User Reviews

Lou Bundles was once a very famous illusionist. He is still performing, but often his tricks don't work any more. He can't accept that he is getting too old for the job. He is about to be fired, but then he buys a new deck of cards. They are actually rather old; he doesn't want to use modern plastic cards any longer (he blames them for his messed up card-tricks). His new old cards seem to have a life of their own, beginning to show some tricks of which Lou himself doesn't know how they work. The cards help him to be successful again. But they are old, like Lou, and it seems they are getting tired, too...

I liked this story, especially the ending (I don't want to spoil it, so I won't say why). I liked the acting, too, especially Sid Caesar as the protagonist of the story. And I think the special effects are really good for an 80s TV series. However, I liked some other episodes better because they were funnier, had more surprises or were more amazing, so I haven't given this one as many points as I have given the others.

Sid Caesar is appropriately cast as old time magician Lou Bundles in this whimsical story that has him discovering an old deck of cards that suddenly revive his moribund act at Murray's (Leo Rossi) Magic Castle. Lou's only problem is he doesn't know how the card tricks work, as they seem to have a mind of their own. He can direct them to a certain extent, as in the marriage of the King and Queen of Hearts, but in the privacy of his own room, he can't even get them to shuffle. In effect, the cards are out of his control, perhaps a metaphor for the inability to stop Father Time from taking it's measure from the best of performers. When Lou finally comes to that realization, he and his act go out in style with a message to the night club patrons at the Magic Castle. After that, it's let the cards fall where they may.