Crystal Balls in Film 5

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Crystal Balls! Movie Magic! Portentous and puzzling!

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Crystal Balls in Film, Part Five

Well, i thought last week would be the conclusion of the "Crystal Balls in Film" series, but that turned out to be a premature prediction. We are back again, with yet MORE of these fine, funny, fascinating, fantastic, and freakish films that present crystallomancy in various lights, from amusing to outrageous and from occult to outré..

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  1916: "The Mysteries of Myra," starring Jean Sothern as Myra Maynard and Howard Estabrook as Dr. Payson Alden. in Episode 2 "The Poisoned Flower," Sothern gives the double-thumbs-up sign that identifies members of The Black Order as she and Estabrook stare into the ominous orb.
  Black and white still.
  Genre: Horror.

• 

  1917: "Cleopatra," starring Theda Bara in the title role, Fritz Leiber Sr. as Julius Caesar, and Thurston Hall as Mark Antony. Theda Bara caresses her crystal, which is pretty obviously a light-weight blown glass sphere and not a priceless earth-born gem.
  Black and white still.
  Genre: Drama.

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  1932: "Sinister Hands," starring Jack Mulhall, Phyllis Barrington, Crauford Kent, with Mischa Auer as the Indian Swami Yomurda, who, of course, speaks with a Russo-Hungarian Yiddishe accent, because ... you know, Mikhail Semyonovich Unkovsky Auer. During a séance at an elderly millionaire's house, the millionaire is murdered and detectives realize that everyone who was at the séance had a motive for killing the man. I love this movie, and i love Mischa Auer.
  Black and white still.
  Genre: Mystery.

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  1933: "Fog," starring Donald Cook and Mary Brian, and featuring Helen Freeman as Madame Alva. A series of murders are committed in swift succession on board a liner crossing the Atlantic in a dense fog, and many of the passengers come under suspicion before the actual killer is bought to justice.
  Black and white still.
  Genre: Mystery.

I am fannishly obsessing over "The Mysteries of Myra," the mostly-missing 1916 horror fantasy chapter play written by the famous occultist and Spiritualist Hereward Carrington. Another still has come to light, and i now have a list of all the chapters, one of which was never filmed and another of which was filmed but discarded by William Randolph Heart, whose motion picture company funded this eccentric project. After the chapters had covered every metaphysical topic from hypnotism and fairies to telepathically-induced suicide and thought-monsters, it seems that the "Voodoo" chapter was just too, too much for Hearst to release. It may be that i will just have to bite the bullet and purchase both the book about this movie and the DVD that compiles all of the remaining footage and working materials. It is not cheap. The Serial Squadron, who put this over-the-top project together represent the best of fandom -- but the cost is ... well, it's a luxury. Maybe next month ...

• 

  1933: "Sucker Money," starring Mischa Auer in a reprise of his 1932 role as Swami Yomurda, with Mona Lisa as Princess Karami. In this Poverty Row feature from the prolific Willis Kent, tag-lined "An Exposé of the Fortune Telling Racket!", a phony Spiritualist (Auer) hypnotizes the daughter of a wealthy banker (Phyllis Barrington) in a scheme to swindle the banker out of his money. One thing about Mischa Auer — he didn't care if he was in a low budget wreck like this or in a high-class Frank Capra film like "You Can't Take It With You," he gave it everything he had!
  Tinted lobby card.
  Genre: Crime, Drama.

• 

  1933: "Sucker Money." Banker John Walton (Ralph Lewis) and his daughter Claire (Phyllis Barrington) are induced to attend a séance held by the fake Spiritualist Swami Yomurda (Mischa Auer), but the smart young newspaper reporter Jimmy Reeves (Earl McCarthy) is investigates the scam and saves the gullible pair from being taken for all they have. Also featured are notable B-movie character actors Kit Guard, Al Bridge, and Dorothy Vernon.
  Colourized Alpha Video DVD box.
  Genre: Crime, Drama.

• 

  1933: "Sucker Money," starring Mischa Auer as the unscrupulously hypnotic Swami Yomurda. Within a few years, Auer, who had been typecast in as an "exotic villain" by Hollywood since 1928, got a break-through role as Alice Brady's "protégé" in the screwball comedy "My Man Godfrey," for which he was nominated for the Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor in 1936. Thereafter he was in demand everywhere in comedies, in which he excelled.
  Detail of Colourized Alpha Video DVD box back.
  Genre: Crime, Drama.

• 

  1939: "The Wizard of Oz," starring Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Billie Burke, Margaret Hamilton, and a cast of thousands. Once recovered from the discard pile in the prop house maintained by its creator, Kenneth Strickfaden, the Wicked Witch's iconic 25-inch orb was outfitted with an elaborate stand that replicated the lost original, and a new working projector was installed inside it in 2018.
  Genre: Fantasy.

The mysterious crystal ball publicity shots of the 1930s and 1940s continue to stump me. These are well-costumed, well-posed, and well-lit photographs of well-known actors and well-endowed actresses gazing into well-made crystal balls -- but they don't seem to be linked to any movies. Perhaps posing with a crystal ball was just what was "done" by goofy Hollywood agents for their clients back then, or maybe these were test shots for roles that went to other actors. If you have a clue, please share it!

• 

  Undated, 1930s: Mae West with a crystal ball. If this is from a film, we'd like to know the title. Otherwise, we will simply tag it as a famous actress in a random publicity still.
  Black and white publicity photo.

• 

  Undated, 1940s: Bandleader and comedian Ozzie Nelson dressed as a swami-style fortune teller. If this is from a film, we'd like to know the title. Otherwise, we will simply tag it as a famous actor in a random publicity still.
  Black and white publicity photo.

• 

  1942: "The Falcon Takes Over," starring George Sanders, Lynn Bari, James Gleason, and Allen Jenkins, and featuring Turhan Bey as the phony psychic Jules Amthor. The Falcon and reporter Ann Riordan try to solve a string of murders after an ex-wrestler, released from jail, goes looking for his girl friend. The story is based on the Raymond Chandler detective mystery "Farewell, My Lovely," which was also made into a film under its true title. Bey would again portray a crystal gazer, sans turban, in "The Amazing Mr. X" in 1948.
  Black and white still.
  Genre: Detective, Crime, Drama.

• 

  1950: "Bunco Squad," starring Robert Sterling as Det. Sgt. Steve Johnson, Joan Dixon as Grace Bradshaw, Ricardo Cortez as Tony Weldon a.k.a. Anthony Wells, Robert Bice as Drake a.k.a. The Swami, and featuring Dante the Magician (Harry August Jansen) as himself, demonstrating how stage magic tricks can be used by spiritual swindlers. "Cult Crooks Exposed!" is the exciting tag-line.
  Colour Poster.
  Genre: Crime, Film Noir.

The more of these vintage movie stills, lobby cards, and posters i see, the more of a critic of the prop departments of various studios i become. I can spot a real crystal, whether quartz (unlikely) or solid glass, and easily tell it from a hollow blown-glass sphere. I can tell an upside-down goldfish bowl, painted milky-white inside and lit up by a lamp, from a Murano glass sphere with swirls of encased air bubbles. It always looks a little tacky to see a character emoting over a hollow sphere. I want my crystal balls to have some weight to them, some gravitas.

• 

  1950: "Bunco Squad," starring Robert Sterling and Joan Dixon. A police detective goes after an organized group of fake spirit mediums who are trying to swindle a rich widow out of her fortune. His girlfriend, an actress, gets a job among the bogus mediums and helps him expose their racket, as portended in the tag-line, "Unmasking the Phoney Cult Ring!"
  Colour Lobby Card.
  Genre: Crime, Film Noir.

• 

  1950: "Bunco Squad," starring Robert Sterling and Joan Dixon. The fake Swami in this film was played by Robert Bice, who appeared in dozens of television shows in the 1950s and '60s. He is best known (to me, at least!) for his series of commercials for Greyhound Bus Lines as the bus driver who smiles, looks into the camera and says, "And leave the driving to us."
  Colour lobby card.
  Genre: Crime, Film Noir.

• 

  1951: "Ghost Chasers," starring Huntz Hall, Billy Benedict, and David Gorcey (The Bowery Boys). Crystal gazing could also be played for laughs. The prop department outdid themselves on this one, with a lightbulb on a cardboard box as the glowing sphere.
  Colour lobby card.
  Genre: Comedy.

• 

  1958: "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad," starring Kerwin Mathews as Sinbad and Torin Thatcher as Sokurah the Magician. With a crystal that looks like a big red Bakelite bowling ball, some of the mystery and awe of the gazing globe has been lost.
  Colour movie still.
  Genre: Fantasy.

I am also becoming aware of the wonders — and the failings — of various costume and set design departments at major, minor, independent, and poverty row film studios. A good swami outfit did not require a big budget back then. Asian brocades, Turkish rugs, and few feathers worked wonders. Nylon satin did not. What is most interesting is that the "exotic" costumes, fabrics, furnishings, and decor of the silent, pre-Code, and pre-War period were so much more authentic-looking than the shiny satin and bulky bathrobes of the Mid-Century years. Examining a still from even a cheap little silent production like "Rough House Rosie," starring Clara Bow, reveals rich details of imported Asian and Middle Eastern textiles, metal craft, and woodworking history that are virtually archival in their authenticity.

• 

  1960: "The Wizard of Baghdad," starring Dick Shawn as Genii Ali Mahmud. Promising "1001 Thrills and 1001 Perils," the crystal ball holds a vision of squirming harem girls, and offers us the opportunity to "RIDE the winged, talking horse with Genii Ali — avenger of evil! CHALLENGE the all-knowing oracle of the flaming cavern! STORM the gates of Baghdad and battle the wicked Sultan Jullmar! FLY the margic carpet … into wonders as yet undreamed of!"
  Colour movie poster.
  Genre: Comedy.

• 

  1960: "The Wizard of Baghdad," starring Dick Shawn as Genii Ali Mahmud. I have no idea what country this poster came from or what language it is in, but i am guessing it is Turkish. In any case, the movie seems to have gotten around.
  Colour movie poster.
  Genre: Comedy.

• 

  1961: "The Wizard of Baghdad" starring Dick Shawn as Genii Ali Mahmud, who has been turned into a mortal after his many failures and is sent to Baghdad, where he is given one last chance to prove himself worthy by helping a prince and princess fulfill a prophecy. Kind of like if Clarence the Angel Second Class from "It's a Wonderful Life" was a Djinn.
  Colour publicity still.
  Genre: Comedy.

• 

  1960: "The Wizard of Baghdad," starring Dick Shawn as Genii Ali Mahmud and John Van Dreelen as Sultan Jullnar. Filmed in the Land of Cheap Props, although the little painted table is made according to a familiar Moroccan furniture pattern.
  Black and white publicity still.
  Genre: Comedy.

From the start of the Hayes Code era until well into the hippie era, few movies except for "The Wizard of Oz" (which was based on a book from 1900) treated crystal gazing as anything but a scam. Low budget documentary-exposure-exploitation films that propagandized against crystallomancy took off after Mischa Auer played Swami Yomurda twice in the 1930s and Turhan Bey played two phony crystal gazers in the 1940s. Swami racketeers were in a comfortable rut in Hollywood by the early 1950s, when films like "Bunco Squad," told the story of how the Los Angeles Police Department had created an entire department assigned to investigating and arresting fortune tellers, palm readers, psychics, clairvoyants, and phony occultists.

• 

  2003: "Return of the King (Lord of the Rings)," starring Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn. Aragorn seizes the palantir.
  Black and white still.
  Genre: Fantasy.

• 

  2003: "Return of the King (Lord of the Rings)," starring Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn. The palantir is a dangerous magical item even for Aragorn.
  Colour movie still.
  Genre: Fantasy.

• 

  2004: "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," featuring Sitara Shah as Parvati Patil and Afshan Azad as Padma Patil. This series featured naturalistic crystal balls instead of huge props, and the director made a point of bringing the camera down to table-top level so that the crystal was visible.
  Colour movie still.
  Genre: Fantasy.

• 

  2004: "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," starring Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter and Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley. Here is another table-top-level view of a natural-sized crystal sphere, although its smoky-milky interior owes a lot to the old "light bulb in a goldfish bowl" crystal balls of the 1930s and '40s.
  Colour movie still.
  Genre: Fantasy.

The late 1950s was probably the low point for crystal gazing in film. Fraud was no longer the central plot-driver, but comedy had replaced mystery, and the days of intrigue and glorious costumes and elaborate props seemed to be gone forever. And then, suddenly, fantasy-themed films came back with a bang. From "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" and "Labyrinth" through "The Lord of the Rings" and the "Harry Potter " series, crystal balls were everywhere, and very rarely were they symbols of swindlers and fake yogis -- now they were the tools of authentic wizards and witches, both benevolent and sinister.

The Search Goes On

Here's a revised list of Missing Balls: These are films keyworded at IMDb as having Crystal Balls in them, but for which we have not yet located an image: Can you help us by supplying a screen shot of a crystal ball scene in any of these movies?

• 1918: "Betta, the Gipsy"
  • In Wales, a gypsy queen changes her sister's dead baby for one by the same father. The child grows up to marry her daughter.
  • Director: Charles Raymond | Stars: Marga Rubia Levy, Malvina Longfellow, George Foley, Edward Combermere

• 1922: "Haxan," a.k.a. "Witchcraft Through the Ages"
  • Fictionalized documentary showing the evolution of witchcraft, from its pagan roots to its confusion with hysteria in Eastern Europe.
  • Director: Benjamin Christensen | Stars: Benjamin Christensen, Elisabeth Christensen, Maren Pedersen, Clara Pontoppidan

• 1924: "The Thief of Bagdad"
  • A recalcitrant thief vies with a duplicitous Mongol ruler for the hand of a beautiful princess.
  • Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: Douglas Fairbanks, Julanne Johnston, Snitz Edwards, Charles Belcher

• 1930: "Honeymoon Zeppelin"
  • A jealous fiancee returns her engagement ring and flies off with another man on a blimp bound for Havana. On the voyage, his rival proposes, so the jilted fiance rushes to intercept the zeppelin by seaplane.
  • Director: Mack Sennett | Stars: Nick Stuart, Marjorie Beebe, Daphne Pollard, Edward Earle

• 1934: "The Moonstone" — Yandoo (John Davidson)
  • A valuable gem from India is stolen in an old dark mansion and it is up to Scotland Yard to find out who took it.
  • Director: Reginald Barker | Stars: David Manners, Phyllis Barry, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Jameson Thomas

• 1937: High Flyers
  • Two men running a carnival airplane ride are hired to fly to retrieve what they think are photos for a reporter; actually, they are retrieving stolen diamonds.
  • Director: Edward F. Cline | Stars: Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Lupe Velez, Marjorie Lord

• 1939: "A Star is Shorn"
  • Bumbling talent agent Danny Webb tries to help a struggling actress get work.
  • Director: Del Lord | Stars: Danny Webb, Mary Treen, Ethelreda Leopold, Eugene Anderson Jr.

• 1941: "Playmates"
  • Lulu Monahan, the press agent for John Barrymore, is attempting to get a sponsor for a radio program.
  • Director: David Butler | Stars: Kay Kyser, John Barrymore, Lupe Velez, Ginny Simms

• 1943: "No News Is Good News"
  • Robert Benchley ("The Answer Man") answers questions sent in by people.
  • Director: Will Jason | Stars: Robert Benchley, John B. Kennedy, Lon Poff

• 1946: "Aladin"
  • A Filipino adaptation of Aladdin and the Magic Lamp.
  • Director: Vicente Salumbides | Stars: Norma Blancaflor, Jaime de la Rosa, Naty Bernardo, Salvador Zaragoza

• 1947: "Le Tempestaire"
  • In a village in Brittany, a worried young maid asks for help from a mysterious old man and his magical crystal ball in order to calm down the rough seas.
  • Director: Jean Epstein

• 1955: "Black Cats and Broomsticks"
  • An RKO-Pathe Screenliner short subject. Superstitions are examined in the context of mid-20th century America. Walking under ladders, spilt salt, stepping on cracks, haunted houses, voodoo dolls, and such illustrate the widespread belief in the supernatural.
  • Director: Larry O'Reilly | Star: Peter Roberts

• 1955: "A Time to Kill"
  • In the grounds of a dark, deserted mansion, a blackmailer collects money from his victim.
  • Director: Larry O'Reilly | Star: Peter Roberts

• 1957: "The End of the Fortune-Teller" ("Konec Jasnovidce")
  • Private clairvoyant Mathias Scibolini carries out his work with honesty and to the full satisfaction of his clients.
  • Directors: Ján Rohác, Vladimír Svitácek | Stars: Milos Kopecký, Frantisek Filipovský, Jirina Bohdalová, Vladimír Mensík

See Also

Lovely Ladies and Their Little Balls

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catherine yronwode
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Special thanks to my dear husband and creative partner nagasiva yronwode for illustrations, scans, and clean-ups.

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