Houdini 

Follow the man behind the magic as he finds fame, engages in espionage, battles spiritualists and encounters the greatest names of the era, from U.S. presidents to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Grigori Rasputin.

Stars:

Adrien Brody, Kristen Connolly, Evan Jones

Won 1 Primetime Emmy. Another 1 win & 23 nominations.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Adrien Brody	...	Harry Houdini 2 episodes, 2014
Kristen Connolly	...	Bess Houdini 2 episodes, 2014
Evan Jones	...	Jim Collins 2 episodes, 2014
Tim Pigott-Smith	...	William Melville 2 episodes, 2014
Tom Benedict Knight	...	Dash Houdini 2 episodes, 2014
Shaun Williamson	...	Riley 2 episodes, 2014
Eszter Ónodi	...	Cecilia Weiss 2 episodes, 2014
Louis Mertens	...	Erich Weiss 2 episodes, 2014
Jeremy Wheeler	...	Rabbi Weiss 2 episodes, 2014
Caroline Boulton	...	Sylvia The Bearded Lady / ... 2 episodes, 2014

Storyline

Follow the man behind the magic as he finds fame, engages in espionage, battles spiritualists and encounters the greatest names of the era, from U.S. presidents to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Grigori Rasputin.

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Plot Keywords:

woman | united states of america | magic | san francisco california | crying | 

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Genres:

Biography | Drama

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Country:

USA Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 September 2014 (USA)

Also Known As:

Houdini, l'illusionniste

Filming Locations:

Budapest, Hungary

Company Credits

Production Co:

A&E Television Networks,Cypress Point Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

174 min (DVD extended cut)

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Houdini grew up in Appleton WI (as mentioned in the mini series), and has been quoted as saying that his greatest escape ever was getting out of Appleton.

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Goofs

The capital of Russia at the time of Houdini's visit was St Petersburg, not Moscow. Very doubtful he gave a performance to the Royal Family in Moscow.

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Connections

Featured in De wereld draait door: Episode dated 1 May 2015 (2015)

User Reviews

Kristen Connolly steals this movie

... which is both a good and a bad thing.

It is a good thing because over the course of the 2-parter you start to realize that the intensity comes not from the escapes, but rather from Connolly simultaneously delivering her dialog with that machine-gun rasp of hers, at the same time those extra-wide "cartoon" eyes pause for emphasis. I don't mean to make light of this, it is very unusual, and very effective.

The bad news is that, as interesting as Connolly is, she should really not be able to steal the entire film. That she can, speaks to the weakness of the script, and meandering self-indulgent arc that passes for a plot.

Brody tries hard. In fact, Brody is one of those actors who seems to be merely tolerated by his audience during his actual career but, I suspect, will become a cult idol to nextgen viewers. Here he does the best he can with what he was given.

If you bring no expectations to this film, it is entertaining, although truth be told I think the History Channel should set its standards a bit higher. (With Hatfields/McCoys, which I reviewed here, they nailed it AND were factually accurate to boot).

Never liked the Curtis film but I did read Houdini's autobiography, so I empathize with the angry reviews in this list.

In the end, it is true, Houdini was able to escape everything but his own ambition.