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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers:
Tony Grisoni (written by) &
Brian Ward (written by)
Release Date:
13 March 2008 (Australia) more
Tagline:
There is no escape. more
Plot:
On a tour of Britain in 1926, Harry Houdini enters into a passionate affair with a psychic out to con the famous magician. full summary | add synopsis
Awards:
2 wins & 6 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(22 articles)
Red Carpet Lineup
(From FilmExperience. 8 August 2009, 2:28 PM, PDT)
Traci Lords to star in horror film 'Go Straight To Hell'
(From pretty-scary. 7 August 2009, 3:33 PM, PDT)
User Comments:
A Satisfying Mixture of Fact Embellished with Fiction more (21 total)
Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| Guy Pearce | ... | Harry Houdini | |
| Catherine Zeta-Jones | ... | Mary McGarvie | |
| Timothy Spall | ... | Sugarman | |
| Saoirse Ronan | ... | Benji McGarvie | |
| Malcolm Shields | ... | Leith Romeo | |
| Leni Harper | ... | Leith Romeo's wife | |
| Ralph Riach | ... | Mr. Robertson | |
| Olivia Darnley | ... | Flower Stall Seller | |
| Anthony O'Donnell | ... | Oily Librarian | |
| Billy McColl | ... | McTavish | |
| James Holmes | ... | Ugly Mug | |
| Melanie Harris | ... | Rose (as Frankey Martyn) | |
| Aileen O'Gorman | ... | Effie - Elderly Seamstress | |
| Raymond Griffiths | ... | Music Hall Dwarf | |
| Shaun Mason | ... | Heckler |
Additional Details
Also Known As:
Death Defying Acts: Houdini's Secret (USA) (DVD box title)
more
MPAA:
Rated PG for some sensuality, thematic material, language, violent content and smoking.
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
97 min
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Certification:
Canada:PG | Ireland:PG | South Korea:15 | Singapore:PG | USA:PG | New Zealand:PG | Finland:K-7 | Hong Kong:IIA | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Netherlands:12 | Philippines:PG-13 (MTRCB) | Mexico:B | Peru:14
Filming Locations:
Fun Stuff
Goofs:
Anachronisms: In the scene before Houdini try to communicate with his passed mother via Mary McGarvie, it can be clearly seen there is a vacuum tube that happened to be a 6C33C Russian vacuum tube, which does not exist until the 60s, and further more, that vacuum tube couldn't work anymore, since it was leaked (it has a white layer of powder inside the tube that shows there is air inside). more
FAQ
This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more (21 total)
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Gillian Armstrong makes fine movies: she is a director who knows how to tell stories and enhance what appears on the surface to be reality with a healthy dose of fantasy. Her sense of pacing and image creation adds substance to her tales that sometimes border on bizarre.
DEATH DEFYING ACTS uses the character of Harry Houdini as the stimulus of to tell a story about the folk of Edinburgh, Scotland at a time when stage shows were embraced much the way America was using vaudeville - an escape from the rather dreary state of living to a world of entertainment and love of magic. Mary McGarvie (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and her daughter Benji (Saoirse Ronan) survive in Edinburgh by picking pockets not merely for cash but for information to use in their act in the little theaters. Mary does exotic dances then uses her 'gifts' to see into the 'other world' of people in the audience ( Benji does the investigative work and is the prompter for the séance like acts Mary performs). Their idol is Harry Houdini (Guy Pearce) and when they learn Houdini is coming to Edinburgh to 'perform', they discover Houdini is promising $10,000 to anyone who can prove they have the ability to look into the future (or past). Houdini's manager Sugarman (Timothy Spall) arranges Houdini's water tank escape acts and other acts of 'magic', and when Mary and Benji arrange to meet Houdini, Sugarman is aware they are charlatans. How Mary and Benji work their way into Houdini's belief system and love life with their con game forms the meat of the sparing.
The atmosphere of the film is well captured by cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos who understands who to balance the mire of the streets of 1926 Edinburgh with the gorgeous fantasies used during Houdini's escape acts. The musical score by Cezary Skubiszewski is a terrific mixture of Scottish tunes and instruments with solid melodramatic mood music. Pearce, Zeta-Jones, Spall and Ronan turn in excellent performances. This is an unjustly overlooked film that, while not being a masterpiece, serves up a fine story well told. Grady Harp