The Magic Christian (1969)

Director:

Joseph McGrath

Writers:

Terry Southern (novel)
Terry Southern (writer) ...

Release Date:

12 December 1969 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

The Magic Christian is: antiestablishmentarian, antibellum, antitrust, antiseptic, antibiotic, antisocial & antipasto.

Plot:

Sir Guy Grand, the richest man in the world, adopts a homeless boy, Youngman. Together, they set out to prove that anyone--and anything--can be bought with money.

Plot Keywords:

Art Gallery | Satire | Drag | Beautiful Woman | Flamethrower

Cast

Peter Sellers	...	Sir Guy Grand KG, KC, CBE
Ringo Starr	...	Youngman Grand, Esq.
Isabel Jeans	...	Dame Agnes Grand
Caroline Blakiston	...	Hon. Esther Grand
Wilfrid Hyde-White	...	Capt. Reginald K. Klaus
Richard Attenborough	...	Oxford coach
Leonard Frey	...	Laurence Faggot
Laurence Harvey	...	Hamlet
Christopher Lee	...	Ship's vampire
Spike Milligan	...	Traffic warden #27
Roman Polanski	...	Solitary drinker
Raquel Welch	...	Priestess of the Whip
Tom Boyle	...	My Man Jeff
Victor Maddern	...	Hot dog vendor
Terence Alexander	...	Mad Major

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:15 (video rating) | UK:A (original rating) | Iceland:L | USA:M (original rating) | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Barnes, London, England, UK

Company:

Commonwealth United Entertainment

Trivia:

Ringo Starr's character Youngman wasn't in the original book. The part was written especially for him, with many of Guy's early exploits adapted as Youngman's.

Quotes:

Sir John: [Oxford has just purposely rammed Cambridge, at the annual Boat Race] It would never have happened in my day!
Sir Guy Grand KG, KC, CBE: Nor mine!
Youngman Grand, Esq.: Well, it's happenin' in mine!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Unknown Peter Sellers (2000) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Rock of All Ages

Brilliant!!!

This film takes a brilliant thrust at British notions of class and propriety, if not Western Society as a whole. Peter Sellers plays Guy Grand, a man with a perverse sense of humor, and to whom money is no object. The film begins as Grand legally adopts a young vagrant, (a monosyllabic Ringo Star), and the two set out to turn everyday life into a kind of black surreality worthy of Monty Python. Though Grand has no spoken manifesto, his overriding goal is to mock, humiliate, and freak-out his pretentious peers via elaborate practical jokes, revealing the underlying hypocrisy of polite society. Ultimately Seller's character is dismayed when his social-experiments prove his suspicions: respectable citizens will do ANYTHING for money and prestige.

This movie is not for normal people, in fact, this movie hates you. Don't watch it. Go away.

(this movie has some colorful freak-out scenes that put Austin Powers to shame, especially when visually contrasted against the gray bleakness of industrial London)