The Magic Christian (film) The Magic Christian (film) The Magic Christian is a 1969 British satirical black comedy film directed by Joseph McGrath and starring Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr, with appearances by John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Raquel Welch, Spike Milligan, Christopher Lee, Richard Attenborough and Roman Polanski. It was loosely adapted from the 1959 comic novel of the same name by American author Terry Southern, who co-wrote the screenplay adaptation with McGrath. Songs by Badfinger, written by Paul McCartney, were featured on the soundtrack. The official soundtrack album featured other music as well; Badfinger released an album with its songs for the film,
The Magic Christian (film) film features the unsuccessful transplant of a black person's head onto a white person's body. Passengers start noticing, through the ship's closed-circuit television, that their captain (Wilfrid Hyde-White) is in a drunken stupor and gets carted off by a gorilla. In a crescendo of panic, the guests try to abandon ship. A group of them, shown the way by Youngman Grand, instead reach the machine-room. There, the Priestess of the Whip (Raquel Welch), assisted by two topless drummers, commands more than a hundred slave girls. They are naked except for loincloths. Rowing five to an oar, their wrists are manacled