HOUDINI [IMPORT]

Details

• Release Year: 1953
• Genre: Drama
• Plot: This highly fanciful but immensely entertaining biopic stars Tony Curtis as legendary magician/escape-artist Harry Houdini. Janet Leigh, Mrs. Tony Curtis at the time, co-stars as Houdini's wife Bess, while Angela Clarke is seen as Houdini's mother. The film follows Houdini's progress from sideshow entertainer to high-priced prestidigitator, and also touches upon his fascination with the occult—and his efforts to expose phony mediums. Philip Yordan's script (based on a book by Harold Kellock) suggests that virtually every portentous occasion in Houdini's life occurred on Halloween day, including his death from peritonitis in 1926. The facts of Houdini's life seldom get in the way of Yordan's story; while general audiences won't spot too many discrepancies, professional magicians tend to howl with laughter at some of the film's intentional boners. Example: In real life, Houdini's appendix was fatally ruptured by a punch to the stomach; in the film, he injures himself by accidentally bumping into one of his props, the sword-studded 'Temple of Benares' trick—which hadn't yet been invented in 1926! Still, it's fun to watch Tony Curtis wriggle his way out of some of Houdini's most baffling escape routines (both Curtis and Janet Leigh were carefully instructed on the set by professional magicians, who swore the stars to secrecy concerning the tricks of the trade). For a more accurate slant on Houdini's life, see the 1976 TV movie The Great Houdinis, starring Paul Michael Glaser and Sally Struthers.;
• Cast: Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, Torin Thatcher, Angela Clarke, Stefan Schnabel, Ian Wolfe, Sig Ruman, Michael Pate, Connie Gilchrist, Malcolm Lee Beggs, Frank Orth, Barry Bernard, Douglas Spencer, Eric Alden, Fred Aldrich, Elsie Ames, Jan Arden, Nick Arno, Peter Baldwin, Bobby Barber, Oliver Blake, Billy Bletcher, Cliff Clark, Edward Clark, Jim Davies, Louise De Carlo, Daniel De Jonghe, Marion Dempsey, Don Dunning, Norma Jean Eckart, Fred Essler, Bess Flowers, Esther Garber, Jon Gardner, Maxine Gates, Bill Gentry, Joanne Gilbert, Jody Gilbert, Arthur Gould-Porter, Kit Guard, Henry Guttman, Alec Harford, Grace Hayle, Len Hendry, Harry Hines, Jerry James, Frank Jaquet, Tor Johnson, Frank Kreig, William W. Larsen, Lyle Latell, Mike Mahoney, Lewis Martin, Bill Meader, Torben Meyer, Mary Murphy, Hal Neiman, Tudor Owen, Mabel Paige, Ralph Peters, Joe Ploski, Luce Potter, A.J. Buster Resmondo, Lawrence Ryle, Richard Shannon, Ray Spiker, Bert Stevens, Charles Sullivan, Arthur Tovey, Ernö Verebes, Anthony Warde, Gil Warren, Betty Yeaton, George Marshall, Philip Yordan, Harold Kellock, George Pal, Ernest Laszlo, George Tomasini, Roy Webb
• Director: George Marshall
• Runtime: 1:47
• Company: Paramount
• Media Format: Movie