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.

This film is some piece of work I will give it that. Seldom have I seen such a bizare movie. Somewhere I read that Vincent Price was supposed to make a cameo in this film. But unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your opinion on Vincent Price as well as The Magic Christian)he was unable. This was supposedly because filming on The Witchfinder General (or The Concoring Worm)went over schedule. So Price was unable to make a cameo appearance like Christopher Lee, Laurence Harvey and Yul Brynner. Has anyone else heard this story? And if you have heard it, where? I cannot find where I read that story. And I cannot recall where I read it. I don't think it was in the book by his daughter though. Thoughts?

Maltin the Leonard calls this pathetically pretentious comedy "fiendishly funny", which is in itself the best confirmation and most dire warning one can hope to get that a movie sucks. When Leonard gives a film his unholy blessing, then that sort of becomes "a seal of disapproval". If he says it's black then it must be white: that nerdy critic is the perfect anti-litmus test.Based on a novel by Marxist Terry Southern (who gave us lovely cinematic garbage such as "Easy Rider", "Barbarella", and Kubrick's vastly overrated and unfunny "Dr.Strangelove"), this absurdist experimental comedy makes the rather trite point that people are bribable, greedy, obsessed with money, la-di-da... What an amazing discovery Terry had made there: "Hey, I just figured out that people lust after money! I must write a novel in which I can hammer that point home, over and over, through a series of oh-so symbolic vignettes!" Money rules the world! Eureka! What a shock...You gotta love it when a hypocritical Western Marxist, of all people, drones on about the supposed evils of Capitalism and money. What I'D like to know is how much money Southern earned from his TMC book and movie profits, and to which charities he gave all his money away to, the generous and ungreedy Leninist that he is, totally and utterly incorruptible and uninterested in money, the hippie idealist that he surely must have been... Oh, but I forgot: the movie flopped, which means it made no money. How ironic. What sweet poetic justice. Apparently, the audiences made the strange error of expecting a movie billed as a comedy to be funny. How weird of them; don't they know that comedies are all supposed to be unfunny, dumb satires? A very rich man (Sellers) decides to adopt Ringo "The Lucky Beatle" Starr, and no reason is given. They then proceed to harass everyone in sight, but mostly rich people, but again no explanation is given. Sellers has two sisters, but their inclusion is pointless: they serve no purpose in the story at all. The movie is like a bunch of badly strung-together sketches that are almost never funny. The exceptions are the John Cleese scene and the mildly amusing Spike Milligan scene. The rest is a mixture of confusing, chaotic, weird-for-the-sake-of-it drudgery that just screams SIXTIES (in the negative sense). Watching Yul Brunner in drag as he caresses Polanski's nose and sings for minutes (which seemed like hours) is the absolute low-point in this crap-fest. In the meantime, most of the cast mumble half the time, making it difficult to understand half the bull...Even the music is garbage. Paul McCartney donated one of his "throwaway songs" to the movie. Sort of like: "You can have this one. I wouldn't even put it on a C-side - if there were such a thing - but it should do for your movie." "Come & Get It" is played AD NAUSEAM throughout TMC, but the vile repetitiousness of the movie's same-subject skits (greed, greed, greed...) blends in well with the annoying song.The movie's finale includes celebratory images of Che Guevara and Mao Tse-Tung, i.e. two mass murderers - and I, for one, believe that being greedy for cash is a comparably tiny sin when put in contrast to GENOCIDE. There is nothing quite as touching as the humanism of a Left-wing extremist. They so care about the proletariat and humankind... Sniffle. There is also a "Crush Capitalism" banner being waved in that appallingly chaotic, idiotic (and other "tic"s) finale. I do so regret that Mr. Terry Holier-Than-Thou Uninterested-In-Materialistic-Possessions Southern isn't alive today so that I could ask His Red Deity why he let CAPITALIST companies and corporations distribute his ineptly written novels and films, if he is such a back-to-basics back-to-the-cave Communist... The general rule with "humanists" is this: the more a "humanitarian" is known for his "selfless self-sacrificing work", the bigger his villas and the faster his private jets are. (At this point I would like to say "hi" to Bono, the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, Steven Spielberg, George Bernard Shaw, and Lady Di. May you all rot in Heaven, for ye are all so so utterly unselfish and wonderful.) TMC ends with Peter Sellers saying: "There must be a better way." How utterly poignant. Yes, Southern's idea of a better way is going back to nature, which is so veeeery cleverly symbolized by Sellers and Starr taking their sleeping bags into a London park. Southern was an anti-intellectual moron, hence his pitiful and arrogant attempts to "enlighten" us - the ready-to-be-brainwashed proletariat viewers - about this "Red New Way" deserves the biggest laugh. Meanwhile, while that movie was being released into UK and US cinemas, thousands upon thousands of innocent civilians were being killed in Mao's Happy China... Where are the 60s movies crying out for political change THERE?

A doodlebug of a movie that is required movie by those who want to understand the Sixties better - just don't expect to understand what is going on - a complete mi sh mash of satire and irreverent fun all played out in a series of sketches that are joined by hte characters of Sellers and Ringo Starr cavorting around.This is about as far from 50s British comedy and Ealing as its possible to get: surreal, surprising, cruel, vindictive, hilarious, and just plain weird in places.It lives up to its tag line of Antiestablishment etc; and looks and feels like Monty Python before Python and with more bite.while stretching the credibility and tolerance of the audience is places it is wild viewing - and can be enjoyed on many levels.Be in the mood and you'll have a riot...