The Secret of Magic
The Secrets of Masonic Washington: A Guidebook to Signs, Symbols, and Ceremonies at the Origin of America's Capital James Wasserman on Amazon.com.FREE. shipping on qualifying offers. A fully illustrated guide to the Masonic origins and present-day Masonic sites of Washington, D.C. Provides a walking tour of the Masonic sites and symbols of the city. Explores the critical role. All the Secrets of Magic Revealed exposes the hidden secrets of the century's greatest magicians, including Harry Houdini, The Amazing Kreskin, Siegfried and Roy, and many others. The cloth edition, with 20,000 sold, made headliens as the tell all magic book. Learn how the great ones performed their grandest illusions. 30 illustrations.
- Author: Deborah Johnson
- Publisher: Penguin
- ISBN: 0698161602
- Category: Fiction
- Page: 416
- View: 5974
Winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction 'If you liked The Help, you'll love this one!'--EW.com In a novel that “brings authentic history to light,”* a young female attorney from New York City attempts the impossible in 1946: attaining justice for a black man in the Deep South. Regina Robichard works for Thurgood Marshall, who receives an unusual letter asking the NAACP to investigate the murder of a returning black war hero. It is signed by M. P. Calhoun, the most reclusive author in the country. As a child, Regina was captivated by Calhoun’s The Secret of Magic, a novel in which white and black children played together in a magical forest. The book was a sensation, featured on the cover of Time magazine, and banned more than any other book in the South. And then M.P. Calhoun disappeared. With Thurgood’s permission, Regina heads down to Mississippi to find Calhoun and investigate the case. But as she navigates the muddy waters of racism, relationships, and her own tragic past, she finds that nothing in the South is as it seems. Named one of four titles on the shortlist for this year’s Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, awarded by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation READERS GUIDE INCLUDED *Augusta Trobaugh From the Trade Paperback edition.
The Great Buck Howard | |
---|---|
Directed by | Sean McGinly |
Produced by | Tom Hanks Rita Wilson Gary Goetzman |
Written by | Sean McGinly |
Starring | John Malkovich Colin Hanks Emily Blunt Ricky Jay Griffin Dunne Steve Zahn Tom Hanks |
Music by | Blake Neely |
Cinematography | Tak Fujimoto |
Edited by | Myron I. Kerstein |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Magnolia Pictures |
Release date |
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90 minutes | |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $1,000,000.[2] |
The Great Buck Howard is a 2008 American comedy-drama film directed by Sean McGinly that stars Colin Hanks and John Malkovich. Tom Hanks also appears as the father of his real-life son's character. The character Buck Howard is inspired by the mentalistThe Amazing Kreskin, whose popularity was at its height in the 1970s. The film premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 2008.[3] It is the first Walden Media film to be distributed by Magnolia Pictures.
Plot summary[edit]
![The The](/uploads/1/2/5/8/125845549/979892411.jpg)
Troy Gable (Colin Hanks) defies his father (Tom Hanks) and leaves law school to pursue his dream of becoming a writer in Los Angeles. To support himself, he takes a job as a road manager for 'The Great' Buck Howard (John Malkovich), a fading mentalist. Troy comes to enjoy traveling with Buck to performances in smaller venues such as Bakersfield and Akron. In particular, Troy sincerely admires Buck's signature trick: having someone in the audience hide his fee for that night's performance, which he then unfailingly discovers. (Kreskin is said to have actually performed this feat 6,000 times, only failing to find the money nine times.)[4]
A reluctant publicist, Valerie Brennan (Emily Blunt), is sent to join them in Cincinnati as a replacement for a more senior colleague to promote Buck's still secret attempt to resurrect his career. Valerie is disgusted by Buck's verbal abuse towards her and Troy, with whom she becomes romantically involved. Buck reveals that his comeback will involve putting 'hundreds' of people (actually only a few dozen) to sleep and then awakening them as if from the dead. The trick works, but despite a large press turnout, no one is there to record the act, since the news media is called away at the last second to cover a car accident involving Jerry Springer. Furious, Buck unfairly blames the mishap on Troy and Valerie, and then faints from exhaustion. In the hospital, Buck and Troy discover that the media absence actually worked in Buck's favor, as rumors reported by the news media exaggerate the scope of Buck's act; as a result, Buck returns to the limelight as a retro-'hip' phenomenon. He appears on television shows such as those of Jon Stewart, Regis Philbin, Conan O'Brien, and more. Buck is reunited with his estranged friend, George Takei, who sings 'What the World Needs Now'.
Buck finally gets the call he has been waiting for: To perform once again on The Tonight Show. He previously had performed with Johnny Carson 61 times during the height of his career, but never since the show has been hosted by Jay Leno. Buck is bumped by Tom Arnold, who has too much material and uses up Buck's time. Buck refuses an immediate offer to come back and appear on The Tonight Show the following week, but agrees to receive an offer to headline a date in Las Vegas. When the limelight on Buck dims once more after he fails to find his money for the first time ever during his Las Vegas premiere, Troy leaves him and through Valerie's connections, lands a job with a celebrated TV writer (Griffin Dunne). After some time, Troy sees from an ad in the paper that Buck is doing his show again in Bakersfield. Buck is clearly back where he feels most comfortable, and once again successfully performs his signature trick, leaving Troy to wonder whether Buck doesn't have some mysterious talent after all.
Cast[edit]
- John Malkovich as Buck Howard
- Colin Hanks as Troy Gable
- Emily Blunt as Valerie Brennan
- Ricky Jay as Gil Bellamy
- Steve Zahn as Kenny the limo driver
- Tom Hanks as Mr. Gable
- Griffin Dunne as Johnathan Finerman
- Matthew Gray Gubler as Russell
- Debra Monk as Doreen
- Adam Scott as Alan Berkman
- Patrick Fischler as Michael Perry
- Wallace Langham as Dan Green
- Don Most (aka 'Donny Most') as Tonight Show Producer
- Nathan Hartley as Teenager
- Wendy Worthington as Oregon woman
- Jack Carter (comedian) as grateful old performer
- Dave Attell as Comedian
- Portraying themselves
Reception[edit]
The Great Buck Howard received generally positive reviews. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 72% of critics gave it positive reviews based on 88 reviews, the consensus being 'By turns fluffy and biting, this show biz comedy is given girth by comic heavyweight John Malkovich and made all the more charming by Emily Blunt.'[5] The film was released to the general public on March 20, 2009, grossing $115,004 in the opening weekend. It was run in 55 theaters, equaling to an average of $2,091 per theater. The worldwide gross stands at $900,689.[2]
References[edit]
- ^Play dates for The Great Buck Howard at Magnolia Pictures
- ^ abhttp://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=greatbuckhoward.htm
- ^'2008 Sundance Film Festival Announces Films in Competition'(PDF). November 11, 2007. Archived from the original(pdf) on June 25, 2008. Retrieved December 20, 2007.
- ^United Airlines in-flight entertainment guide, August 2009.
- ^'The Great Buck Howard'. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved August 27, 2009.
External links[edit]
- The Great Buck Howard on IMDb
- The Great Buck Howard at AllMovie
- The Great Buck Howard at Box Office Mojo
- The Great Buck Howard at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Great Buck Howard at Magnolia Pictures
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