Rough Magic ** (1995, Bridget Fonda, Russell Crowe, Jim Broadbent) – Classic Movie Review 6847

Co-writer/ director Clare Peploe’s odd 1995 comedy film reworking of a vintage 1944 thriller novel by expert James Hadley Chase called Miss Shumway Waves a Wand is an extremely well crafted, interesting movie but a bit of a failed attempt at something different.

You would like it to succeed, though you cannot put your hand on heart and say it does, but on the way to lose at the finishing line it does catch the eye and the attention.

Bridget Fonda is very appealing as Myra Shumway, a 1950s apprentice magician who flees to Mexico to evade her rich politician fiancé and find a famed magic teacher. But her tracks are dogged by the fiancé’s hired detective (Russell Crowe), who falls for her.

Rough Magic runs 104 minutes, is made by Recorded Picture Company and UGC, is distributed by Goldwyn Films, is written by Robert Mundi, Clare Peploe and William Brookfield, shot in Technicolor by Yves Attal, John J Campbell and Declan Baldwin, produced by Laurie Parker, and scored by Richard Hartley.

Also in the cast are Jim Broadbent as Doc Ansell, Kenneth Mars as Magician, D W Moffett as Cliff Wyatt, Paul Rodriguez as Diego, Andy Romano, Richard Schiff, Euva Anderson and Michael Ensign.

A French-British co-production, it was released in France on August 30, 1995 and grossed only $171,979 on its belated release in the United States on May 30, 1997, with a total worldwide box office of $598,981.

It was shot in Michoacán, Mexico, Tikal, Guatemala and Los Angeles.

Miss Shumway Waves a Wand was previously filmed by director Jean Jabely as a 1962 French-Argentine film Une Blonde Comme ça (1962).

Peploe co-wrote the 1970 cult film Zabriskie Point with director Michelangelo Antonioni. Her three features are High Season (1987), Rough Magic (1995) and The Triumph of Love (2001). She is a frequent collaborator with Bernardo Bertolucci, her husband since 1979.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6847

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