[Inspector Abberline]

The Magic Christian (1969)
Im fairly sure that when it came out The Magic Christian was considered pretty far out and wild,and even today it still stands as a bizarre eclectic and episodic movie.Sir Guy Grand (Peter Sellers) decides to adopt homeless Ringo Starr,so after a ceremony which resembles,registry office wedding Ringo becomes Youngman Grand.After this they decide to play extravagant jokes on people,mainly exploiting peoples greed and satirising capitalism,although not in very subtle way.The Magic Christian has a certain Pythonesque feel to it,which is no surprise considering John Cleese and Graham Chapman had written an early script,but only there scenes that they appear in are left from there version of the script.Magic Christian has an incredibly massive array of cameo appearances from pretty much every famous actor from that time,ranging from Hattie Jacques as Ginger Horton,Laurence Harvey as Hamlet,Spike Milligan as Traffic warden #27 and Yul Brynner as Transvestite cabaret singer just to name a few. Problem is that there is no actual story,it just has Sellers and Ringo going from one absurd scenario to another.Its the episodic nature of the film and the lack of a decent narrative that really hurts the film. There's plenty of satire on money,war and the wealthy classes,but its done so heavy handedly that any humour is lost,and it just comes across as rather pretentious. It has none of the clever satire of say Lindsay Anderson's films like If (1968) and its follow ups O Lucky Man!(1973) and Britannia Hospital(1982) which even today still are clever and funny and some instances still has the power to shock.The Magic Christian (1969) is not a total loss,Peter Sellers is still on top form as the eccentric billionaire,and Ringo Starr hasn't really got to do much apart from being himself really,which he does very well.The film is notable for the song "Come and Get It" by Badfinger,which crops up throughout the film.The Magic Christian is one of most eccentric films from the late 1960's,that your ever likely to see,its just a shame its not as clever or as funny as it thinks it is.