At a society party hosted by Ada Bernard, The Great LaGagge, a mystic, performs before a skeptical group. Elliot Cole, a newspaperman, refuses to participate, while his girl friend, heiress Martha Morgan, is shocked to see the answer to her question in the handwriting of her recently deceased mother. After the party, Elliot invites Martha to a seance being held by Mme. Harry Houdini on the tenth anniversary of her husband’s death. At the Houdini home, Mme. Houdini tells her maid that they were unable to contact her husband, and therefore she has decided that all mystics are fakes. With Mme. Houdini’s renouncement dominating the headlines, The Great LaGagge and his ex-convict assistant Wilson begin to feel the heat. When one of LaGagge’s clients dies of a heart attack at a seance, the two decide to leave town. Ada brings Martha to LaGagge, who eyes both her beauty and her wealth. Elliot warns Martha about LaGagge, but she refuses to speak to him after his paper does an unflattering story about her. Just as Inspector Burke, spurred on by Elliot, comes to arrest LaGagge, the mystic and company leave for Egypt. There, LaGagge pretends to be an Egyptian prophet and tells Martha that she must give $25,000 to build a temple for the Goddess Isis. Ada questions the prophet’s resemblance to LaGagge, but is told that all prophets project the same aura. Wilson becomes worried that LaGagge is falling in love with Martha, but LaGagge says the secret is having the subject fall in love with him, not vice versa. Elliot arrives in Egypt and the group is forced again to flee for India. LaGagge arranges for Elliot to be falsely arrested and sets himself up as “The Holy Prophet of the Ganges.” LaGagge, now in love with Martha, decides to use his “block of ice” trick to “transmigrate” himself from the prophet to LeGagge. When Ada finds Martha gone, she runs into the freed Elliot, and tells him that LaGagge is truly a fake, though she still loves him. When Elliot goes to see the “Holy Prophet,” he tears off the fake wig and beard, exposing LaGagge. LaGagge, with the help of Wilson, seals Elliot in the block of ice and has him dumped into the river. LaGagge finally holds the seance for Martha, bringing her mother back from the dead, but upon hearing her “mother” speak, Martha finally realizes the mystic is a fake, as her mother was a mute. Elliot returns and takes Martha away. LaGagge proclaims his love to Martha and attempts to return the $25,000 to her, only to be killed by Wilson. Back at home, the newspapers tell of Wilson’s arrest for LaGagge’s murder, as Elliot and Martha celebrate their marriage with Inspector Burke and Mme. Houdini, who proclaims once again the falseness of all mystics. More on IMDB or Mubi
Watch The Mystic Circle Murder aka Religious Racketeers (1938)
