Directed by Joseph McGrath • 1969 • United Kingdom
Starring Peter Sellers, Ringo Starr, John Cleese
Adapted by Terry Southern from his own novel, this wild satire of capitalism run amok stars Peter Sellers as a bored billionaire who, along with the street vagrant (Ringo Starr) he adopts as his son, sets out to prove his theory that people will do anything for money through a series of increasingly outrageous “practical jokes” that reveal the essential greed of human beings. A kaleidoscopic tour through swinging-sixties London featuring appearances by everyone from Monty Python members John Cleese and Graham Chapman to Raquel Welch and Christopher Lee (plus an uncredited Yul Brynner in drag), THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN stands as one of the most unrelentingly bonkers, out-there comedies of the era.