From a screenplay based on his own novel, John Fowles's The Magus is another mildly intriguing big budget Hollywood bellyflop that caves in on its own lofty ambitions. Viewed as a late 1960s time capsule, The Magus is somewhat enjoyable fare replete with grade school level symbolism, and Michael Caine, Anthony Quinn, and Candice Bergen doing their best with the hokey dialogue. Michael Caine plays a school teacher running away from a clinging lover who falls under the spell of Anthony Quinn on a remote Greek Isle. Is Quinn a magician, a psychiatrist, a filmmaker? Who cares? Fowles was so disappointed with a previous adaptation of his work (The Collector with Terrence Stamp), that he insisted on writing the screenplay himself. He should have left that job to the professionals. The film score by Brit-jazz legend Johnny Dankworth is lovely, however. --Kristian St. ClairMore...
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