For inspiration: "Cast A Deadly Spell"

[sniderman]

One of my favorite films is "Cast a Deadly Spell." This 1991 made-for-HBO film is a combination of 1940s detective film noir and "magic is commonplace" mentality, and it just strikes me as a perfect setting for the Majus games *I* wanna run.

Never heard of the movie? You're in luck as the entire film has been posted to YouTube.

Enjoy! (Click me!)

Howard Phillips Lovecraft (Fred Ward) is a private detective living in an alternative America in the 1940's where creatures thought fictional coexist with humans in a society where magic is real and practiced on a constant basis. Short on money, Lovecraft accepts a job from millionaire Amos Hacksaw (David Warner) to recover an ancient tome called the Necronomicon. Unbeknownst to Lovecraft he has stepped into a complex web of lies, deceit and murder. He is also mankind's last hope at repelling an ancient evil that if unleashed will mean the end of civilization.

(There was a sequel titled "Witch Hunt" starring Dennis Hopper as Lovecraft, but I haven't been able to find it just yet...)

[mkotschi]

Absolutely, love this movie as well. Too bad occult noir seems to be such an unexplored genre.
Another nifty one I really like is The Dead Don't Die from 1975.

Saw Witch Hunt the sequel and I can't say it is nearly as cool as Cast A deadly Spell, that despite the presence of Dennis Hopper

[bighara]

I never saw all of it, but I did catch a few bits and pieces back in the day (thanks for YouTube link). When I first read the blurb for MAJUS, Hopper's character popped into my mind. ("With magic, there's always a price.")

It actually jibes a bit with some ideas I've noodling about with for a late 40s – early 50's campaign, with postwar repercussions to the magical balance of power, and where McCarthyism is a smokescreen for literal witch hunts.

EDIT: Sorry! Didn't read your synopsis closely enough. Wacky! So the Hopper one was the sequel! I never saw the Fred Ward one.