BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Kidskycom It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

mark.waltz Belief and proof, that is the theme of this likable biography of one of America's entertainers, combination magician and escape artist. There's no doubt in my mind that this is a totally sanitized biography. However, as perfectly cast with Tony Curtis in the lead, the outcome is a view of one part of Houdini's life that is acceptable for the time it was made. Janet Leigh adds more to her role than being feisty window dressing, exuding humor in the early sequences, when she meets Curtis in cave man disguise and providing support for him in scenes where his credibility is questioned.With Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland playing in the background, the film concentrates on how Houdini developed his act and his search for an obscure German magician whom he hopes can provide insight to the super- natural dangers of his profession. This makes the second half of the film more serious than the first. It aided Curtis in a rise in his career, helping him move beyond being the Jewish, male version of Maria Montez. The ending of the movie, certainly not for chlostrophobics, is one of the key weaknesses in the film, and is truly unrealistic even if it is based upon fact.

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

viniscius As I see, many posting members speak of an ending which portraits his death after an emergency rescue from the torture tank, and one speaks of another in which he lays on the floor, breathing deeply and telling his wife he'd do it again! I also remember in the firstly-mentioned version he unmasks a spiritualist who'd just told him she was his mother and how she used to caress him as a child --- by shouting his mother would never caress him for she believed that should make him a weak child, and also in this same version he performs an escape for the royalty in Hungary, there are also many dialogs in one missing in another. It seems his mother spoke only yidish in one, and for the other one I feel sorry for having watched a Spanish-translated, so I can not tell.Are we talking about two different movies?

Spikeopath It is what it is, namely a smashing piece of entertainment loosely based on a fabulous entertainer of days gone by.The set up is very tidy as we see Houdini in his early days before he was an auditorium filler, we get a nice introduction to his interest in tricks and of course his romance with his sweetheart Bess (a lovely Janet Leigh). We then follow his career arc and get involved with his ego and the ever lasting pursuit of pleasing the audience that we now know leads to a dreadful conclusion. The set pieces are OK and the story from the page is handled very well, Tony Curtis shows both his best and worse sides in this, on one hand he is a wholesome handsome devil may care entertainer, yet on the other hand during scenes where he is one on one with another (notably Leigh), he hams like the front counter in the Butchers Shop.This was the first time I had watched this since about 1990, and the thing that really hits home to me even now is that come the finale, I'm still hoping the great entertainer lives, I believe he will survive that final trick, and regardless of how accurate the film is, what I do know is that the film and its characters have engaged me from the off, job done. 8/10