The Magic Christian
The Magic Christian is a 1969 British satirical farce black comedy film directed by Joseph McGrath and starring Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr, with appearances by John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Raquel Welch, Spike Milligan, Christopher Lee, Richard Attenborough and Roman Polanski. It was loosely adapted from the 1959 comic novel The Magic Christian by the American author Terry Southern, who co-wrote the screenplay adaptation with McGrath. The film also features pre-Monty Python appearances of John Cleese (credited) and an uncredited Graham Chapman, who had jointly written an earlier version of the film script. It also features an uncredited appearance by Yul Brynner performing “Mad About the Boy” as a drag artist.
Plot
Sir Guy Grand, an eccentric billionaire, together with his newly adopted heir (a homeless man sleeping in the park), Youngman Grand, start playing elaborate practical jokes on people. A big spender, Grand does not mind handing out large sums of money to various people, bribing them to fulfill his whims, or shocking them by bringing down what they hold dear.
Cast
- Caroline Blakiston
- Christopher Lee
- Clive Dunn
- Dennis Price
- Edward Underdown
- Ferdy Mayne
- Graham Chapman
- Graham Stark
- Hattie Jacques
- Isabel Jeans
- Jeremy Lloyd
- John Cleese
- John Le Mesurier
- Laurence Harvey
- Leonard Frey
- Patrick Cargill
- Patrick Holt
- Peter Graves
- Peter Sellers
- Raquel Welch
- Richard Attenborough
- Ringo Starr
- Roland Culver
- Roman Polanski
- Spike Milligan
- Terence Alexander
- Victor Maddern
- Wilfrid Hyde-White
- Yul Brynner
More details
| author | Graham Chapman John Cleese Peter Sellers Terry Southern |
|---|---|
| contentLocation | London |
| director | Joseph McGrath |
| editor | Kevin Connor |
| genre | comedy drama |
| keywords | abandon ship adopt aristotle onassis art auction begin boat race break out cabaret singer cambridge cambridge university ceiling closed-circuit television end hamlet homeless man jacqueline kennedy john lennon luxury liner machine oxford oxford university paint park practical joke read rembrandt rembrandt school row scream shakespearean actor shock slave girl sleep something in the air sotheby\'s stage performance the boat race thunderclap newman traffic warden yoko ono |
| musicBy | Ken Thorne |
| producer | Denis O'Dell |
| productionCompany | Grand Films |
| publisher | Commonwealth United Entertainment |
| theme | black comedy satirical |