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| Tony Curtis |
HOUDINI (1953). Director: George Marshall.
Harry Houdini (Tony Curtis) is performing as the "wild man" in a carnival sideshow when he encounters the pretty Bess (Janet Leigh), who finds him a little headstrong. Nevertheless, he wins her over, the two are married, and the couple head for Europe where Harry is determined to become a great magician. Harry manages to escape from a strait-jacket, gets out of a Scotland yard jail cell, and nearly dies when he is caught beneath the ice in the Detroit River. Bess feels some trepidation as Harry prepares to extricate himself from the "Pagoda Torture Cell," which is filled with water and seems inescapable ...
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| Curtis and then-wife Janet Leigh |
Houdini is loosely based on the life of the famous magician, although it does manage to get some of the facts straight. (The Pagoda Torture Cell was actually called the Chinese Water Torture Cell and Houdini escaped from it numerous times. not just once, and the ending to this film is pure fiction). Tony Curtis makes a perfect Houdini, combining brashness with slight nervousness, and giving an energetic performance, while his then-wife Leigh compliments him well as Bess. There are also notable turns by Torin Thatcher [
Witness for the Prosecution] as the assistant to a late famous magician who comes to work for Houdini; Mabel Paige [
Johnny Belinda] as a phony medium that Houdini exposes; Ian Wolfe [
Foreign Correspondent] as the head of a magicians' society; and others. The film is also distinguished by good period atmosphere and the photography of Ernest Laszlo.
Verdict: Entertaining, colorful romp about a fascinating historical figure. ***.
This movie was my first introduction to Tony Curtis...As a kid I was delighted with this film and the Houdini legend, and Curtis is so winning, attractive and charismatic. He and Janet made the perfect couple, on the screen if not in real life, and I always think of them together in this film when I see Jamie Lee.
ReplyDeleteNeed to seek this out again, have not seen it since I was 14 or 15 years old. But by then I had seen it at least three or four times!
- Chris
Wow -- you must have liked it, but it is a darn entertaining picture. I'm sure you'd still enjoy it. Hope you can track it down. (I borrowed the DVD from the library.)
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