Black Magic (1949) on Netflix
Rescued by Gitano after Viscount de Montagne has Joseph Balsamo tortured and his parents hanged, Balsamo swears revenge. As Count Cagliostro, he uses hypnosis against King Louis XV's court.
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- IMDb6.4/101,701 votes
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Trailer
Plot summary
As a Romani boy in France, Joseph Balsamo is tortured on the orders of Viscount de Montagne, and his parents are hanged. The Roma leader Gitano rescues him, and he swears revenge on de Montagne. Years later, he studies hypnosis under Dr. Mesmer and rejects the advice to use it only for healing. Adopting the name Count Cagliostro, he gains wealth and fame across Europe. He then joins Gitano and Zoraida in a plot to substitute Lorenza for Queen Marie Antoinette. The scheme, organized by de Montagne with Madame du Barry, aims to have Lorenza impersonate the queen and buy an expensive necklace.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Black Magic (1949)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Producer Edward Small was afraid to fly over the Atlantic and did not oversee the shoot; according to Bennett, Gregory Ratoff and Orson Welles took advantage of his absence to alter his script, Welles allegedly directed several scenes himself, and the footage was judged unreleasable, so Bennett wrote and directed new scenes at United Artists over four nights.
- Producer Edward Small cycled through stars in trying to get the film off the ground from 1943: Charles Boyer with Akim Tamiroff and Irving Pichel directing, J. Carrol Naish as Alexandre Dumas Sr., George Sanders with Douglas Sirk directing, and later Louis Hayward.
- Edward Small estimated the film would have cost $3 million in Hollywood and said savings from cheap Italian labor could reach 40 percent: a thousand wigs cost 20 percent of the American price, dresses $700 instead of $3,000 to $5,000, and local extras $3 to $4 a day against $11 to $16.
- United Artists was so enthusiastic it took 25 percent of the profits instead of its usual 27.5 percent, and commissioned a $250,000 advertising campaign that sent four hypnotists on tour to hypnotize journalists and staged a stunt with someone buried alive, as in the film.
- Writer Charles Bennett said José Ferrer was also approached to play the lead but demanded a three-picture contract from producer Edward Small, who refused.
- The shoot in Rome inspired Italian writer Davide Ferrario's 1995 novel Dissolvenza al nero, which has Welles involved in a murder mystery while in Rome for Black Magic and was adapted into the 2006 film Fade to Black, with Danny Huston as Welles.
