Unlimitedia Sick Product of a Sick System

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Casey Duggan It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Ginger Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Zbigniew_Krycsiwiki Magician uses elaborate props from his magic act to dole out revenge on those who have wronged him in his professional life. First is a disloyal partner. Next, a rival magician. Price later impersonates them, by using elaborate masks, keeping them "alive," and effectively leading a double life, to keep suspecting eyes away from him and his crimes.Price is his usual wonderful antihero (we want him to be avenged against the people who did him wrong, yet at the same time, his character becomes a ruthless killer, causing more harm than those who wronged him) He could play that character type better than anyone before or since.The screenplay is good, but unmemorable, save for a few scenes; The film is most let down by static monochrome photography. Mystery of the Wax Museum (from 1933) was in two-strip Technicolour; it was remade as House of Wax in 1953, and both had glorious colour photography. House of Wax was partly remade here, but this time, in static, slightly washed-out black-and-white. That is the biggest letdown here, and it makes this film the least of the three loosely-connected films.

geraldboss66 The line went all the way around the Elm Theater in Elmwood, Ct., when this was shown in 1954.It wasn't screened in 3-D, but still scared me silly! I now own a film print of it, as well as a 35mm 3-D print of House Of Wax. Wax had bigger budget, stereo sound called WarnerPhonic if I recall. Both are excellent, and the two together are definitely my choices for Price's best, followed by SHOCK and DRAGONWYCK. I know many will like his later films, which have many great titles also; House of Usher, Comedy of Terrors, The Raven, Theater of Blood,.....I could go on and on. And I should have included THE TINGLER and HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL in my favorites....especially THE TINGLER, which also had a color partial scene in it, and was definitely equal to WAX and MAGICIAN in its terror.Gotta love VP for being so "swarmy"!!!!

MartinHafer The film begins with Vincent Price about to begin his performance as a magician. However, mid-way through the very successful show, the police come and shut him down. It seems that his old boss had cheated him out of the tricks Price had created--even those he made on his own time at home. As a result, Price justifiably kills the evil man. The problem is that while the viewer understood why Price killed and most probably thought this was a GOOD thing, because Price was a bit mad, he just couldn't stop at one (sort of like eating Lay's Potato Chips).The film was full of very creative and spectacular magic tricks (including a huge circular saw and a crematorium for the shows), great plot twists as well as exciting action. One thing you can't say about this film is that it is dull. While it's also far from subtle, it is fun throughout, though and well worth a look.Had I never seen Vincent Price's version of HOUSE OF WAX, I probably would have liked THE MAD MAGICIAN a lot more and scored it an 8 or 9. That's because while THE MAD MAGICIAN is a wonderful film, it's highly reminiscent of the film that preceded it (HOUSE OF WAX). The bottom line is that since HOUSE OF WAX was so successful, the formula was re-hashed in the follow-up film. Both were made in 3-D, both have a plot where Price has every justification to kill but he can't stop once he's committed the first and both are great fun to watch. The biggest differences, and there are few, are that HOUSE OF WAX was in color and was more of a horror film and THE MAD MAGICIAN was definitely more of a mystery.My advice is to see this film AND HOUSE OF WAX (the Price version only). They are both terrific 1950s horror films.

wes-connors This was enjoyable, but certainly no classic. It's fun to watch the actor Vincent Price in these insane roles. I was surprised to read, in the credits, Eva Gabor was a player; I thought she looked familiar, but she did not have the familiar wig from later years. The furnace was hot, but the disguises were easy to see through, I thought. The final scene had good suspense, but I knew Mr. Price's character was going to hop on that conveyor belt.Lenita Lane and Jay Novello seemed very familiar as the Prentiss couple. They must have played these kind of roles in other films; they should starred in a TV sit-com together. ***** The Mad Magician (5/19/54) John Brahm ~ Vincent Price, Mary Murphy, Eva Gabor