The Magician

Ben Mankiewicz introduces The Magician, 1926.

Ben Mankiewicz introduces The Magician, 1926.

Working on location in Paris, director Rex Ingram introduces his wife and production partner Alice Terry in the lead role, Gladys Hamer her hapless colleague, and a nasty art accident, opening The Magician, 1926, from a Somerset Maugham novel, starring Paul Wegener.

Paul Wegener as the title character, Oliver Haddo, dominates in his first scene, observing American surgeon Burdon (Ivan Petrovich) saving the paralyzed leading lady Margaret (Alice Terry, wife of director Rex Ingram), her doctor-uncle-guardian (Firmin Gamier) attending, in The Magician, 1926.

Occult-ish Paris scientist Haddo (Paul Wegener, title character), claiming he’s dropped by to apeologize for earlier bad behavior, has lightly hypnotized heroine Margaret (Alice Terry), whereupon director Rex Ingram leaps into fantasy, in The Magician, 1926, from a Somerset Maugham novel.

Dr. Burdon (Ivan Petrovich) and sculptress Margaret (Alice Terry) are now an item, attending a Parisian fair, where creepy quasi-professional scientist Haddon (Paul Wegener) has been shadowing them, causing bad stuff to go down at the snake tent, in director Rex Ingram’s The Magician, 1926.