HOUDINI

US, 1953, 106 minutes, Colour.
Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, Torin Thatcher, Ian Wolfe, Sig Ruman, Michael Pate, Connie Gilchrist.
Directed by George Marshall.

This version of the life of Houdini is fairly much fictionalised. However, it is an entertaining speculation about the life and the abilities of magician Houdini.

Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh were husband an wife at this time (and appeared in The Black Shield of Falworth). Tony Curtis has charm as Houdini and Janet Leigh as his wife.

Houdini has appeared in a number of films. Paul Michael Glaser appeared as Houdini in The Great Houdini in 1987. Jonathan Schaech appeared as Houdini in the 1998 Houdini. Guy Pearce appeared as Houdini in Gillian Armstrong’s Death Defying Acts with Catherine Zeta- Jones. Houdini was also interested in the occult and appears in Photographing Fairies, the story of the children who allegedly photographed fairies at the bottom of their garden. In this film, Peter O’ Toole appears as Conan Doyle and Harvey Keitel as Houdini.

This film was directed by veteran George Marshall who was directing a number of Martin and Lewis comedies at this time as well as similar entertainments to Houdini.

1. The appeal of biography? The reputation of Houdini? Expectations about him, his magic and contortions? How well were expectations fulfilled?

2. Comment on the treatment of the biography, the respect to Houdini the man and his skills,interest in his personality, his life and his work, the fact and fiction about his career, the romantic aspects of the treatment, sketching an outline portrait rather than a study? How much understanding of the man was there?

3. Comment on the glamour in the treatment: colour, European settings, magic tricks, the two stars in the fifties?

4. Comment on the plot, the straightforward narrative, the encounters of Harry and Bess, their life together, careers and work, crises? How involving for the audience?

5. How did the film present Houdini in his time? A man of the late nineteenth century, a man of sideshows, tricks and magic, hard work and hard times, proving his skills etc.? Audience curiosity?

6. The appeal of magic, Houdini having it as a gift, his skill in contortions and the way this was illustrated, proving goals in his life, overwhelming ambition for achievement, for meeting the expectations of the crowds, Houdini caught up in his own beliefs and propaganda? Succumbing to this?

7. How attractive a character was Bess? Her primness at the start, encountering the wild man, her resistance to Houdini? The fascination and the love, the quick marriage and its effect on both of them? Their not understanding each other, but their growing in understanding and love? Their clashes and their different aims? The success that they achieved in their careers and in their life?

8. The importance of Harry's mother? Her kindness, the joy of her visit to Europe, the symbolic significance of her death and her call to him for safety?

9. How well did the film portray the hard life, work, the need for a home, Houdini's yen for his magic career? The sacrifices for both? The importance of the magicians' convention? The ominous warning after his success with the straitjacket?

10. The decision about going to Europe? Their success, the humour of the English jail episode, success in Germany? The quest for suing von Schweger? The importance of Otto and his devotion to the Houdinis?

11. Comment on the poor response in America, his publicity stunt? The river and its ominous tones?

12. Why did Houdini opt out of his career and pursue the seances? The presentation of the seance? How convincing, its being exposed as false? The effect on him?

13. The resumption of his career, the ominous note of the Halloween evening, his success and Bess's joy, the compulsion to the torture chamber? Why did he go in? Was Otto right to save him?

14. Comment on the audience's reaction to wanting bigger stunts, more danger, the attention being held by a man flirting with death? The ugliness of this in the final episode?

15. How credible a biography, how entertaining, the values of career, entertainment, love and marriage, achievement?