{ "id": "epp4cx7zgn", "slug": "the-magus-1968-film", "title": "The Magus (1968 film)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1960s-films", "label": "1960s films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1960s-films" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1960s-films", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000: 1960s films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1960s-films", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1960s-films", "label": "1960s films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1960s-films" } ] } ], "excerpt": "The Magus (1968) is a British film directed by Guy Green from John Fowles's screenplay of his own 1966 novel, starring Michael Caine, Anthony Quinn, Candice Bergen, and Anna Karina; a critical failure disowned by its author.", "snippet": "The Magus (1968) is a British film directed by Guy Green from John Fowles's screenplay of his own 1966 novel, starring Michael Caine, Anthony Quinn, Candice Bergen, and Anna Karina; a critical failure disowned by its author.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1960s-films", "markdown": "# The Magus (1968 film)\n\n*The Magus* is a 1968 British fantasy-drama film directed by Guy Green, adapted by [John Fowles](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-fowles) from his own 1966 novel of the same name, in which a young English teacher on a Greek island falls under the influence of a wealthy, enigmatic magician who draws him into elaborate psychological games. It stars [Michael Caine](https://www.edgepedia.org/michael-caine) as Nicholas Urfe, Anthony Quinn as Maurice Conchis, Candice Bergen as Lily, and [Anna Karina](https://www.edgepedia.org/anna-karina) as Anne.[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/9bf6eed2-5c79-5bd4-b1dc-64e87e63495d/the-magus) • [2](https://moriareviews.com/fantasy/magus-1968.htm) The film was a critical failure on release, disowned in large part by its own author and stars, and it has since been discussed mainly as a cautionary example of adapting a layered, self-reflexive novel for the screen.[3](https://www.fowlesbooks.com/the-magus-miniseries-to-the-screen-how-to-do-it-right-this-time/)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director / writer | Guy Green; screenplay by John Fowles from his 1966 novel[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/9bf6eed2-5c79-5bd4-b1dc-64e87e63495d/the-magus) |\n| Producers / company | John Kohn and Jud Kinberg; Blazer Films[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/9bf6eed2-5c79-5bd4-b1dc-64e87e63495d/the-magus) • [2](https://moriareviews.com/fantasy/magus-1968.htm) |\n| Lead cast | Michael Caine (Nicholas Urfe), Anthony Quinn (Maurice Conchis), Candice Bergen (Lily), Anna Karina (Anne)[2](https://moriareviews.com/fantasy/magus-1968.htm) |\n| Runtime | About 116–117 minutes[4](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/10743) |\n| Filming | Summer 1967 on Majorca, Spain, after the 1967 Greek coup made filming in Greece unattractive[5](https://visitcalvia.org/en/film-the-magus/) |\n| Reception | 50% Tomatometer (6 reviews) and 48% Popcornmeter on Rotten Tomatoes[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1166474-magus) |\n| Author's verdict | Fowles called it \"a disaster all the way down the line\"[3](https://www.fowlesbooks.com/the-magus-miniseries-to-the-screen-how-to-do-it-right-this-time/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nNicholas Urfe, an English teacher, takes a post on the fictional Greek island of Phraxos partly to get away from his relationship with his girlfriend. There he meets Maurice Conchis, a reclusive, wealthy figure who draws him into a series of games and elaborate staged charades. Nicholas becomes attracted to Conchis's companion Lily Montgomery, who gives shifting accounts of herself: Conchis's love from 1915 who still believes it is World War I, a psychiatric patient under Conchis's care, and an actress hired as part of the charades.[2](https://moriareviews.com/fantasy/magus-1968.htm) These psychological games, a pursuit Fowles dubbed the \"godgame,\" drop allusions to [W. H. Auden](https://www.edgepedia.org/w-h-auden), [T. S. Eliot](https://www.edgepedia.org/t-s-eliot), [Fra Angelico](https://www.edgepedia.org/fra-angelico), the Orpheus and Odysseus myths, and William Empson's *The Seven Types of Ambiguity*.[4](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/10743) The film ends with the game abruptly concluded and wrapped up on a quick upbeat note, with Caine's character learning that Anne is alive, followed by a closing quote from T. S. Eliot.[2](https://moriareviews.com/fantasy/magus-1968.htm)\n\n## Source novel and screenplay\n\nThe film adapts Fowles's second published novel, *[The Magus](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-magus-novel)*, which the Hellenic-set story drew from the author's own experience teaching English on the Greek island of Spetses in the 1950s.[2](https://moriareviews.com/fantasy/magus-1968.htm) Fowles wrote the screenplay himself and has a cameo in the finished film.[7](https://www.fowlesbooks.com/collecting-john-fowles/) The novel is long and structurally intricate; reviewers of the film noted that only about half of the book is actually used, and a scholarly comparison describes the two-hour film as unable to match the complexity of the 600-page novel's repeated stripping and rebuilding of the protagonist's understanding.[8](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-magus) • [9](https://etd.ohiolink.edu/acprod/odb_etd/ws/send_file/send?accession=osu1487240601043667&disposition=inline)\n\n## Production and locations\n\nAlthough the novel is set in the Greek archipelago, principal photography took place in the summer of 1967 on the coast of Calvià, Majorca, after the \"Coup of the Colonels\" in 1967 made the political climate in Greece unstable; the coves of Portals Vells became known as Playa del Mago after the shoot.[5](https://visitcalvia.org/en/film-the-magus/) Renata Adler's New York Times review likewise noted the film was shot in Majorca without the Greek crisis in mind.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1166474-magus) The Hellenic Film Commission nonetheless lists Spetses among the production's filming locations.[10](https://filmcommission.gr/el/productions/the-magus/) The crew included cinematographer [Billy Williams](https://www.edgepedia.org/billy-williams), composer John Dankworth, and production designer Don Ashton.[2](https://moriareviews.com/fantasy/magus-1968.htm) 20th Century Fox released the film in 1968.[7](https://www.fowlesbooks.com/collecting-john-fowles/)\n\n## Reception\n\n**Contemporary and later reviews were largely negative.** Variety called it \"esoteric, talky, slowly-developing, sensitively-executed, and somewhat dull\"; Time Out judged it \"a muddled disaster\" that seemed \"pretentious, insubstantial, and sometimes barely comprehensible\" on film.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1166474-magus) • [8](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-magus) On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 50% Tomatometer from six critics and a 48% Popcornmeter audience score.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1166474-magus) [Paul Schrader](https://www.edgepedia.org/paul-schrader), writing in the Los Angeles Free Press, attributed its failure both to director Guy Green's lack of intuition and precision and to Fowles's directly transcribed literary allusions.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1166474-magus)\n\nThe people who made it were among its harshest judges. Michael Caine considered it one of the worst films he had been involved in \"because no one knew what it was all about.\" [Candice Bergen](https://www.edgepedia.org/candice-bergen) said, \"I didn't know what to do and nobody told me. I couldn't put together the semblance of a performance.\" Fowles described the film as \"a disaster all the way down the line,\" and [Woody Allen](https://www.edgepedia.org/woody-allen) reportedly remarked that, given the chance to relive his life, he would change only one thing: he would skip the screen adaptation of *The Magus*.[3](https://www.fowlesbooks.com/the-magus-miniseries-to-the-screen-how-to-do-it-right-this-time/) Over ten years after the film's release, Bergen told a British interviewer that the novel had been her favorite book and that Fowles's script had been one of the two best screenplays she had ever read, a judgment at odds with her account of the shoot.[11](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063260/trivia/)\n\n## Legacy\n\nDespite its reputation, the film has acquired something of a cult status.[7](https://www.fowlesbooks.com/collecting-john-fowles/) So much of the 1997 [Michael Douglas](https://www.edgepedia.org/michael-douglas) film *The Game* took its plot points and themes from the story that Fowles weighed legal action against its producers over copyright infringement.[7](https://www.fowlesbooks.com/collecting-john-fowles/) Commentators have repeatedly argued that the material suits a television miniseries better than a feature; the rights were sold in 2016 to [Sam Mendes](https://www.edgepedia.org/sam-mendes) and his Neal Street Productions, which announced plans for a miniseries adaptation.[3](https://www.fowlesbooks.com/the-magus-miniseries-to-the-screen-how-to-do-it-right-this-time/) The Museum of Modern Art screened the film in 2025 as part of a Michael Caine retrospective, describing it as one of those \"enjoyably pretentious European art films\" made with an all-star cast on a sun-baked Greek island that was actually Majorca.[4](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/10743)\n\n## References\n\n1. [The Magus (1968), British Film Institute](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/9bf6eed2-5c79-5bd4-b1dc-64e87e63495d/the-magus)\n2. [The Magus (1968), Moria: The Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Film Review](https://moriareviews.com/fantasy/magus-1968.htm)\n3. [Bringing The Magus to the Screen — How to Do It Right This Time, FowlesBooks.com](https://www.fowlesbooks.com/the-magus-miniseries-to-the-screen-how-to-do-it-right-this-time/)\n4. [The Magus. 1968. Directed by Guy Green, MoMA](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/10743)\n5. [Film The Magus, Visit Calvià](https://visitcalvia.org/en/film-the-magus/)\n6. [The Magus (1968), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1166474-magus)\n7. [Collecting John Fowles, FowlesBooks.com](https://www.fowlesbooks.com/collecting-john-fowles/)\n8. [The Magus, Time Out](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-magus)\n9. [ProQuest Dissertations: OhioLINK thesis on the film adaptation of The Magus](https://etd.ohiolink.edu/acprod/odb_etd/ws/send_file/send?accession=osu1487240601043667&disposition=inline)\n10. [The Magus, Hellenic Film Commission](https://filmcommission.gr/el/productions/the-magus/)\n11. [The Magus (1968) Trivia, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063260/trivia/)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 1960s films*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-magus-1968-film", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-magus-1968-film.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"The Magus (1968 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-magus-1968-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[The Magus (1968 film)](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-magus-1968-film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/the-magus-1968-film](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-magus-1968-film). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"The Magus (1968 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-magus-1968-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "The Magus is a British film directed by Guy Green from John Fowles's screenplay of his own 1966 novel, starring Michael Caine, Anthony Quinn, Candice Bergen, and Anna Karina; a critical failure disowned by its author." }