Cagliostro that was entirely dreamt up in his imagination. The real Cagliostro was perhaps the greatest and most typical of charlatans and nothing else, a Sicilian who tricked his way into society and up the ladder of politics in Paris and might really have been as megalomaniac as Orson Welles makes him, obsessed with power, but much more discreetly and furtively than Orson Welles' more swashbuckling character. He ended his life in destitution and prison.Alexander Dumas endows him with the power of hypnosis, which is pure fiction. Cagliostro was a great manipulator and cheat but was never serious about anything, rather something of a universal amateur, while Anton Mesmer was very serious about his more scientific research. In the film they meet in the beginning, and their coupling is perhaps the most interesting trait of the film, as they meet again in the end.Orson Welles has here the opportunity to play out his greatest powers as an actor, and he stops at nothing and enjoys every turn of it, especially in the grandiose finale. The court scene is a joke, though, falling flat on its own comedy - not even in pre-revolutionary France could such a court have been possible, and it's the only objectionable part of the film, due to a weak script. Even 18th century France would have laughed at it.They have done their best to turn an impossible story into a good film, and although nothing remains of reality in this hullabaloo of a national scandal, it's a great film, and Orson Welles makes one of his very best performances, if not the best after "The Third Man" - there is not much time between them. He was a great magician in reality, you can also see him performing in "Casino Royale" as Le Chiffre in the 1967 version and in "The Sailor from Gibraltar". He actually won some prizes for his art, and he always enjoyed practicing it, which you can see here what a professional he was.In order to put some drama into the story, it's all muddled up, and it's almost as impossible to follow all the turnings and intrigues of it as it was in reality, but it is very entertaining, lavish in its sumptuous costumery, and there is no drama lacking in the climax. The director was Gregory Ratoff, but you can see Orson Welles' hand in it as well in quite a few scenes.

Years ago, I had significant training in hypnosis when I was in graduate school. One sad fact I learned is that despite films like "Black Magic" and "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari", you cannot use hypnotic skills to turn people into slaves to do your evil bidding. I know...I know...a real shame isn't it? So, when I watch movies with plots like these, I just have to turn off my brain and enjoy them without thinking like a psychotherapist.When the film begins in the 18th century, some gypsies are unfairly accused of witchcraft and are executed at the orders of the Viscount de Montagne...and the couple's young son, Joseph Balsamo, is ordered blinded!! The boy is fortunately rescued...but not until after he witnesses his parents' execution. Not surprisingly, this embittered the boy and one day he would return for revenge...but how? One day, the famous hypnotist, Anton Mesmer, recognizes the young man's innate hypnotic skills and trains them. However, Balsamo isn't concerned with using the powers for good and soon disappears...out to make his fortune abusing his gifts. And, soon he's come to once again see the Viscount...and he hatches a plan to destroy him. However, after a while, revenge alone isn't what Balsamo wants...he wants power...and all of France!!The best thing about this film is Orson Welles' magnetic performance. The story is also quite good...and is well worth seeing.By the way, throughout the film folks use the word 'hypnosis'. This term was not coined until the 1820s and the film was set in the 1770s. Not a huge mistake...but it would have been referred to as either magnetism or mesmerism instead.

Sumptuous Production Design and Sharp Noir Cinematography, Highlighted by an Orson Welles Performance that is "Mesmerizing". The Story is loosely Based on the Writings of Alexandre Dumas with some Historical Facts.The Film is Rich with Occult (Gypsy) Symbolism and the Application of the Newly Discovered Practice of "Hypnosis", that was, Uncovered by but Not Invented by, Dr. Franz Anton Mesmer (Charles Goldner) who is a Minor Character in this Fiction.Welles Dominates the Screen in front of Lavish Sets and Costuming that looks like it Cost a Fortune. It truly is a Visual Feast on the Screen. The Character based on a Real Life Mystic, "Cagliostro", is Central to the Court Intrigue that Includes "King Louie" and "Marie Antoinette" and the Plot is one of Doppelgangers and Revenge.It's all a Bizarre and Beautifully Told Tale with Nancy Guild in a Dual Role as Marie/Lorenza, Akim Tamiroff, and a Good Cast all around. But the Attraction is the Attractive Production and Welles Powerful Performance. It's an Off-Beat, Little Seen Movie and is one to Seek Out for Fans of Welles, Historical Dramas/Adventures, and Movie Fans of all stripes. It is an Atypical and Sizzling, Sure-Fire Treat for some Over-the-Top Shenanigans, Gripping Suspense, and Grandiose Filmmaking.

A curious, little-seen oddity based on an Alexander Dumas tale, it adapts the story of Cagliostro, played by Orson Welles, an 18th century magician and charlatan who has strange hypnotic powers and becomes involved in a plot to overthrow the French monarchy in order to revenge himself on the aristocrat who was responsible for the execution of his parents.In black and white, it makes use of dark scenes, shadows, close ups and other film noir techniques to accentuate the pseudo-magical qualities of Orson Welles' character. Akim Tamiroff as Welles' gypsy friend is rather good, but Nancy Guild in the dual role of Marie Antoinette and Lorenza, the woman who Cagliostro first rescues, then manipulates, is not outstanding. There is some sword-play and many elaborate costumes are on display in the court episodes, and the early scenes showing Cagliosto's gypsy boyhood when he falls foul of the aristocrat who hangs his father and mother and sentences the boy to be whipped and blinded are strong stuff for the time.The film seems to have been made in Rome for United Artists and although the plot is somewhat bizarre it is strangely watchable.