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Sadly Over-hyped

Fresh and Exciting

Best movie of this year hands down!

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Here's a bright, colourful, entertaining if not always factually accurate biopic of the great escapologist Harry Houdini. Tony Curtis plays the part with great brio as you'd expect and is well supported by his fretful but usually supportive wife played coincidentally by his real life wife of the time Janet Leigh.Of course being a Hollywood screen biography, it plays pretty loosely with the facts, most obviously with his apparent death scene in the last reel just after he's broken out of his not-quite death- defying water torture escape. Maybe the director thought that the reputed story of a young student punching him in the stomach unawares was a bit tawdry but this substitute conclusion seemed over-melodramatic in the extreme.Otherwise, while I'm no expert on Houdini's career I did recognise other familiar incidents in the entertainer's life, including breaking out of a London prison, the straitjacket escape suspended outside a New York skyscraper and the plunge under the ice sealed in a safe although you have to wonder how he could possibly miss the big hole cut in the ice right above him through which the safe was dropped. The movie also takes in his interest in spiritualism as he attempts to connect with his mother in the afterlife after her death.These quibbles apart, the movie was energetic and highly watchable as befits its subject. Curtis and Leigh make a handsome couple and the sets variously including recreations of a carnival show- ground, jail and vaudeville theatres are also easy on the eye.In short, this film was fine escapist entertainment - sorry!

Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh turn in wonderful performances as Harry and Bess Houdini in "Houdini," a 1953 film. And why shouldn't romance be the centerpiece? Curtis and Leigh were newlyweds and one of the most gorgeous couples in Hollywood.It's an odd thing - photos of Houdini don't show him as being that much of a hunk, but he seems to always be played by them, probably thanks to Curtis. A musical with Hugh Jackman starring is in the works.Undoubtedly the greatest magician of all time, the film touches on some of Houdini's big escapes and magic, his relationship with Bess, of course, and his relationship with his beloved mother. And much of what is shown in the film is true: Houdini did double as the Wild Man in a side show, he did buy a dress belonging to Queen Victoria for his mother and presented her wearing it, he did escape from a London cell, etc. He also worked to debunk spiritualists and, though it isn't shown here, he came into conflict with Arthur Conan Doyle over this.For some reason, the producers decided to change the way Houdini died, though the story of how he died is well known. Go figure.The film is in color, with beautiful costumes, and the stars look marvelous.One thing I've never been able to find out is if he did or did not communicate with Bess from the beyond. Bess said he did and then recanted. In a film I saw, a really old one, the woman playing Bess (or maybe it was Bess, I don't know) stated that she did get the secret code from Harry. Then she was visited by a bishop or higher up from the Catholic church (Bess was Catholic) and she was talked into saying that she never heard from him. So I wonder.Good film, very entertaining, beautiful stars at the peak.

Belief and proof, that is the theme of this likable biography of one of America's entertainers, combination magician and escape artist. There's no doubt in my mind that this is a totally sanitized biography. However, as perfectly cast with Tony Curtis in the lead, the outcome is a view of one part of Houdini's life that is acceptable for the time it was made. Janet Leigh adds more to her role than being feisty window dressing, exuding humor in the early sequences, when she meets Curtis in cave man disguise and providing support for him in scenes where his credibility is questioned.With Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland playing in the background, the film concentrates on how Houdini developed his act and his search for an obscure German magician whom he hopes can provide insight to the super- natural dangers of his profession. This makes the second half of the film more serious than the first. It aided Curtis in a rise in his career, helping him move beyond being the Jewish, male version of Maria Montez. The ending of the movie, certainly not for chlostrophobics, is one of the key weaknesses in the film, and is truly unrealistic even if it is based upon fact.

The story of master magician Harry Houdini (1874–1926) becomes a glossy star-vehicle for Tony Curtis in the lead--and though the facts of Houdini's life are lumped right together with the Hollywood dross (as if this movie magazine-styled spread were one big true-life story), one is drawn in by Curtis' apparent commitment to the role. Director George Marshall stages some exciting set-pieces and a nice romance ensues between Tony's Houdini and assistant Bess, played by Curtis' real-life spouse Janet Leigh (doing appealing work). Philip Yordan adapted Harold Kellock's book, and the results are (surprisingly) entertaining despite all the requisite corn and clichés. **1/2 from ****