CARNIVAL MAGIC (1983) **

I reviewed Carnival Magic a while ago, but in the ensuing years, it has kind of become a staple in my household thanks to repeated viewings on Mystery Science Theater 3000.  It’s one of the best episodes of the show’s revival, and the film’s offbeat nature is a perfect fit for Jonah and the ‘bots’ riffing style.  Watching it for the first time in a long while un-riffed as part of the Al Adamson boxset, I still am of the same opinion I had when I first saw it. 

I don’t have any new revelations to share with you.  Seeing the film within its chronological context of Adamson’s body of work, I find it interesting that his final two movies (his next being Lost) are children’s fare.  I don’t see this so much as Adamson branching out and trying something new, rather just hitting on a craze he had previously untapped early in his career. 

Speaking of untapped, it’s nice to see Adamson’s wife, Regina Carrol in a decently sized role as Markov the Magnificent’s assistant.  She gives a naturalistic performance that is easily one of the best things about the movie.  It’s a definite improvement on her grating performance in Blazing Stewardesses, that’s for sure.  

It’s always fun seeing what kind of trend Adamson would try to rip off.  Here, there’s a completely gratuitous scene where the talking chimp Alex steals a car and leads a bunch of dumb cops on a high-speed pursuit.  The country obviously still had Smokey and the Bandit on the brain, and leave it to Adamson to give moviegoers a twist on what was all the rage at the time.  I mean, we saw several car chases in Smokey’s wake, but have we seen one with a talking chimp?  I think not.

Unfortunately, the movie is too uneven to really work as either a children’s film or a WTF masterpiece.  The carny drama is rather flat, which makes the oddball elements sit uncomfortably with the rest of the picture.  The subplot with the evil doctor bent on dissecting the talking chimp feels really out of place in such a saccharine kiddie matinee show.  Also, the magic show scenes (many of which play out in real time) and long carnival montages bog things down considerably.  Despite these flaws, this is by far one of the most coherent works by Adamson, who was working with his highest budget to date.

Here’s my original review from a while back:

 

ARCHIVE REVIEW:  CARNIVAL MAGIC  (1983)  ** (ORIGINALLY POSTED:  MARCH 26^TH, 2011)

Markov the Magnificent is a carnival magician who has a talking chimpanzee named Alex.  He doesn’t like exploiting Alex but when the carnival is on the verge of closing, Markov agrees to put Alex in the show.  When Markov and Alex’s act becomes a big hit, it draws the attention of a scientist who wants to study the talking chimp.  Markov says no way Jose, but a disgruntled lion tamer decides to help the sketchy scientist kidnap poor Alex.  Markov then gets the help of his fellow carnies to rescue his simian buddy.

Carnival Magic is a bizarre kiddie movie directed by exploitation maverick Al (Dracula vs. Frankenstein) Adamson.  It’s heavily padded with lame magic acts and scenes of people on carnival rides and features some truly awful music.  It’s not very good and doesn’t quite work as camp but the flick is just so offbeat (and surprisingly earnest) to completely write it off.  And ironically, this is one of Adamson’s more coherent movies.

A lot of credit has to go to Alex the talking chimp.  It would’ve been easy to just dub in an obviously fake sounding voice like on Lancelot Link, but the throaty growl Alex speaks with sounds almost plausible.  Actually, when he talks he kinda sounds like E.T.  I have to think Spielberg saw this movie before he made E.T. because not only does the chimp sound like E.T., he also dies and miraculously comes back to life in the end.

I can’t say I really enjoyed Carnival Magic, but I’m glad I saw it.  Fans of Adamson’s work (or weird movies in general) will definitely want to check it out.  It beats going to a real carnival, that’s for sure.