Houdini (1953)

The spectacular but tragically short career of magician and illusionist Harry Houdini whose tricks defied explanation and safety.

Director:

George Marshall

Writers:

Philip Yordan (screenplay), Harold Kellock (book)

Stars:

Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, Torin Thatcher

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Tony Curtis	...	Harry Houdini
Janet Leigh	...	Bess Houdini
Torin Thatcher	...	Otto
Angela Clarke	...	Harry's Mother
Stefan Schnabel	...	German Prosecuting Attorney
Ian Wolfe	...	Malue
Sig Ruman	...	Schultz
Michael Pate	...	Dooley
Connie Gilchrist	...	Mrs. Shultz
Malcolm Lee Beggs	...	British Jail Warden
Frank Orth	...	Mr. Hunter
Barry Bernard	...	Insp. Marlick
Douglas Spencer	...	Simms

Storyline

The amazing career of master magician Harry Houdini is presented from his beginnings with a carnival "wild man" act to his emergence as an internationally-acclaimed illusionist, From his mysterious escape from a locked safe under the frozen Detroit River to dramatic one from a locked cell in Scotland Yard, he never failed to please his audience. Although Houdini's tricks are achieved through a marvelous physical dexterity and innate sleight-of-hand, he courted death with the hazardous illusions he performed and his compulsive quest to contact the spirit world.

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Plot Keywords:

magician | escape | illusionist | carnival | scotland yard | 

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Genres:

Biography | Drama

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

2 July 1953 (USA)

Also Known As:

El gran Houdini

Filming Locations:

Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The movie contains several factual errors, the most telling of which is the dramatization of Harry Houdini's death. In the film he almost drowns in the torture tank trick and dies on the stage in the arms of his wife. In real life he was punched in the stomach by a college student who had heard that Houdini could withstand any blow without harm. This did, indeed, rupture his appendix. He later collapsed on stage, was taken to the hospital and died there.

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Goofs

When the Houdinis and the reporter are being driven to the séance, the same rear projection loop is continually run in the car's back window, repeatedly showing the same background traffic, with the splice where the loop begins plainly visible each time.

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Quotes

Bess Houdini: [to Houdini] Audiences are never satisfied. They love you for th moment you please them.

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Connections

Referenced in Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In: Episode #3.26 (1970)

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Soundtracks

"Perpetuum Mobile, Op. 257 (Perpetual Motion)"
(uncredited)
Music by Johann Strauß
Played during the straitjacket contest

User Reviews

It led me to being tied up, handcuffed, and put in a strait jacket

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?