SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Forumrxes Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

hwg1957-102-265704 Alexandre Dumas pere tells one of his stories to Alexandre Dumas fils about Joseph Balsamo who begins as a conjurer and patent medicine seller and ends up as Count Cagliostro in the French court of Louis XV as a healer and mystic, involving himself in royal politics. This is partly due to him having under his sway a woman called Lorenza who is the double of Marie Antoinette. On the way he encounters Franz Anton Mesmer who will have a great effect on his life. Handsomely mounted with a big cast and filmed in Italy it is a beautiful looking film with a splendid music score by the prolific Paul Sawtell. Count Cagliostro is played by Orson Welles and no one could have done it better. A villain indeed but one with a sense of humour. He dominates all the scenes he is in. Nancy Guild plays two roles, the biddable Lorenza and the fiery Marie Antoinette and acquits herself well in both parts. Added to this are able supporting actors like Akim Tamiroff, Valentina Cortese, Margot Grahame and familiar British face Ronald Adam. It makes for good entertainment.The title 'Black Magic' for the film is not really appropriate as none is involved though Mr Welles does get to show off some of his skilled conjuring.

Jon Corelis Black Magic is an unjustly neglected 1949 Orson Welles film, based on Alexandre Dumas's novel Joseph Balsamo, a fictionalized version of the life of the occultist better known as Cagliostro, set mostly against the background of the days just before the French Revolution. The film is entertaining and well done, though it's a pity that it's in black and white, since the meticulously recreated ancien regime sets and costumes would have looked much more impressive in color. Welles reportedly said that he had more fun making this film than any other, and it's easy to see why, since the melodramatic script gives ample room for over-the-top histrionics, which only an actor of Welles's talent could put over convincingly. It's interesting that Welles here again plays an eccentric genius whose early success was soon undermined by his own flaws -- in other words, a character whose career is intriguingly parallel to his own. I think most people will find the film entertaining, and real Welles fans should consider it a must-see.The Hen's Tooth Video DVD seems to be the only Region 1 DVD currently available, and it's of adequate sound and image quality, though from a rather poor original print. The film is certainly important enough to deserve a redigitized version with booklet and special features, if possible from a better print, but lacking that, the Hen's Tooth Video version is watchable.

JohnHowardReid A real film for the connoisseur. Welles agreed to play the main role of Cagliostro provided he could direct his own scenes himself. Extraordinarily, Ratoff agreed to this remarkable proposal and so we have one of the most astonishing films ever made. In fact, Welles directed only the actual shots and camera set-ups in which he personally appeared. Of course, as he had by far the biggest part in the film, there were a great many of these, but he did not necessarily direct whole scenes — where the camera was focused exclusively on other players within the scene, these shots were directed by Ratoff — an arrangement which must have given the film editors nightmares, as the two directors had totally different visual styles!Things worked well when Welles had the camera glide after him as, dressed all in black, he wended his way through the crowded salons and antechambers of the palace, and the subsequent audience where Ratoff directed a few innocuous reaction shots of the king laughing; but in the trial scene where straightforward shots of the wigged judges are intercut with weirdly-lit reaction shots of Welles, things worked less well (the weird lighting on Welles seemed also to emanate from no natural source); though later on, the use of a subjective camera, during Mesmer's hypnosis, was more happily integrated. And as for the climax, Welles has directed this with typical passion and fury, topping the somewhat similar denouement in "The Stranger".As usual, Welles the director is masterfully in command of Welles, the actor. His is rightly the most powerful and engrossing performance in the film. Welles' influence extended to the other players in his scenes. He has turned Nancy Guild into a sort of wax doll, which contrasts well with her spirited portrayal of the vicious Marie Antoinette in her Ratoff-directed scenes (as she plays a dual role, it was certainly a masterful touch having a different director for each!) Incidentally, it is pleasing to note that this film continues a not uncommon practice in European films of having the same actor play in disguise two entirely different and separate roles — a practice that is virtually unknown in Hollywood. Stephen Bekassy is at home in his role as the villain, Margot Grahame makes a realistic study of DuBarry. Just about all the roles, in fact, are judiciously cast.The script abounds in nice realistic touches like Louis fixing his clocks. However, the film suffers from some unfortunate additional scenes and dialogue contributed by Richard Schayer. The most ridiculous of these is an absurdly-contrived framing Prologue in which young Alexander (sic) Dumas (played by Raymond Burr of all people — he seems excusably ill-at-ease in the part) visits his father. A casual reference to "Camille" is dropped into the conversation with as much subtlety as a bomb at a tea-party, while Dumas Senior (Berry Kroeger in an odd-looking wig) makes some equally clumsily-contrived allusions to "The Three Musketeers" and "The Count of Monte Christo"! The direction here is as leaden and routine as we usually expect from Ratoff. However he does improve as the film progresses, though both he and actor Goldner can do little with the absurd contrivance of having Mesmer of all people volunteer as an advocate for the Crown in the final trial scenes.It is obvious that Welles has prevailed upon Ratoff to let him direct some of the crowd scenes. These are directed with bite and fury and with a pictorial and editorial extravagance (some shots of enormous hordes of people are on screen for less than two seconds) rare to the American cinema. Also, there are some exciting montage routines using Cagliostro's luminous eyes as a focal point. Production values are exceptionally lavish, with atmospheric photography, vast, picturesque sets, attractive costumes and eye- catching use of natural locations.

thrillerclub Orson Welles is mesmerizing and perfectly suited to the roll of Count Cagliostro. The Count has waited silently for over 20 years secretly planning revenge on the ruling class he holds responsible for the drunken public execution of his mother he witnessed as a boy.Is Cagliostro an ambitious Gypsy charlatan or a demonic master of the black arts? Is he really a Count? There are several entertaining scenes where Cagliostro gains the upper hand over odds stacked against him such as the "choking rope" switcheroo in the jail, and the "your legs are like wax" turnabout. Yet similarly to SVENGALI (John Barrymore) he will not be able to exert this will power forever over everyone.Welles seems to be thoroughly enjoying himself throughout.BLACK MAGIC has threads in common with "The Prisoner in the Mirror" Boris Karloff presents THRILLER teleplay, an updating of the evil magician known as Cagliostro. The real mystery is why such an enjoyable movie starring Orson Welles was so long overlooked, not released on DVD until 2016 (unfortunately the source print used by Hen's Teeth is not nearly as clear as the sharp print TCM aired in January 2017). Though considered by some as a costume melodrama with little more than Welles and the art direction going for it, ever since I watched a primitively colorized print of BLACK MAGIC (aired on a local San Francisco station KOFY-TV20 around 1990) it's been my favorite off- beat Welles movie, always a fun find to share with friends who hadn't seen it!