Fakeers of the East Review: A Dusty, Cool Time Capsule

If you have about ten minutes to spare and love old, dusty footage of guys doing street magic, then yes, Fakeers of the East is absolutely worth your time today. But if you want a real story with characters, or if jumpy black-and-white film makes your eyes hurt, you will probably hate it. 🎥

This is part of the old Vagabond Adventure Series. I think the writer, Russell Spaulding, basically just wanted an excuse to travel the world with a camera and call it work.

The print of this movie is incredibly dirty. There are scratches and little dust bunnies dancing all over the screen, but honestly, *that is half the fun* of watching these things.

The first magician we see does the classic cup and balls trick. He moves his hands so fast they just look like a blurry smudge on the old film.

There is a kid sitting in the background who looks totally bored out of his mind. He has probably watched this same trick five hundred times this week. 🥱

A few of these tricks are clearly done using sneaky camera edits. The magician covers a basket with a cloth, the camera cuts, and suddenly a kid is squeezed inside it.

It is not exactly the high-budget circus illusion stuff you see in The Magic Flame, but it has a weird charm anyway.

Some weird details I noticed:

• One guy in the crowd has a lopsided turban and just stares directly into the camera lens the entire time. He looks very confused by the camera.
• There is a stray dog sleeping in the dirt who does not move a single inch, even when people start clapping.
• The music track on the version I found was a loud, looping sitar song that got very annoying after two minutes. I ended up muting it.

Is this as funny or entertaining as something like Three Chumps Ahead? No, not really. It is not trying to be a comedy.

The snake charmer scene is a bit sad to watch. The cobra looks extremely tired and barely wants to lift its head up.

The magician keeps tapping its tail to make it look angry for the camera, probably because Spaulding told him to make it look more dangerous for the American audience.

And then the movie just ends. No big final trick, no credits, just a quick fade to black.

It is a strange, cool little slice of life from a century ago. If you like history, give it a quick look.