Directed by:
Tod BrowningScreenplay:
Waldemar YoungCinematography:
Ira H. MorganCast:
Aileen Pringle, Conway Tearle, Mitchell Lewis, David Torrence, Gladys Hulette, DeWitt JenningsPlots(1)
A fantastically atmospheric but rarely seen missing link in the development of Tod Browning’s artistry, set amid his favored milieu of shadowy sideshows and clever criminals, The Mystic provides a striking showcase for silent-era diva Aileen Pringle, who sports a series of memorably outré looks (courtesy of art-deco designer Erté) as Zara, a phony psychic in a Hungarian carnival who, under the guidance of a Svengali-like con man (Conway Tearle), crashes—and proceeds to swindle—American high society. Browning’s fascination with the weird is on full display in the eerie séance sequences, while his subversive moral ambiguity extends surprising sympathy to even the most seemingly irredeemable of antiheroes. (Criterion)
(more)Cast
Aileen Pringle
USA
Best movies:
Laura (1944)
The Mystic (1925)
They Died with Their Boots On (1941)
Conway Tearle
USA
Best movies:
The Mystic (1925)
Romeo and Juliet (1936)
Bella Donna (1923)
Mitchell Lewis
USA
Best movies:
The Thin Man Goes Home (1945)
The Stratton Story (1949)
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925)
David Torrence
UK
Best movies:
City Girl (1930)
Captain Blood (1935)
Lost Horizon (1937)
Gladys Hulette
USA
Best movies:
The Mystic (1925)
Le Cheval de fer (1924)
DeWitt Jennings
USA
Best movies:
The Big Trail (1930)
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
The Mystic (1925)