Rating: R
Genre:
Thriller
Release Date: 04/25/2006
SubTitles: English
Dubbed: English
Sound: DDM2.0
Run Time: 107 Minutes
Flags: Violence, Brief Nudity, Nudity, Adult Situations, Not For Children, Adult Language
Distributor/Studio: Dark Sky Films
Anthony Hopkins is a ventriloquist psychologically tormented by his dummy in the
Richard Attenborough thriller
Magic (a film with a story that may seem familiar to those who have seen the
Michael Redgrave segment of
Dead of Night, or the Cliff Robertson episode "
The Dummy" from
The Twilight Zone television series).
William Goldman based his screenplay on his best-selling novel.
Hopkins plays
Corky, a seedy magician who is hooted off the stage in the low-rent clubs that will stoop to hire him. But when he comes across a dummy named Fats, his career is energized.
Corky sees in Fats everything he lacks himself -- confidence, creativity, and verbal agility. With the help of his agent
Ben Greene (
Burgess Meredith),
Corky rises to the top of the nightclub circuit. But with
Corky's success comes an increased paranoia, and he turns down a TV contract, believing that it would mean taking a medical examination and that rumors of his mental instability might leak out.
Corky takes off to a Catskills resort, run by
Peggy Ann Snow (
Ann-Margret), an old girlfriend now unhappily married to a volatile hick (
Ed Lauter). While a frustrated
Ben high tails it to the Catskills to find
Corky,
Corky discovers that he still has feelings for
Peggy, but lands in the middle of a love triangle between the woman and her husband, where his schizophrenic personality manifests itself and additional murders occur.
~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Average Review:
Number of reviews: 1
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A reviewer
from Fort Lauderdale, Florida
A Deadly Psychological Rampage.
Sir Richard Attenborough's dark psychological thriller based on the novel by William Goldman (who wrote the adapted screenplay) gives Anthony Hopkins an opportunity to show his dark side more than a decade before The Silence of the Lambs. Hopkins plays Corky Withers, a ventriloquist, whose dummy named "Fats" he believes is taunting him into committing murderous acts. Hopkins also provides the voice of "Fats". Also starring Ann-Margret, Burgess Meredith, Ed Lauter, David Ogden Stiers, and Jerry Houser.
;)
