According to critic Carlos Clarens, the orgy scene recalls artistic depictions of the Greek god Pan, whom he listed as being portrayed by Stowitts, the American dancer at the Folies Bergere." For theatre historians, The Magician provides a rare film record of the actor Firmin Gémier (1869-1933) in the supporting role of Dr. Porhoët. As a young man, Gémier had been a company member of two of the most important and influential avant-garde theatre companies in Paris in the 1880s and 1890s, working for André Antoine's Théâtre Libre and Aurélien Lugné-Poe's Théâtre de l'Œuvre. For the latter, he created the role of Père Ubu in the original production of Alfred Jarry's notorious Ubu roi (1896). When Antoine became artistic director of the national Théâtre de l'Odéon in 1906, he tapped Gémier to take over the artistic direction of his former operation, the Théâtre Antoine. Gémier appeared in only eight films, and his brief appearance in The Magician gives modern audiences a glimpse at what this prominent modernist theater star was like. Reception Lawrence Reid of Motion Picture News praised the film as "weird, fantastic, adequately suspensive, and shivery . . . no matter how it is accepted (there isn't so much of the box-office ring about it, after all) no one is going to dismiss it as something that doesn't belong . . . The film is splendidly atmospheric, contains some unique settings and is very well acted by a cast of international flavor." Mordaunt Hall of The New York Times was impressed with the cast, writing that Alice Terry was "beautiful and phlegmatic," Ivan Petrovich "emphatically sympathetic and capable," and Paul Wegener "with good make-up" giving a "restrained performance." Conversely, Variety's Fred was impressed with Wegener's performance yet more critical of the film, calling it "a very slow moving, draggy picture that has but a single thrill." Similarly, the Cleveland Plain Dealer described the film as "A wild, improbable tale, not without its suspense and interest," adding that "Ingram can never be stupid, but he is of late sometime careless." Soundtracks Silent film composer Robert Israel created a score for the Turner Classic Movies reissue of the movie. The Ragged Ragtime Band created and performed a score for The Magician at the Brighton Fringe Festival in 2012. The Nenagh Silent Film Festival commissioned Eoin Mac Ionmhain to compose and premiere a live score for The Magician in 2013. References