christopher-underwood A really pleasant surprise this. I can't even remember if I saw it theatrically, I certainly hadn't seen it since although I remember the earlier Candy very well. Peter sellers is understated and brilliant throughout and he seems very protective of Ringo who does well, certainly better than I remember he was in Candy. Loads of great turns here and the director holds the film together well. It is episodic with some scenes better than others but it keeps moving and there is always going to be something of interest the next minute anyway. Two standout scenes for me, an hilarious scene with Sellers and Starr with Spike Milligan as a traffic warden and the sensational Mad About The Boy rendition aboard ship. The song is sung for Roman Polanski, who thinks his luck is in but the 'lady' singing is Yul Brynner in drag, although, to top it all, is really the voice of Peter Sellers. There is also a cracking scene with Raquel Welch with whip and bevy of half naked galley slaves, Laurence Harvey as a stripping Hamlet (at Stratford East theatre) and Christopher Lee doing what he does best. On top of all this there is much location shooting and we get excellent river views of London, street scenes of Putney, the National Theatre on the South Bank seeming near completion and much, much more - wonderful.

SimonJack A stable of British comedy writers of the day joined American Terry Southern, to pen the screenplay for "The Magic Christian." It's based on a novel by Southern. So, one could rightly expect some hilarious comedy, satire and antics. But this film runs out of gas quickly. The main comedy vehicle - exposure of everyman's greed, wears out after the first couple of examples. The writers seem not to have been able to come up with ideas to make the succeeding scenes funny. So, they resort to crazy antics with psychedelic effects and all kinds of mayhem. The film suffers mostly from lack of any clever, witty or truly funny dialog in the script. I found just two scenes halfway funny. For his part, Peter Sellers does fine as Sir Guy Grand, the world's richest man. He carries a manner of nobility well, even amid his many eccentricities. Ringo Starr as the tramp, whom he adopts as Youngman Grand, may just have been a come-on to attract a young audience of the day. He offers nothing by way of humor and in some scenes appears just like any curious person of the public watching a film being shot. Most of what seems intended to be funny just isn't. A couple of lines that at least led me to smile are good examples. After Sellers adopts Starr in a formal, heavy, official means, he turns and says, "Well then, Youngman Grand." To which Starr replies, "Father." Later, a guide takes passengers on a tour of a supposedly unique cruise ship, The Magic Christian. He says, "This is the poolroom" as adults play in and around a small, oval swimming pool (rather than pool tables). When the passengers are coaxed into a panic, some flee through a galley in which rows of bare-breasted women are rowing with oars. In a lengthy scene toward the end, Guy creates a cesspool in a construction site and he and Youngman invite the public to go after the free money. A tank truck delivers the cesspool contents: 100 gallons of blood, 200 gallons of urine and 500 cubic feet of animal manure. Guy then tosses stacks of British 10-pound notes into the pool. The onlookers (men and women) then troop down the construction site steps to the cesspool. And many men in formal business attire, and a couple of Bobbies go into the cesspool to retrieve the free money. Apparently, no woman would be that greedy. Is this the best they could come up with for comedy and satire? My four stars are for Sellers' performance, including a slightly humorous imitation of Winston Churchill's voice as Guy addresses a board of directors. But even that's a stretch for a generally awful film.

Robert J. Maxwell Folks, it's the late 60s encapsulated. If it was being thought about by anyone in 1969, it's in here -- Vietnam, yoga, homosexuality, narcissism, complacency, and mostly greed.Peter Sellers in Guy Grand, a Londoner with so much money that he can buy anything and anyone. He fills an outdoor vat with a vile mixture of pig's blood, urine, and fecal matter, then throws handfuls of "free money" into it, inviting a horde of dapper observers to take as much as they want. They do, wading slowly into the slime with their three-piece suits, bowlers, and brollies. He corrupts the rowing teams of Oxford and Cambridge.The most outrageous episodes take place aboard the luxury liner "The Magic Christian," the passage for which costs a fortune. The genial Wilfred Hyde White is the reassuring and confident captain, who enjoys handling the helm by himself. And the funniest episode aboard "The Magic Christian" has Christopher Lee as a vampire barging onto the bridge, sucking Hyde White's blood and injecting some substance from a large syringe directly into his SKULL.There are multiple cameo parts for easily recognizable stars of the period, but none involves much effort or screen time. It's captivating to watch Yul Brynner as a transvestite -- he makes a passably good-looking woman -- sing a seductive Cole Porter song to an indifferent Roman Polanski.At times it gets a bit frantic and the episode aboard "The Magic Christian" ends in a kaleidoscope of frenzy, as if the writers felt they needed more flash and less filigree to what had come before. The same mistake was made in "Sex and the Single Girl", the 1967 "Casino Royale," and "What's New, Pussycat?" Not even writers like Terry Southern and John Cleese can solve the problem of bringing a successful farce to an even more impressive conclusion. The shot of Christopher Lee plunging the hypodermic into Hyde White's head lasts about two seconds -- not nearly long enough to be appreciated.I hate to say this, but the novel was funnier. The comic incidents were presented in the context of everyday events. That is, the mind-blowing scenes came as a surprise. Here, they're more or less piled on top of one another and the set-ups are done too casually.Terry Southern's brand of satire rarely fits comfortably on the screen, partly because the stories themselves may or may not be comic but Southern's prose style transforms them into humor. "Candy" was a funny book but failed as a movie. "The Loved One" had its moments but was knee-capped by Robert Morse's too-cute protagonist. The exception, of course, was the nearly flawless "Dr. Strangelove," adapted from an entirely serious apocalyptic novel.Let's put it this way. It's a funny movie with incidents that made me laugh out loud. If you liked Monty Python, you'll enjoy this episodic flick. And if you enjoy this movie, try reading Southern's short novel of the same name. Then try "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," the book.

dimplet If you don't get this movie, it's probably because you are living in the year 2011, possibly the lowest point in the consciousness of the human race. It's been all downhill since 1969. I have never seen such an unhip (clueless) generation as the people sleepwalking the Planet Earth today. The Magic Christian is all about greed, and the world today is all about greed, though not exactly in the same way. The people who are having all their money and dignity taken away from them today don't seem to think there's anything wrong with it, because they accept the premise, spread by the propaganda arm of Greed, Inc., that greed is good, and if they are poor it must be because they are bad. So, of course, they wouldn't get a movie that is about taking away the dignity of those whose every waking moment is ruled by greed and lust; these days, that seems perfectly normal.Maybe one day people will again get this movie, but I wouldn't hold my breath because, frankly, I don't think the Planet Earth will be around that long. The greedmeisters are running things, and they would sooner see the Earth burned to a cinder by global warming than accept an infinitesimal reduction in the rate of their every increasing share of the wealth of this planet. And it will be, sooner than you think. Maybe then people will find this movie funny again, because all the billions of dollars the rich will have hoarded away will be a bitter harvest in a world where people will be dying of starvation by the billions. Your money, status, power are an illusion of vanity, party favors for people of withered egos and lost souls.