In a role for which the filmmakers were originally hoping to get Vincent Price, Ray Sager dominates the proceedings for "The Wizard of Gore". A stock company player for gore master Herschell Gordon Lewis, Sager was the last minute choice to play the title role. Montag the Magnificent is an illusionist who hypnotizes pretty female members of his audience into participating in elaborate gags. (Sword swallowing, being punch pressed, chain sawed in half, etc.) They seem to be fine after the performances, but hours later, they suffer horrible and fatal wounds. Inquiring journalist Jack (Wayne Ratay) and his TV host girlfriend Sherry (Judy Cler) decide to investigate the illusionist."The Wizard of Gore" has got to be one of HGLs' all time grisliest exercises in sadism. He really seems to take a perverse delight in having Montag run his hands through the pulpy innards of his volunteers. The gore is pretty tacky, but there's just so damn much of it that it's sure to amuse lovers of cinematic violence. As for the movie itself, there's not really that much going on, but at least HGL and his screenwriter, Allen Kahn, prevent this from being purely ordinary shenanigans by injecting a healthy dose of strangeness and surrealism. They definitely push the whole "what is reality and what is illusion" idea, which is brought home by the denouement.The main drawing card is Sager, who exhibits a welcome theatricality. Judging by his work here, he could have easily had more leading roles, even if only in HGL movies. The rest of the acting is no more than passable, but it doesn't leave one rolling their eyes quite as much as the acting in some of HGLs' other works.If one wants to see Lewis at his gory best, "Blood Feast" and "Two Thousand Maniacs!" are a safer bet. This one is dragged out much too long.Six out of 10.

Herschell Gordon Lewis' blood and guts opus concerns a master magician whose stage acts really feature the violent deaths of his assistants from the audience. Montag the Magnificent(Ray Sager, in a campy performance)uses hypnotism to blanket his audience's perception of what is really going on while performing his acts on stage. What the audience sees is different from what Montag actually does to those who are, in actuality, unwilling participants, put under his spell, destroyed in gruesome fashion. Whether it be a chainsaw act that splits a girl in half, a punch press which burrows a hole into the stomach of another victim, a spike to the skull through the left ear lobe, or sword swallowing resulting in tongues and teeth removed, Montag is able to trick his paying customers into believing it's all an act, even after those harmed walk off the stage seemingly okay, later discovered to be anything but. Sports columnist Jack(Wayne Ratay)and television personality Sherry(Judy Cler)feel like there's more to Montag's acts that meets the eye. Those "marked for death" have a sign of blood on their hands, perhaps an ominous warning of what could possibly come for them in the future.While I don't necessarily consider HGL's THE WIZARD OF GORE to be a good movie in the least, I do believe it's essential viewing for gore aficionados(the punch press and chainsaw murder scenes are epic in regards to bloody carnage). You get plenty of Montag fondling guts, organs, and innards as his victims squirm and scream while being disemboweled and torn apart. The spike to the skull is probably the worst gore sequence of the lot because of the editing miscues and fake mannequin head(which isn't very convincing). If anything, it's good for some laughs. The pacing to me was a major turn-off, particularly as Montag went on and on, setting up his murder acts by talking endlessly on his "art of illusion". The finale is rather funny where Montag attempts to hypnotize all the viewers of Sherry's television show with Jack coming to his fiancé's rescue. Sager fits the mold perfectly established in the grand tradition of HGL's gore classicks, a deranged, bug-eyed crazy lunatic who delights in torturing and maiming his victims. THE WIZARD OF GORE will be most suitable for HGL's devoted followers, who are tolerant of the lingering camera shots of damaged bodies and the non-actors often cast in only films directed by the celebrated independent shock schlock exploitation extraordinaire.

This movie was also released under the title, "The Mad Magician".The plot is that a cheesy magician named "Montag" performs tricks that seem to mutilate female volunteers who then mysteriously die of the very same injuries they suffered on stage. Then for no apparent reason, he steals the bodies and takes them to a mausoleum in the same cemetery...A group of reporters and cops attempt to solve the apparent mystery. Or maybe it's all a dream... In all probability, it is an opportunity to put gross special effects on the screen when the Hayes board went away and the MPAA was still trying to figure itself out.Of course, the special effects are so poor that they are laughable.

Wizard of Gore, The (1970) * (out of 4) A news personality gets drawn to a magic show where Montag The Magnificent act out various forms of torture. The magician will make it appear that he is brutally slaughtering women on the stage but the women eventually walk off but hours later they are found really slaughtered. The newswoman's boyfriend starts to get suspicious so he starts to investigate. Clocking in at a torturous 96-minutes, this here is clearly the worst of Lewis' gore films. I normally enjoy all of his gore films but this one here was just torture to sit through and I found it deadly boring before the first murder had even taken place. Most of his gore films have very little plot but at least they have something in them. This film has absolutely nothing and it's no wonder this thing sat on a shelf for nearly two years before finally getting released. The first murder sequence is downright boring and sadly they don't get any better but in fact they continue to get worse. The explanation behind what the magician is doing and how he's doing it is just downright stupid and you can't help but roll your eyes throughout the film. Even worse are the gore effects, which have to be the worst of the director's career because of how fake they look. Countless times you see the women breathing even though they're suppose to be dead and there's one scene where the knife being used starts leaking blood before the actual murder. This movie is a complete disaster from start to finish and all the blame must go towards the director. Each scene is done is such a slow, drown out pace that I was just sitting there wondering what the heck Lewis was thinking by doing this. I'm certainly not trying to suggest that his other movies were masterpieces of cinema but at least they were entertaining. This one here just worthless.