CARTER BEATS THE DEVIL

A passion for magic was rampant in the 1920s, and vaudeville offered a stage for miraculous illusions, none finer than those of Charles Carter--Carterthe Great. This delightfully improbable plot brims with the quirky details of a magician's life and rich period detail. Actor/ director Stan Tucci might be starring in one of his own movies filled with madcap antics and an array of colorful characters. Yet, playing all the parts eludes him--his performance here is uneven. Tucci seems to give some characters, like the lovely blind Phoebe, his creative attention, yet rushes past others. Harry Houdini pops in and President Warren G. Harding assists magician Carter in an illusion just before his death. It's all good fun, but Tucci could have have paid more attention to his storytelling. R.F.W. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/ MAR 02]