The Magic Christian

PG

1970

1 hr. 33 min.

Comedy

List

61%

18 Reviews

Tomatometer

68%

2,500+ Ratings

Audience Score

Billionaire Sir Guy Grand (Peter Sellers) thinks nothing of throwing his endless stream of money away. He adopts a street person (Ringo Starr), christens him Youngman Grand and sets about trying to illustrate to his new heir how virtually everyone in the world can be bought. He pays a traffic cop to eat a ticket, pays the Oxford crew team to sabotage a race and finally fills a vat with feces and money, inviting one and all to keep the latter if they don't mind putting up with the former.

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Joker N

A few things have to be remembered going into watching this movie : The year it was made this was way ahead of it's time, the fact that it was made in the UK and not in the USA (Had it been shot in the USA perhaps the critics then would have given more merit) and the use of a majority of the cast were playing against their then stereo typical roles in theatre / TV and film. With the above in mind it is a dark satire / a black comedy. Those who say the gags don't pay off are obviously missing the point. It's staggered, there are some points that drag, could it have been edited better? Maybe but the drugs were good back in those days... The cast is a veritable who's who from both sides of the Atlantic. End of the day if you watch this with an open mind and not just open eyes it follows the moral of the original story as written : Everyone has a price. This mortal stands today as it did then and somehow rings more true in the 2020's than it did in the late 1960's.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/11/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Perhaps the grandest prank Sir Guy Grand ever pulled was to fool audiences into thinking that this brazenly irreverent satire of capitalist exploitation contains any coherent message or narrative—though the Badfinger soundtrack is terrific, and it is intermittently funny, with the auction sequence (and John Cleese) alone earning an extra half-star.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

One of the best films on senseless greed and materialism

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/23/23

Full Review

delysid d

great movie that reminded me of bedazzled, every home should have one, magical mystery tour, casino royale, head, monty python

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

08/06/19

Full Review

Audience Member

The Magic Christian is a bizarre reflection of reality, and what we think of as normalcy in terms of our condition, then and now. It may seem outrageous and vulgar and surprising, and the film shocked many who saw it, and many walked out on it or thought it was just too absurd to be enjoyed for what it is: a social commentary on the social, political, and economic inequality of this world, and how money is truly the root of all evil, and that our morals and ethics are totally decayed by this artificial and intangible thing. It is at once bizarre and entertaining, full of cameos like Yul Brenner, Raquel Welch, Roman Polanski, John Cleese, Richard Attenborough, Graham Chapman, and Christopher Lee. Of course, Peter Sellers and Ringo Star are the stars of the film. It's a shame that this movie was not well received as what it is: a social commentary and critique of the modern world.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/22/23

Full Review

kevin w

Although this stars Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr it doesn't actually matter, as the two are only used as pop canvases to convey the message, one of the dominant themes of the 60's era, of youthful discontent with a world obsessed with money. Typical of the times as well is that there are no alternatives suggested either, simply the equivalent of an internet troll calling you "stupid!" and assuming a stance of superiority for having said that. All of this would be alright, mind you, if only the thing was funny, but its not. Sellers tries to inject some levity with the adoption of several different personas but the point is moot in the midst of this shitstorm of superior posturing. Starr replays his "lost boy" act from "Hard Day's Night" but has no where to go with it, nowhere at all. There are brief moments that contain a smile, but that's all you're gonna get out of this one. If there is any reason to see this at all, its for its look at the mood of the times.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

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Joe McGrath

Director

Peter Sellers

Sir Guy Grand

Ringo Starr

Youngman Grand

Richard Attenborough

Oxford Coach

Isabel Jeans

Dame Agnes Grand

Caroline Blakiston

Hon. Esther Grand

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Violet Lucca

Film Comment Magazine

Joseph McGrath's movie version remains an acerbic, late-Sixties dark comedy classic.

Jun 14, 2013

Full Review

Variety Staff

Variety

A spotty, uneven satire (from the novel by Terry Southern) with a number of good yocks, but insufficient sustained wit or related action.

Sep 10, 2007

Full Review

Derek Adams

Time Out

The result is a variety concert of a film in which most of the acts/jokes fall flat.

Jun 24, 2006

Full Review

D.M. Palmer

Vague Visages

The Magic Christian cries out to be re-visited. For all the cultural specificity of the novel and film, Grand remains a strikingly modern figure.

Nov 9, 2023

Full Review

Michael Ross

Los Angeles Free Press

Vital, devastating and immensely entertaining.

Jan 23, 2020

Full Review

Steve Crum

Video-Reviewmaster.com

Odd yet fun comedy-fantasy starring Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr.

Rated: 3/5

Feb 23, 2008

Full Review

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Synopsis

Billionaire Sir Guy Grand (Peter Sellers) thinks nothing of throwing his endless stream of money away. He adopts a street person (Ringo Starr), christens him Youngman Grand and sets about trying to illustrate to his new heir how virtually everyone in the world can be bought. He pays a traffic cop to eat a ticket, pays the Oxford crew team to sabotage a race and finally fills a vat with feces and money, inviting one and all to keep the latter if they don't mind putting up with the former.

Director: Joe McGrath
Executive Producer: Anthony B. Unger, Henry T. Weinstein
Production Co: Columbia
Rating: PG
Genre: Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): May 9, 2019

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