YMMV / The Mad Magician

• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Ross Ormond crosses it in his first scene when he disrupts Don Gallico's premiere performance, using a previous contract as his excuse. As Gallico and Lieutenant Bruce try to fight the C&D in a court of law, Ormond cements it when he marries Gallico's wife, triggering Gallico's Start of Darkness.
  • Gallico is a subversion, as he's only committing murders because he's compelled to by a variety of circumstances; however, it becomes clear by the end of the film (and Lieutenant Bruce even admits as much) that he's losing his mind. As for the four murder attempts he makes (three of which are successful):
    • He beheads Ormond with his buzzsaw illusion after the whole "wife theft" thing is revealed to him. It would've ended there, except:
    • His wife starts to figure out the truth about what had happened to Ormond, having started to become as much of a bitch as he was in life, so Gallico, disguised as Ormond, asphyxiates her and pins it on Ormond.
    • Then his archrival, the Great Rinaldi, puts two and two together, using what he knew about his employer, and blackmails Gallico into letting him use his new illusion, which involves a fiery furnace, for his own show. It works just as well for the conceited bastard as you would expect.
    • The closest Gallico gets to the MEH is when he tries to burn Bruce alive in the furnace. At this point, he admits that he just can't stop killing and that he would rather be electrocuted for his crimes than locked up in an insane asylum. This is especially shocking because Bruce is his only intended victim who hasn't wronged him in any way, except by trying to get his fingerprints.