Question: How does he do the sword trick?
Question: Can you see the gemstones missing from the royal sword after Eisenheim holds it and secretly steals them? If you can still see them then Sophie must have taken them when The Crown Prince was passed out in the stable but I don't know which it is without seeing the scene.
Answer: You never see the sword closely enough to notice if Eisenheim took them during the performance. It is likely that he did not since this was a bit early in his planning (if he had started at all) and the Crown Prince could easily have noticed and replaced them or investigated that they were stolen. It is more likely than Sophie took them after the Crown Prince was passed out and then planted the green one in the stable and the red one in the folds of her dress.
Answer: I'm no expert but I honestly thought the sword was wedged in a gap in the floor by the tip of the blade and slight pressure of foot on the floorboards would have clenched 2 boards together around the sword tip and then when the pressure released the sword comes out but the 2 sides of the floor boards slice one of the jewels off! Lol when you look at the floor with the tip of the sword there's a kind of optical illusion with the woodwork pattern but I'm probably completely wrong but I thoroughly enjoy the film it is truly magic the whole thing for me anyway. Greetings from Middle Earth.
Question: It's not on IMDb so I have to ask here, first who plays the little boy who gives Uhl the "orange tree" book? Second, is there an actor who played the emperor or is the picture Eisenheim "paints" a picture of a actual emperor of Austria?
Answer: Although the story is fictional, some of the details are based on the life of Austrian Crown Prince Rudolf, only son of Emperor Franz Josef. The painting of the emperor which Eisenheim creates is an actual portrait of Franz Josef. (from IMDb).
Question: How did the Dutchess poison the prince and plan on him passing out as soon as they got to the stable? The servant watched him chase her there, and he supposedly passed out at just the right time? Before he was able to kill her?
Answer: Eisenheim apparently was a master of mechanics and chemistry. He gave her a substance that would make the prince pass out in a certain amount of time, and then depended on the Dutchess to take the correct amount of time to get to the stable.
Answer: The trick is done with electromagnets under the stage holding the sword upright and stuck to the floor (switched off when Leopold takes the sword). Audiences at the time would have been unfamiliar with such a technique.
Sierra1 ★