Michelangelo's "Spare Parts" Illusion 

Spare Parts -- Taking Traditional Illusions in New Directions
A Michelangelo exclusive, this illusion is based on a rarely seen performance piece that has been nearly forgotten for decades. In the 1940s an illusion designer named Guy Jarrett created stage illusions for the Broadway version of Dracula which starred a Hungarian actor, virtually unknown at the time: Bela Lugosi. Jarrett also created a number of other effects, including one where a girl was contained inside an extremely tight space and then a sword was drawn through the entire construction from top to bottom, cutting the container-and the girl-in half.
In typical Michelangelo style, "Spare Parts" starts out as a traditional cutting-a-woman illusion but when Jarrett's nearly-forgotten effect is introduced, the illusion goes in a radically different and amazing new direction.