Movie Review Carnival Magic

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1981 – Spoiler alerts A film of legendary bad status, and deservedly so. It centres on a carnival circus mind reader who secretly has a talking chimpanzee as his best friend. When a young girl discovers the truth, she persuades the chimp to go public and the chimp becomes the star of the circus (though strangely its powers are un-noticed by the press or scientific communities. The lion tamer, who is an alcoholic, is jealous as he is no longer the star attraction of the how, and he abducts Alexander the chimp, selling him to a private vivisection lab. The carnies rush to the rescue. This might have made for a cute children’s film, as it was intended to be, except for its adult themes of alcoholism, domestic abuse, animal cruelty, vivisection, exploitation, depression and suicide. Even the chimp tries to kill himself, as well as stealing cars to go joy-riding. The acting is risible, and the film makes up it length with stock footage clearly coming from random different circuses, as well as lots of shots of cars on desert highways. There is also a disturbing sexualised relationship between the male lead and the under-age girl who befriends him and Alexander. The film promised a sequel that was mercifully never made. The director, Al Adamson, made only one more film before being murdered by a building contractor who buried him in concrete in his own house in 1995. Arthur Chappell