CARNIVAL MAGIC -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 4/23/20

 

I'm not sure if it's a kid movie with adult elements, or an adult movie with kid elements, but Al Adamson's 1983 novelty feature CARNIVAL MAGIC (Severin Films) has all those elements rattling around in it and more, and you never know which one's going to jump out at you next.

Most of all, though, it's got that magical element of legendary exploitation filmmaker Al Adamson (SATAN’S SADISTS, DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN, BRAIN OF BLOOD) knocking out his next-to-last finished movie with all his limited but very enthusiastic skills in play, making the most of a small budget to create something that, hopefully, will pack 'em into neighborhood theaters.

The final stage of Al's career veered inexplicably into family film territory, hence this colorful tale of a cash-strapped carnival whose desperate owner depends on the popularity of a very unpleasant and cruel animal trainer (Joe Cirillo, GHOSTBUSTERS) whose own animals are starting to turn against him. 

But when their resident magician, Markov (Don Taylor, star of the soap opera "The Guiding Light"), reveals that he owns a talking chimp--a fact he'd somehow managed to keep secret all this time--he becomes the carnival's lucrative star attraction while making a mortal enemy of the jealous animal trainer.

And as if that weren't enough, an unscrupulous research scientist named Dr. Poole wants to kidnap "Alex" the talking chimp so that he can run him through an exhaustive series of experiments back at the lab, ending with a complete vivisection.

If you think some of this sounds a bit strong for a kids' film, wait'll you get a load of sexy Adamson regular Regina Carrol's boob-a-licious costumes as Markov's assistant, Alex the chimp's lecherous mumbled asides, and the sight of the increasingly hostile animal trainer going on a booze bender and beating the daylights out of his girlfriend.

Still, the plot also includes some nice stuff like the carnival owner's tomboy daughter "Buddy" (Jennifer Houlton) coming into her own as a young woman and falling for her dad's handsome young public relations guy as Markov gives her life advice while trying to deal with his own bitter memories.

But the main focus of this ostensible "kid" flick is Alex the mumbling chimp, who comes off like some senile old vaudevillian or a simian version of Buster Keaton at his most sullen. 

Not only does he play an active role in Markov's cheesy magical act, mostly by making insulting remarks or blowing raspberries from the sidelines, but there's a lively sequence in which he takes off in a car and causes havoc along several miles of highway as your standard redneck cop gives chase.

The very leisurely-paced story finally picks up in the latter half when Alex is ape-snatched by the horrible Dr. Poole and taken to his lab of horrors, with Markov, Buddy, and all the other good guys racing against time to rescue him.

When compared to Al Adamson's quick and dirty exploitation jobs with their hasty set-ups, bobbling hand-held camerawork, and threadbare production values, CARNIVAL MAGIC seems relatively lavish. 

(He even stages a real parade during the closing credits in which the joyous inhabitants of the local town act as extras, many of the female ones rushing up to give soap opera star Don Stewart a big kiss.)

The three-week shooting schedule must've seemed luxurious to a director used to lensing a feature by the seat of his pants in five-to-ten days or so, and the producer for whom he shot the film obviously gave him a more substantial budget to work with.

Thus, while hardly resembling a Grade-A film, this modest production shows Al Adamson capable of doing a workmanlike job under the right circumstances, while still allowing his somewhat oddball imagination to bleed through the more mundane material given him in lieu of one of his own fevered screenplays.

The Blu-ray from Severin Films boasts the last surviving pre-print 35mm elements of CARNIVAL MAGIC, already in a state of decomposition when discovered and scanned to create the nicely-restored copy we see here.

Special features consist of the very entertaining restoration featurette "A Boon To Science: A Critical Appreciation by Zack Carlson & Lars Nilsen", an audio commentary with producer Elvin Feltner, outtakes, and a trailer and TV spot.

In addition to this we also get a complete second feature, LOST, which was Al Adamson's final completed film and yet another odd  foray into family entertainment, this time about a man (Don Stewart again), his wife (Sandra Dee), and her daughter moving from the city to a cabin in the wilderness. Ken Curtis and Jack Elam also appear in this tale of the daughter getting lost in the mountains as her family endures much emotional distress during the frantic search.

While it will hardly appeal much to viewers whose tastes run toward films that are more polished and less conspicuously odd, CARNIVAL MAGIC is essential for Al Adamson fans who will delight in seeing him work within a normally mundane genre and turn it into something which, in its own way, pretty much defies description.


Buy it from Severin Films

Special Features:

    A Boom To Science – A Critical Appreciation by Zack Carlson & Lars Nilsen
    Audio Commentary with Producer Elvin Feltner
    Outtakes
    TV Spot
    Trailer

    Bonus Film: LOST
    The Happy Hobo – Rushes for Promo From Unproduced Adamson Kids Film
    LOST Trailer