jc-osms Here's a bright, colourful, entertaining if not always factually accurate biopic of the great escapologist Harry Houdini. Tony Curtis plays the part with great brio as you'd expect and is well supported by his fretful but usually supportive wife played coincidentally by his real life wife of the time Janet Leigh.Of course being a Hollywood screen biography, it plays pretty loosely with the facts, most obviously with his apparent death scene in the last reel just after he's broken out of his not-quite death- defying water torture escape. Maybe the director thought that the reputed story of a young student punching him in the stomach unawares was a bit tawdry but this substitute conclusion seemed over-melodramatic in the extreme.Otherwise, while I'm no expert on Houdini's career I did recognise other familiar incidents in the entertainer's life, including breaking out of a London prison, the straitjacket escape suspended outside a New York skyscraper and the plunge under the ice sealed in a safe although you have to wonder how he could possibly miss the big hole cut in the ice right above him through which the safe was dropped. The movie also takes in his interest in spiritualism as he attempts to connect with his mother in the afterlife after her death.These quibbles apart, the movie was energetic and highly watchable as befits its subject. Curtis and Leigh make a handsome couple and the sets variously including recreations of a carnival show- ground, jail and vaudeville theatres are also easy on the eye.In short, this film was fine escapist entertainment - sorry!

zkonedog After being introduced to this movie as a child by my father, I remembered it being quite a spectacular. To a child's eyes, it probably was. However, from an adult perspective, this is the epitome of the "style over substance" Hollywood that ruled the decade in which it was made (1950s).For a basic plot summary, this film tells the rough story of Harry Houdini (Tony Curtis), known to this day as the greatest magician of all-time. His wife, Bess (Janet Leigh), also plays a key role, as the two sometimes work together while other times are at odds over Harry's magic-fueled obsessions. This film follows the rough chronological timeline of Houdini's life, but to say that it is an accurate portrayal would be a disservice, as it really mashes a lot of things together and is just plain wrong on other accounts.Simply put, "Houdini" is a product of its times, back when movies weren't supposed to be anything "deep". Families went to movies together, so they had to have a broad (which often equaled bland) appeal. The tale of Houdini is an utterly fascinating one, but in this portrayal it is more about letting Curtis be his charming self and putting Leigh in as many fancy dresses to show off her curves as possible.So, if you are old enough to have watched "Houdini" around its theater date, this movie might hold a good deal of nostalgic value to you. It also seems to be great for children, as it is quite colorful and the action is always moving forward. However, if you are looking for even a hair of substantial material about Houdini and his life, please look elsewhere. Only a few scenes (mostly in the final 15 minutes of the picture) convey any real, heartfelt emotion. Otherwise, this is all about the "pomp and circumstance".

James Hitchcock "Houdini" is a biopic of the magician and escapologist Harry Houdini, played here by Tony Curtis. Janet Leigh, the real life Mrs Curtis, plays Mrs Houdini; this was one of five movies they made together during their eleven-year marriage. Curtis bore little physical resemblance to the great magician, but may have been cast in the role because of their shared ethnic roots; both were of Hungarian-Jewish origins. By an odd coincidence Houdini's real surname was Weiss (German for "white") and Curtis's was Schwarz (German for "black"). Or perhaps the coincidence is not so odd; both surnames are common ones among Jews from the former Habsburg Empire. (It is said that the Jewish community did not have surnames until they were assigned by German-speaking officials; in some areas the surname Weiss was given to all blonde individuals and Schwarz to all dark ones). Like many Hollywood biographical films, this one plays fast and loose with the facts of its subject's life. In particular the film shows Houdini dying on stage after an escape stunt, the "Chinese Water Torture Cell", goes wrong, whereas in reality his death was attributed to appendicitis, although there have been persistent rumours that he was murdered. (The film does, however, get the date of his death right; he did indeed die on October 31st, Halloween, as shown here). The Torture Cell is said to have been invented by a German magician named Johann von Schweger, who is a great influence on Houdini's life although the two never meet. In reality Houdini invented the Torture Cell escape himself and von Schweger is a fictitious character. Yet when film-makers alter the facts of an individual's life they generally do so for a reason. Filmed biographies are not just a compendium of facts about a person; they are designed to entertain as well as to instruct, and therefore need to give their stories a structure comparable to that of a work of fiction. Houdini is portrayed not just as a historical individual who achieved certain things in his life but as a tragic hero, a man who rises from humble beginnings to a position of great fame but who is destroyed by his own hubris. The early scenes, which deal with Houdini's courtship of and marriage to his wife Bess, are gentle in tone and reminiscent of a romantic comedy. At this period of his life he is a struggling young magician, but at Bess's insistence gives up this life for a job in a locksmith's workshop. The lure of magic, however, proves too strong, and Houdini eventually returns to his old life. He incorporates escapology into his act, and proves to be a great success, especially on a tour of Europe. He returns to America where his success continues, but he finds that he is forced to perform increasingly dangerous stunts, partly in order to hold the interest of the public and partly to giver himself fresh challenges to overcome. The later scenes have a markedly darker, more serious tone. After the death of his mother, and an incident in which an escape goes wrong and he nearly drowns in the frozen Detroit River, he abandons his act in order to pursue a campaign against fraudulent mediums. Returning to the stage after an absence of two years, he succumbs to the temptation, and pressure from the audience, to perform the fatal Torture Cell stunt, despite Bess's passionate opposition. The film was directed by George Marshall, not a particularly well-known name today although a few of his films, such as "Destry Rides Again", "The Blue Dahlia" and his contribution to "How the West Was Won", are still remembered. "Houdini" was in many ways a difficult film to direct. For much of its length it is a relatively light-hearted success story, and yet it ends tragically. It could easily have turned into a broken- backed "film of two halves" with little connection between its comic opening and its tragic ending, but Marshall achieves the difficult task of making the various episodes seem like a coherent whole. In this he is assisted by a good performance from Curtis, who makes Harry Houdini a very likable individual while at the same time revealing something of a darker side to his character. The make-up department also deserves credit for making Curtis, only 28 at the time, look convincingly older in the later scenes. (Houdini was 52 at the time of his death). I must say, however, that Janet Leigh does not seem to age in the same way. "Houdini" is not a particularly deep or significant film, but it is a well-made and enjoyable one. 7/10

rich-826 A very enjoyable movie, though full of enough holes to occasionally provoke a snicker or two. Tony Curtis and his wife Janet Leigh performed all of the escapes in the movie, coached by professional magicians and escape artists. When I saw this movie as a kid, I got interested in escape routines-- I had my brothers tie me to a chair, which I escaped from two out of three times (I would have escaped from it the third time, but my mom saw me struggling to escape from her antique dining room chair and untied me). I bought 'escape' handcuffs, and then learned how to pick the lock in a pair of cheap handcuffs. When I was older, a magician friend of mine showed me two different types of strait jackets-- the magicians and a real one. He could escape from either-- I contented myself with the magician's version, which was no easy trick. I wonder which version Tony Curtis used in the movie?