After watching his gypsy parents executed by hanging for the alleged crime of sorcery, a young Joseph Balsamo is tortured mercilessly for the insolence of objecting to his parents’ conviction. After a narrow escape from his captors, he vows revenge on the nobleman who sentenced his parents to death.
Having honed his skills as a charmer throughout his teen years and into adulthood, Joseph (Orson Welles) now dons the name Cagliostro and becomes a famous sorcerer throughout Europe earning wealth, fame and privilege. His misadventures culminate in a bit of palace intrigue with a plot against Queen Marie Antoinette (Nancy Guild)—whose exact double is under Cagliostro’s spell and is helpless to be his instrument in usurping the throne of France.
An adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas novel Joseph Balsamo which tells the story of the 18th century sorcerer Cagliostro, Magic is directed by Gregory Ratoff and features a bravura performance of villainy from Welles, with excellent support from Guild, Stephen Bekassy and Akim Tamiroff (who would later appear with Welles in the director’s classic Touch of Evil).
For thoughts on Black Magic, please check out my piece on The Video Attic here.
Video Quality
Black Magic makes its Blu-Ray debut thanks to ClassicFlix with a 1080p master from a restoration that is quite wonderful. The wonderful black-and-white photography shines in high definition with natural grain intact and very little in the way of density fluctuations outside of a handful of softer shots and opticals. There is a grand amount of detail present with nice textures on the clothing and within the production design. The transfer shows off a great amount of depth and enhanced detail within the film’s composition. Black levels are deep with no obvious occurrence of black crush or compression artifacts. The contrast is well defined, and the track experiences very little in the way of damage outside of a few scratches here and there. ClassicFlix has done some pleasing work here and any fan should be happy to have this one on Blu-Ray.
Audio Quality
The Blu-Ray comes with a decent DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio track that gets the job done well enough. Dialogue and background noises are represented in perfect harmony with all competing elements, even when some of the more crowded scenes can become a bit caucophonous. The music never overpowers the dialogue or other important information. This track does present some amount of age-related wear and tear, as it sometimes struggles with the higher end of the Paul Sawtell score. There are also certain instances of dialogue that sound a bit hollow, but typically it sounds natural and clear. Background hiss is a persistent issue, but it does not lessen the enjoyment of the presentation. There are optional English (SDH) subtitles included for the feature film. Even with some source issues, ClassicFlix has done their best to provide the most stable track possible for this one.
Special Features
- Trailers: There are trailers provided for A Night In Casablanca, The Little Rascals Vol. 3, Stand-In, T-Men and Tomorrow Is Forever.
Final Thoughts
Black Magic proves to be a strong vehicle for Orson Welles to show off his commanding screen presence, even if the movie surrounding him does not always provide the excitement he does. This story of mesmerism and revenge provides some entertaining moments, but the film goes on a bit too long without the dramatic weight to justify the extra time. Nevertheless, there is enough here to keep you invested in this tale and be satisfied you took the time to seek it out. ClassicFlix has released a Blu-Ray featuring a solid A/V presentation but next to nothing in the way of special features. If you are an Orson Welles fan, ClassicFlix has once again rescued one of his lesser known titles.
Black Magic is currently available to purchase on Blu-Ray.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.
Disclaimer: ClassicFlix has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.
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