Sadly Over-hyped

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Disclaimer – I watched Carnival Magic courtesy of the new MST3K. I am confident in my ability to separate the movie from the show. I'm not one of those who feels a movie is necessarily bad just because it appeared on MST3K. You'll find some real gems that probably didn't deserve the MST3K treatment. With that being said, even though I've rated Carnival Magic a rather paltry 4/10, I was actually pleasantly surprised that it was this good. Knowing that it was directed by Al Adamson, my expectations were VERY low. And with a name like Carnival Magic, I was expected something schlocky along the lines of Ray Dennis Steckler's The Incredibly Strange Creatures – a real abomination of a movie. Instead, I discovered a reasonably nice movie, presented in a fairly competent manner, featuring decent acting, and real production values. There's actually little in the way of exploitation – a real shock to me. It's not a great movie, but Carnival Magic is miles better than what I was expecting. The movie tells the story of a struggling carnival/circus. Things start to look up, however, when a magician named Markov begins using his chimp, Alex, in his act. Alex is capable of a few astounding things – he can speak a few words and he can telepathically send messages to Markov. One day, a scientist is in the audience for a performance and wants to take Alex for research purposes. Markov says no. Unfortunately for all concerned, another performer, jealous of Markov's success, tells the scientist that he'll get him the chimp. Things get ugly for everyone involved.Most of the cast is, as you would expect, littered with a bunch of no names. They give it their all and come out looking pretty good. The exception is Don Stewart as Markov. He's very good in his role and actually has a fairly impressive filmography. Impressive, at least, for an Al Adamson film.

Carnival magician Don Stewart (as Markov) is fired from his job, but gets it back when he makes his talking chimpanzee companion "Trudi" (as Alexander) part of the act. The attention has a bad side effect when "Alex" is chimp-napped by a mad scientist and jealous lion tamer who think he may be the missing link. Director Al Adamson's wife Regina "Gena" Carrol (as Kate) is Mr. Stewart's bosomy assistant. Fortunately, Stewart kept his day job on "The Guiding Light" serial. Even more fortunately, Mr. Adamson's threatened sequel "More Carnival Magic" (1982) did not materialize.*** Carnival Magic (1981) Al Adamson ~ Don Stewart, Jennifer Houlton, Howard Segal, Mark Weston

Al Adamson noted/notorious for making less than average films, outdoes himself with this creation "Carnival Magic !"Take several aging would-be actors, place them in a sub-standard setting(Carnival), add a chimpanzee with an incredible ability, stir the pot and voilà', a hysterical look at the American culture, albeit a limited slice of the pie but still a slice. Don Stewart as Markov the Magician has amazing powers , yet one of them is not having the ability to stay employed, unless , enter Alexander the Great(the chimp), who has the power to talk..wow...Nice gimmick, except like the rest of the film, it is poorly executed.Even Alex looks aged.Spoiler Alert, Alex is or was Trudi the Chimp in real life. Not since "The Crying Game" has the gender bender been played so royally...except this time they used an animal, like "Lassie."So, the jealous animal trainer doesn't like being second banana and arranges for the abduction of our talking hero, to the confines of a medical laboratory for a closer look, if you know what I mean.So obviously the story has to resolve getting Alex back, but not before a chimp/police chase, hilarious or could have been under better supervision. The closing credits roll over the carnival parade in Gaffeny, South Carolina, which has been a host to no less than 7 other films, what a hoot ! Watching Don tongue an underage girl in her teens is Classic, I guess his powers include perversion and statutory rape. Nice.Oh, look for the Shriners, it wouldn't be a parade without them ! BTW, the joke I referred to in the summary title, is that you can build a TV Show/Film and/or Video Vehicle around a chimp, i.e."The Monkees", "BJ and the Bear","The Hathaways", it is done over and over because they try to reinvent the wheel or at least disguise it for a buck. Al Adamson was no different, he just failed to use demographics and threw this film against the wall, to see if it would stick. 3 stars out of 10, but filled with unintentional laughs, once you know the joke. Chimps are funny, people are too, but that is a different show.

God bless TCM for giving some air to this obscure flick from schlocksploitation specialist Al Adamson. What a treasure. TCM showed this during its Halloween week horror marathon in tandem with another circus-centered terror, Joan Crawford's notorious "Berserk." Carnival Magic isn't a horror film in the usual sense, although, as the TCM scheduler must have recognized, it does supply plenty of unintentional horror. Nearly everything about the film is horrible including script, acting, directing, editing, and costumes.Don Stewart plays Markov the Magnificent (no, really!), a carnival magician whose powers to read minds, levitate, bend steel bars and communicate with animals are, apparently, real. He was raised by Buddhist monks in Nepal, where his parents were missionaries, which must explain it. Markov's extraordinary talents are insufficient to save him from being fired at the insistence of the carnival's jealous, erstwhile star attraction, an alcoholic tiger-tamer (he's alcoholic, not the tigers).Fortunately, on top of all of his amazing, yet insufficiently impressive talents, Markov shares his trailer with a talking chimp (no, really!) called Alexander the Great who has a Norleans accent, all bluesy and boozy. Markov incorporates Alexander into the act and turns the carnival from near disaster into what appears to be a moderate financial success.Although amused, no one seems surprised at Markov's magic or at the talking monkey so the carnival doesn't immediately turn, as one might expect, into a media circus (sorry!). The chimp does attract attention from a lone anthropologist who thinks that in the great evolutionary chain Alexander may be the missing link based, presumably, on the chimp's ability to talk and drive a car. He has the monkey kidnapped by the less than gruntled tamer of wild, yet sober, tigers, and is sufficiently unimpressed by Alexander's cooperation that he decides to chop up the monkey to see what makes him work. Alexander is saved when the clinic is invaded by a swarm of carnies, some of whom, themselves, would probably be of interest as possible missing links.The intensity of the drama, though not the intensity of the horror, is broken by a couple of romantic subplots, one between Markov and his assistant (Regina Carrol), who is buxomly busting out of her coruscating leotard, and the other between the carnival owner's tomboy daughter (Jennifer Houlton) and a drippy PR man in a drip-dry shirt and disco trousers.This film has been out of circulation for far too long and needs to be released on DVD. Fans of bad movies should not be deprived of this; nay, they have a right to experience its phenomenal awfulness. Yes, really!