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Gallico (Vincent Price) is an inventor who has dedicated his life to
inventing elaborate devices of one kind or another for stage magicians -
and he's darn good at it, too, so good in fact that he at one point
decides to take the stage himself instead of letting others steal his
limelight. Gallico's show starts out great, but just before the finale
(involving a buzzsaw guillotine) it is shut down by Gallico's business
partner Ormond (Donald Randolph), who reminds him that all of Gallico's
inventions are actually his, and who is very quick to sell the buzzsaw
guillotine to one of the magicians who is especially good at stealing
Gallico's limelight, the Great Rinaldi (John Emery). This makes Gallico
snap, and he is quick to plan his revenge, which starts with him
decapitating Ormond using his buzzsaw guillotine, then impersonating
Ormond and renting a room from Mrs Prentiss (Lenita Lane), who's a mystery
writer in her spare time. Somehow, Gallico manages to lure Ormond's wife
(Eva Gabor), who's also his own ex, to Mrs Prentiss's place to kill her as
well - which is great inasmuch as now he has had his revenge on his ex but
also has Ormond as his scapegoat and created the illusion that Ormond is
still alive. Just too bad that Mrs Prentiss is a mystery writer who's
quick to become suspicious and eventually she hooks up with the police ... Gallico
catches the Great Rinaldi in his lab where he is developing his latest
invention, the Crematory, something that Rinaldi claims as his - but
Gallico simply burns Rinaldi in said Crematory, then even goes so far as
to impersonate him on stage, without anybody noticing - after all, he is a
great impersonator and has developed a new brand of facial mask that goes
far beyond anything ever developed. Mrs Prentiss though is convinced
that Gallico, the Ormond who killed his wife, and the Rinaldi who is
presently on stage are one and the same person, so she persuades Lt Bruce
(Patrick O'Neal) of the police to break into Gallico's lab with her to
find evidence against him - and finding evidence they do, in form of his
facial masks. But as fate (and genre formula) has it, Gallico returns to
interrupt them, a fight ensues, and in the finale, Gallico is burnt in his
own Crematory. This little 3D movie was shot hot on the heels
of the success of the Vincent Price-3D-vehicle House
of Wax, and judging from pure technical terms, this is the
inferior film: It was show in black and white compared to the earlier
film's lush colours, its 3D effects are much more in-your-face than the
subtle effects of House of Wax,
and its budget also was much tighter, which shows painfully in sets,
costumes and effects. Of course, its script was also a rehash of House
of Wax, but considering that movie was already a remake of 1933's Mystery
of the Wax Museum, the point is somewhat moot. However, this
point-for-point comparison does not take into account one question: Which
film is more fun? And here, I have to admit, The Mad Magician is
the winner, basically because it scores higher on the camp scale, doesn't
take itself as seriously as House of
Wax, and does pay more attention to macabre detail. All of this
doesn't make The Mad Magician a genre classic of any sort of course, and
besides everything I have stated here I'm sure you will find plenty wrong
with this movie - but it's still good genre fun, and Vincent Price gives
his usual best on top of that.
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