Harry Houdini Movies
Harry Houdini (born Erich Weiss in Budapest) is best known as a legendary magician and escape artist, but early on in his career he appeared in a few silent action-adventure films from the late 1910s through the early '20s. He even produced a few of these films, such as The Man from Beyond (1922). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 1923
Famed escape artist Harry Houdini functions as producer, director and star of Haldane of the Secret Service. After his detective father is murdered by the villains, Heath Haldane (Houdini) dedicates himself to tracking down their scoundrels. Time and again, the bad guys trap Haldane in ropes, chains and strongboxes. And time and time, our hero wriggles out of his predicaments with the skill of? well, of Harry Houdini. The one surprise in Haldane of the Secret Service is the identity of the head criminal, a surprise which will not be revealed in these notes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harry Houdini
Legendary escape artist Harry Houdini both produced and starred in The Man From Beyond. Houdini plays a man who has been frozen in an Arctic block of ice for 100 years. Once he's thawed out, Houdini tries to straighten out the lives of the descendants of his old friends and lost loves. The sequence everyone remembers from Man From Beyond involves Houdini's near-plunge over Niagara Falls, which has been excerpted in several silent-film pastiches, notably 1961's Days of Thrills and Laughter. Question: If we know Houdini's prowess for wriggling out of straitjackets, prison cells etc., how can there be the least bit of suspense in Man From Beyond? Never mind: you'll want to see it anyway, just for the chance to glimpse the great Houdini in action. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arthur Maude, Albert Tavernier, (more)
- 1919
Legendary escape artist Harry Houdini stars in the offbeat adventure yarn The Grim Game. Houdini plays Harvey Hanford, a young journalist who is framed for the murder of his uncle. Since it was well-known that no jail cell or pair of handcuffs could hold Houdini, the film has to work overtime in building up suspense. The most memorable scene finds the great magician suspended by a rope between two flying airplanes. An unrehearsed plane crash during this sequence was captured on film and exploited to the hilt in Grim Game's publicity campaign. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
