It's so British, and so 60s, that it's a bit tough to penetrate the intent, but the execution is hilarious throughout. Peter Sellers is Sir Guy Grand, a wacky zillionaire who enlists adopted son Youngman Grand (Ringo Starr, actually a layabout homeless guy Sellers meets in the park) in perpetrating a series of high-concept pranks to illustrate just how far people will go for a bit of cash. The pranks are frequently riotous, including a ritzy yacht cruise interrupted by gay strippers and a vampire (?) (no less than Christopher Lee himself); a tourist train in which Asian men are subtly replaced by other Asian men and Nazis search the cars; and ultimately a stunt in which people are invited to grab as much free money as they can get … by wading chest-deep through a tank filled with excrement. It's all very "Candid Camera," but most of the jokes are played on stuffy old white folks, and usually, only Sellers and Starr are in on the joke. One great bit involves John Cleese as a snooty art dealer who sells the Grands a rare portrait, only to watch them immediately slice out the nose; another has Spike Milligan as a traffic cop who agrees to eat his ticket-book. There is no particular continuity to it, and several scenes (including a rather inscrutable one with Raquel Welch as a dominatrix) are so frantic and cluttered that they provoke more of a sense of bemusement than outright laughter. And while the satirical targets now seem quaintly non-taboos, The Magic Christian still displays a bit of an edge. It's an entertaining ride atop one of those gigantic old bicycles with the huge front wheel … showy, smarmy, and a bit wobbly, but undeniably funny in a privately satisfying way.
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