Black Magic

Black Magic

🎞️ Movie 105 min US
โ˜… 6.4 /10 1949

The biggest picture in ten years! The greatest cavalcade of intrigue, spectacle, adventure and excitement you'll ever see on the screen

Novelist Alexander Dumas tells his writer-son of Joseph Balsamo, a gypsy boy in southern France who was embittered because his parents were wrongfully hanged and he himself was tortured by the order of Viscount de Montagne. Years later, the man, a carnival charlatan, attracts the attention of Dr. Mesmer, a pioneer in the study of hypnotism. Balsamo rejects Mesmer's plea that he use his power for healing and, instead, decides to use it to seek wealth and fame. He changes his name to Count Cagliostro, and achieves fame throughout Europe by mixing hypnotism with mysticism and showmanship. He is called to cure a girl, Lorenza, held by De Montagne, because she resembles Marie Antoinette, wife of the heir to the throne of France. Cagliostro decides to join De Montagne and Madame du Barry in a plot to seize the power by discrediting the future Queen. Cagliostro achieves his revenge on De Montagne by persuading him to hang himself. He makes Lorenza marry him but can never make her love him. Her love is for Gilbert de Rezel, the captain of Marie Antoinette's guard. In a dramatic court scene, Cagliostro's power of hypnotism is turned against him by Dr. Mesmer and he is seen as a madman. His faithful gypsy friends, Gitano and Zoraida, try to help him escape but he is killed by de Rezel in a roof-top duel.

Cast

Orson Welles
Orson Welles
Cagliostro
Nancy Guild
Nancy Guild
Marie Antoinette
Nancy Guild
Nancy Guild
Lorenza
Akim Tamiroff
Akim Tamiroff
Gitano
Frank Latimore
Frank Latimore
Gilbert
Valentina Cortese
Valentina Cortese
Zoraida
Margot Grahame
Margot Grahame
Mme. DuBarry
Stephen Bekassy
Stephen Bekassy
DeMontagne
Berry Kroeger
Berry Kroeger
Dumas, Sr.
Raymond Burr
Raymond Burr
Dumas, Jr.
Gregory Gaye
Gregory Gaye
Chambord
Gregory Gaye
Gregory Gaye
Monk
๐Ÿ‘ค
Paul Sawtell
Composer
๐Ÿ‘ค
Ubaldo Arata
Cinematographer
๐Ÿ‘ค
Anchise Brizzi
Cinematographer