Black Magic

We know from narration (by Berry Kroeger as Alexandre Dumas) that gypsy Balsamo (Orson Welles) is a prodigiously gifted hypnotist, seen here just after he’s been discovered and bailed out of a Vienna jail by the professionally interested Dr. Mesmer (Charles Goldner), in Black Magic, 1949.

Gifted gypsy Balsamo (Orson Welles) has just learned that his powers of hypnotism will have great currency in European society, his crew (Akim Tamiroff, Valentina Cortese) enthralled as Berry Kroeger in the voice of Alexandre Dumas narrates his ascendance, in Black Magic, 1949.

Now renowned throughout Europe, hypnotist “Cagliostro” (Orson Welles) has just recognized his parents’ murderer (Stephen Bekassy), who needs him to revive catatonic Lorenza (Nancy Guild), in whose flashback we meet handsome Gilbert (Frank Latimore), Gregory Ratoff directing, in Black Magic, 1949.

Producer Edward Small wringing every drop of historical gravitas from his even-then out-of-copyright literary source, Gregory Ratoff directing Berry Kroeger and Raymond Burr as Dumas père and fils, opening Black Magic, 1949, starring Orson Welles.

Berry Kroeger narrates as Alexandre Dumas père, introducing Orson Welles as the adult gypsy Balsamo, his mystical powers established in prologue, Akim Tamiroff his sidekick in a Vienna medicine show, the actor-turned-director Gregory Ratoff in charge, in producer Edward Small’s Black Magic, 1949.