The Magic Christian

Every now and then, my friend Sly Hondo get a request for a movie review that is outside of his wheel house. Sometimes it's due to content, but this is a rare occasion when its related to age. So after he watched fan requested The Magic Christian starring Peter Sellars, he quickly realised that he needed an elder statesman to help understand this one. And as everyone knows, "Old Man" is my middle name. The late 1960s were an amazing time for filmaking. The germ of an idea could suddenly explode into a full blown movie as more and more famous faces injected their ideas and support. And this movie is definitely a prime examle of that. The Magic Christian is a time capsule of class rebellion and anti-establishment themes. In the center of it is the story of Sir Guy Grand, the richest man in the world, (as played by Peter Sellers) and his realization that he has no heir to pass down his fortune and wisdom. He adopts a homeless man (played by Ringo Starr) to be his son and heir. The rest of the movie is wonderfully comic vignettes as Sir Guy shows his "son" the ways of the world and how it can be manipulated with the right amount of cash. From fine dining, to the theater, to auction houses, no one is safe from the merry duos highjinx. Loosely based on the 1959 book of the same title by Terry Southern, who also was part of the screen writing team (along with Joseph McGrath and Terry Gilliam), the movie is weird and chaotic but in a good way. And unfortunately many of the themes in the movie are still relevant today. The most chaotic scenes in the movie are those taking place on the ship, the Magic Christian. Where rampant symbolism and examples of taboo subject matter (at the time) are put on full display. For me, these scenes are the most fun but for someone of a younger generation (such as Sly), some of the black humor is lost. The thing I find truly amazing is the amount of celebrities that appear here and what they are doing. Rachel Welch as a whip welding amazon keeping the loincloth wearing all female slave crew rowing the ship, Roman Polanski being approached by a transvestite lounge singer played by Yul Brenner in a wig. Pre Monty Python alum John Cleese and Graham Chapman (his first film role) being ... well ... themselves basicly. Largely forgotten in today's world, this is a fan favorite as any Google search of the movie will prove. After watching this again with Sly, he started to pick up on the satire and situations with a little historical input from me. He especially liked the scene where the duo have a pool like structure built and filled with feces, urine blood, and God knows what else and then throw a ton of money into it encouraging people to dive in and get the free money. While gross and funny in any time frame, the fact that it is professional business people in suit that are the first to dive in is the interesting point. Upon his second watching, Sly gives it a 3-1/2 stars while I'm at a 4-1/2 stars.

What can I say here folks… Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr! You know, Richard Starkey may be a better actor than he is a drummer… nah.

Of course, 30+ years ago I was half drunk watching almost any movie.

Fun movie with plenty of black humor. Peter Sellers is at his best and Ringo is in one of his first non-Beatle films (this is the film he was making during Get Back). There are a ton of cameos including a great scene with John Cleese, another with Graham Chapman, both pre-Python. Spike Milligan is there, Richard Attenborough and many many more, even Yul Brynner shows up. it's almost a game of spot the cameo! (Also try to spot look-alikes of John and Yoko on the boat!)Great use of music, with the Paul McCartney theme song done by Badfinger and also woven in and out of the movie in strings and other instruments. There are other well placed Badfinger songs plus those of other bands.The movie gets progressively twisted as it goes along. The main theme of people doing anything for money is almost more relevant today then it was back then. All and all a fun movie.

Sir Guy Grand is a pompous billionaire who, while strolling through St. James' Park, adopts a homeless young man as his own new son. With his protegee in tow, Sir Guy proceeds to tour the town; confirming his belief that everyone in London(and the world) is beholden only to the all-mighty British quid. Things really go bonkers when the pair joins the maiden voyage of a new luxury liner. The party becomes a riot. 1969's "The Magic Christian" is a zany, riotous romp released at the end of the turbulent, psychedelic 60's. Dated it is. Starring Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr(as his son), "The Magic Christian" is a pre-Monty Python extravaganza featuring some funny skits, cameo bits by celebrities, and a series of long, boring episodes with Sir Guy(Sellers) lost in total self-absorption. Among the guest stars are Laurence Harvey(in a strip-tease), John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Raquel Welch, Christopher Lee as Dracula, Roman Polanski, John Cleese and Yul Brynner in drag. The real glistening gem of "The Magic Christian" is the vibrant music by Badfinger and Thunderclap Newman. With songs written by Paul McCartney(and sung by his brother), Badfinger was once considered heir to the Beatles. Their meteoric success capitalized on British hard-rock and lilting gentle lyrics. But after 2 band members committed suicide, they quickly disappeared. As chronicled so expertly by Roger Lewis' "Life and Death of Peter Sellers" in 1994, the British actor/superstar was an amazing whirl of selfish, vain psychosis. Hidden behind wigs and make-up, Sellers had no real personality of his own, his psyche melting into his many odd roles with unsettling ease. Peter Sellers' temper tantrums destroyed marriages, wives, children, and fellow actors. Just 2 years before "The Magic Christian", Sellers had quit the set of "Casino Royale" during production. The real failure of "Casino Royale" is the fact that it's hero, James Bond, completely disappears half-way through the film. 2 years later, nervous "Magic Christian" producers wanted to avoid another calamity, and allowed Sellers to tinker with the screenplay and take over direction. In 2 sequences, Sellers acts with his back to the camera. "The Magic Christian" is a curious mish-mash of adroit British humor, shaky hand-held photography, and cut-and-paste story-telling. This new DVD is a bare-bones, but lovely full-screen transfer. How could a big-budget comedy with the premiere performer of it's day, 2 of the Beatles(and singing by a third) go wrong? It's well worth your time to find out why. Just once.

I was just saying to my wife recently that I’d always longed to see a film where Laurence Harvey does a striptease while performing Hamlet, a transvestite Yul Brynner sings ‘Mad About The Boy’ on a cruise ship, a galley of naked females are whipped by Raquel Welch and a bunch of bowler-hatted businessmen dive into a huge vat of excrement (mixed with blood & urine) in order to extract thousands of soiled bank notes. With a theme song written by Paul McCartney, choreography by Lionel Blair and various Goons and Pythons thrown in to boot.My wife told me I had an over-active imagination and advised me to stop taking the tablets. But then I happened upon this peculiarity…huzza!

Surely one of the candidates for the worst film ever made, with the most talented group of actors. Despite this, shouts out to Yul Brynner, for a commited performance as a drag artiste, beautifully b-lining for a shifty looking Roman Polanski, his go to acting face. Also much kudos to classical actor Laurence Harvey, in a tastfully shot scene where he strips totally bare during the famous soliloquy from Hamlet (I'm sure David Tennant would be up for that!). But the uptight racist major being lapdanced by a pair of oiled-up muscle men has to win the prize. When I think of all those scenes, I'm being a bit mean with the stars, but you have to sift through an awful lot of rubbish to get to the good stuff. But isn't that just like life, eh? Oh, and Peter Sellars and Ringo are in it. It was the 60s (just). Peace out.

I mainly bought this for the Beatles connection with Ringo Starr playing alongside Peter Sellers, and also the Paul McCartney song Come and Get It. I'm also a fan of Monty Python so with John Cleese and Graham Chapman helping out with the script ( God knows what it was like before they tried to salvage it) and they both also have minor roles in it.This film just doesn't work despite all the great talent working on it. The best thing about it is the music by Badfinger. Still I'm glad I've actually got around to watching it.Delivered on time and in great condition. Thanks.

Always wanted to watch this but never got around to it so brought blueray, love British films and massive Beatles fan great cast but film just rubbish, still never watched it because had to keep fast forwarding becauses it's just rubbish nothing in whole film funny or entertaining just very boring, shame because some great actors but all wasted on this drivel but will keep film in my collection but would love to know what ringo and Peter and rest of castast thought about it

In a way a prototype Python film. I like this film because it is highly eccentric British humour and although I have watched it many times I can confess I have never understood all the humour and I'm a die hard comedy lover.I think the the bit with Spike Milligan as the traffic warden is very funny and you can see that they still admired each other and I guess a lot of it was ad libbed.The film was made a very small budget at Twickenham film studios and on location in SW London.Love the film score and all of Peter Seller's old mates who were in the film. Perhaps he was trying to recreate the success of his British comedy films in the late 50s early 60s but I think by the late 60's tv comedy was entering its golden age, and he rarely did TV parts and perhaps he was too much in love with process of making films and being a film star plus he was also a film buff/ keen photographer.An under- rated film which is not shown enough on TV.