"Mag the Hag" is a 1925 amateur fiction film shot and edited by Hiram Percy Maxim (1869-1936), founder of the Amateur Cinema League. It is one of the earliest amateur fiction films shot on 16mm in Northeast Historic Film's collections. It features Maxim's daughter, Percy Maxim Lee, in the lead role of Percy Proudfoot. oldfilm.org
A man is late for his anniversary dinner after getting drunk at an "amateur magician's club." He attempts to make up for it by surprising his wife with gifts, but the gifts turn out to be magic tricks which further infuriate her. The man's magic tricks are accomplished via trick photography.
"The Magic Bottle is a fantasy type of story with real life people acting out the parts. A crippled girl attending a beach party is seen by a drunk who, upon finding a lone bottle in the sand, is told that by finding the bottle he may have one big wish. His wish - that the girl may once more walk again" PSA Journal, Sept. 1966, 35.
"Magic Boy received the special citation for combining animation with live action. A small boy is watching a comic book or drawing board and what he sees comes to life before him. Whether Filmer Falco is a real life artist or not, he did a good job with the cartooning, but a really superb job in combining the boy with the animated character" PSA Journal, Sept. 1964, 51.
"Alexander Black imagines his grandchildren appearing around him in a swirl of double-exposed trick cinematography." UC Berkeley Library.
"In The Magic City, Virginia Rodarmor shows a warm and winning appreciation of a child's love for fairy tales. After a delightful opening scene in which Mother pantomimes the end of a bedtime story to her three young ones, we see them being tucked away for the night. The film then pictures the children enacting, in a dream, the tale their mother has just related. A regrettable lack of steady camera support is offset by the sensitive unfolding of the story, keeping it unerringly on a level of pure fantasy. A delightful and characteristic conceit is the sequence in which the witch is transformed into a pure white cat — complete with miniature black mask and peaked hat. The role is played by the family pet with superb and feline aplomb. The Magic City is a rewarding adventure into the difficult realm of motion picture fantasy." Movie Makers, Dec. 1948, 495.
"The plot of Magic Mush is one that is fairly familiar to movie makers. A youngster saves up enough of the coupons that come with a breakfast food to get a free magic set, complete with wand. It turns out that the magic wand actually works, and Sister and Brother make things appear and disappear to their hearts' content. The trick work involved is done by stopping the camera, removing some article from the scene, or adding one to it, and starting the camera again. To this familiar plot, Eric N. Unmack has added some clever ideas of his own. One amusing device is the return of a kitten, rescued from the limbo of magic; she comes floating down, tied to a small parachute. Other clever tricks and especially good acting make this a first class family reel. All of it is presented with uniformly excellent interior filming." Movie Makers, Dec. 1941, 566.
Total Pages: 295
Amateur Cinema