BLACK MAGIC - DVD-1949-ORSON WELLES

Details

• Release Year: 1949
• Genre: Drama
• Plot: 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, Nancy Guild, Akim Tamiroff, Frank Latimore, Valentina Cortese, Margot Grahame, Stephen Bekassy, Berry Kroeger, Gregory Gaye, Raymond Burr, Charles Goldner, Lee Kresel, Robert Atkins, Nicholas Bruce, Franco Corsaro, Annielo Mele, Ronald Adam, Bruce Belfrage, Alexander Danaroff, Leonardo Scavino, Tamara Shayne, Joop van Hulzen, Peter Trent, Giuseppe Varni, Tatyana Pavlova, Harriet Medin, Valentino Bruchi, Renato Casanova, Ludmilla Dudarova, Rosina Galli, Mary Genni, Silvana Mangano, Filippo Minelli, Count Orloff, Maria Antonietta Pavese, Michele Sakara, Nicholas Soussanin, Princess Vassileikof, Milly Vitale, Prince Volkonski, Baroness Vredeun, Gregory Ratoff, Alexandre Dumas père, Charles Bennett, Richard Schayer
• Director: Gregory Ratoff
• Runtime: 1:45
• Company: Hen's Tooth Video
• Media Format: Movie