The Mad Magician (1954)

Very much Columbia's answer to House of Wax (1953), Warner's opening shot in the 3-D craze of the fifties, The Mad Magician (1954) plays it safe, not only using that film's star, Vincent Price, but also its writer, Crane Wilbur, producer, Brian Foy and cinematographer, Bert Glennon.  It also utilises that film's late nineteenth century/early twentieth century setting, not to mention its basic plot device of an artist being defrauded of his most beloved creations by a ruthless business partner.  What it lacks is House of Wax's colour photography, instead being presented, like Columbia's other 3-D releases of the period, in monochrome.  This latter factor perhaps influenced the choice of John Brahm as director, who had made his name with a number of film noirs and a couple of stylish looking thrillers set in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  While repeating plenty of tropes from his earlier script from House of Wax, Wilbur's script for The Mad Magician also lifts several key plot points from Brahms' historical thrillers.  Notably the sequence in which price disposes of a victim's body by disguising it as a dummy and placing on on a bonfire, (built in celebration of a local football victory), is taken directly from Hangover Square (1945), where Laird Cregar disposes of Linda Darnell's body by disguising it as a Guy and placing it on a communal November 5th bonfire.  Moreover, the whole business of the police detective's use of new-fangled fingerprint identification techniques echoes Scotland Yard inspector George Sanders' attempts to do the same thing identify Jack the Ripper (Cregar again) in Brahms' The Lodger (1944).

Despite the use of so many personnel and plot elements from House of Wax, The Mad Magician fails to recreate its impact, proving a far less effective vehicle for Price.  The set up - creator of elaborate stage illusions tries to go into business as a magician himself, but finds that his employer has inveigled him into signing away the rights to all of creations - certainly has promise, but quickly runs into problems in terms of its execution.  Finally snapping and killing his employer using a dangerous buzz saw trick he has built, Price (who has already been established as a master of disguise) is then forced to impersonate him in order to cover up his crime. Which, unfortunately, leads the plot into a series of dead ends as he first perpetuates the deception, then inadvertently frames his employer for the murder of the man's wife, (Price's ex-wife, stolen from him by his employer), which forces him to ditch that impersonation.  Returning to his real identity - with nobody suspecting him of being a double murderer because one victim has seemingly vanished after murdering the second - he is then forced into a second impersonation after murdering a rival magician who is trying to steal his latest illusion.  These constant changes of identity and the sub-plots that force them effectively break up any rhythm in the film's  narrative, simultaneously killing any suspense or pace.  They also prevent much character development for Price, as he's always someone else, so his character's descent into raving lunacy at the climax seems abrupt and without sufficient build up.  Indeed, the ending, with Price falling victim to his latest illusion, a cremation furnace, not only seems perfunctory, with insufficient build up.  Despite filling up the film with proliferating sub-plots, the makers still seemed to feel a need to pad out its running time - a chase around the city in pursuit of a bag containing a severed head that Price has carelessly mislaid, for instance, should  generate suspense and tension, but instead goes nowhere and feels like padding.  

Nonetheless, The Mad Magician is a very handsome looking film, stylishly shot by Brahm and featuring another suitably flamboyant performance from Price, (despite the fact that he spends large parts of the film in disguise).  Even seen flat, you know that you are watching a 3-D movie thanks to the number of objects thrust, for no good reason, toward the camera - even that guy with the yo-yos is back from House of Wax, flicking them toward the screen. Running at just under seventy five minutes, The Mad Magician never quite outstays its welcome, but also never feels entirely satisfying.  Its biggest problem, in comparison to House of Wax, is that it never manages to recreate that film's sense of grand guignol and weird, off-kilter atmosphere.