Many years ago on my Honeymoon with first Wife in tow, I went to the quaint town of Niagara Falls, Ontario. Besides the adjacent famous falls, there were plenty of souvenir shops, carnival rides,motels etc.. I stumbled upon the Houdini museum smack dab in the middle of town. I had one of the most enjoyable times of my life as the tour guide showed all of the "great masters", Houdini's contraptions. The guide explained how Harry Houdini escaped using misdirection and manipulation in his acts to dazzled audiences throughout the U.S. and the World. As for the film, I found Tony Curtis had the personality to carry the film and his lovely Wife Janet Leigh as Bess was the perfect compliment to the outrageous death defying acts through out the movie. Throw in Torin Thatcher as his aid Otto for support who was at Houdini's side to the end. There plenty of inaccuracies with the screenplay but the scenes moved nicely with superb cinematography and vibrant colors. The straight jacket scene is worth watching as well as the run in with the German Government as Houdini demands to put in one of their safes. Houdini even puts Scotland Yard to the test as to break out of there inescapable prison cells. Just a captivating movie. Producer George Pal always makes his Movies captivating.

Houdini (1953) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Highly entertaining film has Tony Curtis playing Harry Houdini, the legendary escape artist. We see Houdini's early life in the circus, the meeting of his future wife (Janet Leigh) and some of his most famous tricks. It goes without saying that a lot of things are made up in the film, including the bizarre ending, which changes how Houdini died. That one change never made much sense to me as it's pretty common knowledge how the man died but outside of that this is an incredibly entertaining movie that features a pretty standard story but a remarkable performance by Curtis. When I say standard story I'm meaning that the screenplay really doesn't try too hard to get into the mind of Houdini or tell us who he was. Instead of giving us much story depth we instead get to see countless tricks being performed by Curtis and Leigh. Everyone knows that the two were married in real life and that certainly rings true as they have no problems playing husband and wife here. Leigh is very good in her role, which is pretty much just a supporting one but Curtis is where the true magic is. Even though he's one of the most recognizable actors in the history of cinema there isn't a second in this film where I didn't see him as Houdini. Curtis does a brilliant job at transforming himself and he even looks very good while performing the various stunts in the film. I'm not sure how much work he actually did but all of the tricks look very real with the exception of the scene where he cuts Leigh in half. There are many dramatic moments in the film full of suspense and this is true in the best sequence where Houdini is performing above the Detroit River when the ropes break and sends him through the ice. We then get a long sequence with him under the ice trying to find his way out. If people are wanting a hard look bio of the man then they'd be recommended to get a book because they aren't going to find anything here. If they want to see an excellent performance with the master's tricks being performed then this film offers that along with a lot of entertainment.

As I see, many posting members speak of an ending which portraits his death after an emergency rescue from the torture tank, and one speaks of another in which he lays on the floor, breathing deeply and telling his wife he'd do it again! I also remember in the firstly-mentioned version he unmasks a spiritualist who'd just told him she was his mother and how she used to caress him as a child --- by shouting his mother would never caress him for she believed that should make him a weak child, and also in this same version he performs an escape for the royalty in Hungary, there are also many dialogs in one missing in another. It seems his mother spoke only yidish in one, and for the other one I feel sorry for having watched a Spanish-translated, so I can not tell.Are we talking about two different movies?

It is what it is, namely a smashing piece of entertainment loosely based on a fabulous entertainer of days gone by.The set up is very tidy as we see Houdini in his early days before he was an auditorium filler, we get a nice introduction to his interest in tricks and of course his romance with his sweetheart Bess (a lovely Janet Leigh). We then follow his career arc and get involved with his ego and the ever lasting pursuit of pleasing the audience that we now know leads to a dreadful conclusion. The set pieces are OK and the story from the page is handled very well, Tony Curtis shows both his best and worse sides in this, on one hand he is a wholesome handsome devil may care entertainer, yet on the other hand during scenes where he is one on one with another (notably Leigh), he hams like the front counter in the Butchers Shop.This was the first time I had watched this since about 1990, and the thing that really hits home to me even now is that come the finale, I'm still hoping the great entertainer lives, I believe he will survive that final trick, and regardless of how accurate the film is, what I do know is that the film and its characters have engaged me from the off, job done. 8/10