The Mystic

1925 Drama 70 minutes Directed by Tod Browning

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About The Mystic

At a Hungarian carnival, Zara works a mystic act with her father Zazarack and the knife-thrower Anton. The American crook Michael Nash pays them to bring the act to New York. There, Zara sits for rich clients while Nash and Anton fake the effects, and they close in on the heiress Doris Merrick and her guardian Bradshaw. Nash loses his nerve, returns Doris's valuables, and takes the blame. The others are sent back to Hungary. Zara and Nash meet again at a gypsy campfire.

Cast & crew

More about The Mystic

Tod Browning directed. He wrote the story, and Waldemar Young wrote the scenario. Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg produced. Frank Sullivan edited. Cedric Gibbons and Hervey Libbert did the settings. Aileen Pringle's gowns are by Erté. The negative is 6,147 feet, in seven reels.

Themes

  • A carnival act sold to New York
  • A séance aimed at an heiress
  • The crook returns the jewels
  • Zara
  • Michael Nash
  • séance
  • Doris Merrick
  • Hungary
  • Erté

Making

Nash and Anton run the séance effects from behind the curtain while a police chief sits in the room.

Reviews

David Mermelstein wrote about the film in The Wall Street Journal on October 23, 2023, in a piece on the Criterion set of Browning silents.

Look

Ira H. Morgan shot the Hungarian carnival and the New York séance.

Music

Silent on first release. Dean Hurley wrote a score for the 2023 Criterion edition.

Preservation

A print exists. Criterion included it in Tod Browning's Sideshow Shockers (2023).

Notes

  • New York opening: August 30, 1925. General release: September 27, 1925.
  • Aileen Pringle plays Zara. Conway Tearle plays Michael Nash. Mitchell Lewis plays Zazarack. Robert Ober plays Anton.
  • Gladys Hulette plays Doris Merrick. David Torrence plays Bradshaw. DeWitt Jennings plays the police inspector.
  • It is the only one of Browning's nine MGM silents from 1925 to 1929 that does not star Lon Chaney.
  • A carnival sign asks, in Hungarian, whether the dead will come back.
  • The 2023 Criterion edition uses a new score by Dean Hurley.

Scenes

  • Nash steps into the wagon and offers the troupe America.
  • Doris hands over her valuables after a private sitting.
  • Zara sees Nash coming back to the campfire in Hungary.

Also available

  • Wikimedia Commons (The Mystic (1925) by Tod Browning.webm)
  • Criterion Collection (Tod Browning's Sideshow Shockers, 2023)

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