THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN

(UK 1969) Directed by Joseph McGrath

Ringo Starr + Peter Sellers. Now THAT's what you call a "cult movie". And an absolute must for Beatles fans (if you are, you have already seen it, so what's the point of me saying it? Well I don't know). A hippy surrealistic anarchistic mad piece of cinema typical of its times (Hippies!), "The Magic Christian" was shot and released in 1969, just as the Fab Four were entering their final year as a band. The movie is based on a novel by Terry Southern (the author of Dr Strangelove), and follows the exploits of Sir Guy Grand, the world’s richest man who , along with his adopted ‘son’ Youngman Grand, a former down and out, conduct a series of "experiments"-jokes to explore the corrosive moral effects of money on the human race. It's a leftist fable, acted by the coolest millionaire stars of the time, who are all witty and English enough to play accurately with the irony of the whole thing. And probably smoked a lot of pot between takes.

The character of the adopted 'son' was not in the original book and was actually written for Ringo Starr himself, who shares top billing with Peter Sellers as Sir Grand. Yeah, that's not bad a cast. The screenplay was co-written by Southern (who has just finished work on Hopper's "Easy Rider") with additional material by Monty Python's John Cleese and Graham Chapman, who both appear in the film (Chapman in his first film acting role). Oh, and there is also a great soundtrack of rock songs (a new trend at the time), as three of main tracks of the film were produced by Paul McCartney and performed by Apple records' new signing Badfinger. Sellers, Beatles and Pythons in the same movie. Would could say no to that, really...

As if this wasn't enough, the movie is a festival of great cameos, including Christopher Lee (as a vampire!), Lawrence Harvey, Wilfred Hyde-White, Roman Polanski, Yul Brynner (as a drag queen!), Richard Attenborough, Spike Milligan and last but not least, Raquel Welch as the ‘Priestess of the Whip', all very happy to be part of this hippy hype hippo of a film. Roll and Enjoy, brothers.

The Magic Christian

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