By Todd Garbarini
One of the strangest G-rated “family
films†that I have ever seen is Al Adamson’s 1982 effort Carnival Magic, released by HD Cinema Classics by way of Film Chest
Media Group. As a fan of the best genre efforts
that were afforded by what is arguably the last truly great summer for movies
in the United States, 1982 gave us Conan
the Barbarian, Star Trek II: The
Wrath of Khan, Poltergeist, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Blade Runner, The Thing, The Beastmaster and The Road Warrior. I must
admit that I was stunned to learn of this film as I had not heard of it prior
to its 2010 release on home video.
Filmed over three weeks in Gaffney,
South Carolina and Shelby, North Carolina, Carnival
Magic is, in the words of producer Elvin Feltner, “the story of a magician
and a traveling carnival and his pet monkey, who just happens to be a talking
monkey.†It is also a film that cannot
make up its mind if it wants to be a slapstick comedy or a family film with
dramatic adult themes. Starring a cluster of soap opera actors and actresses,
producer Feltner does what any good producer does when faced with the rising
costs of a film budget. He thinks
outside the box and delivers a film that can easily be categorized as a cult
favorite.
The
carnival’s magician, Markov (played nicely by Don Stewart), can read people’s
thoughts and levitate objects. Armed
with his talking chimp Alex, they are the top crowd pleaser, easily making the
wild animal trainer second banana and very jealous in the process. Hoping to regain his former glory, the
trainer attempts to kidnap the chimp and give him to a medical laboratory for
experimentation in the hopes of displacing his competition and making a good
deal of money. Among this plot are a
bevy of carnival beauties who dance, and a young adult romance that blossoms
innocently.
I couldn’t help but think of Tobe Hooper’s
The Funhouse (1981) while watching
this film, as the carnival atmosphere always intrigued me since I saw the
“Levitation†episode of Tales from the
Darkside in May 1985.
The video transfer of the film is done
from a recently unearthed 35mm theatrical print discovered lying in a warehouse
(the original negative apparently was not among the finds unfortunately), but HD
Cinema, a terrific company in their own right, has done a wonderful job of cleaning
up the print with their restoration transfer. I honestly cannot wait to see what this company has up its sleeve in the
months to come. If they can get their
hands on low-budget, independently made films and do high definition transfers
of them for new audiences, their future is surely bright.
There are a host of extras in this
collection. A running audio commentary with cult film historian Joel Rubin and
producer Feltner reveals a great deal of information regarding the making of
the film. Although Carnival Magic was
copyrighted in 1982, most people did not see the film until roughly a year
later in select screenings, as it was difficult to find theaters willing to
book the film. Mr. Feltner makes mention that the film was shot in 1981 in the
video interview introduction, however historian Reuben points out that according
to lab documents it was filmed in the previous year. When Mr. Feltner mentions that it was shot in
1982 on the audio commentary and become fairly adamant, it leads the audience to
wondering why the discussion is up for debate when such information is easily
verifiable. The subject is eventually
put to bed when the outtakes that appear in the supplementary section clearly
reveal the date of July 1980 on the film slate.
The remaining extras consist of twenty
minutes of outtakes sans audio and a
short “ before†and “after†restoration demo. What is most interesting is the
inclusion of both the original television trailer and the theatrical trailer,
wherein the former presents the film as a non-stop riot and the latter gives
one the impression that they should expect something along the lines of Smokey and the Bandit. Rounding out the extras
is an interesting slideshow which consists of newspaper clippings illustrating
when the movie came to the respective filming locations, looking for extras to
appear in the carnival scenes.
Regardless of one's opinion of the
film's narrative, the movie stands as a time capsule of a more innocent era in
American life, of small-town folks enjoying the summer with family and friends. The carnival sequences almost serve as a
documentary of what life was like in 1980 for these people.
HD Cinema Classics gets it right by
releasing this as a DVD and Blu-ray combo package, something that too few
companies are doing even now. They are
to be commended for offering the film in both formats, though Blu-ray is really
the way to go due to the increased sharpness and definition. The colors really pop out in this
format.
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