To prove his point, Harry locks himself in a safe in the courtroom and breaks out a few minutes later, after which Bess explains to Harry's mother that safe locks are designed to keep thieves out, not in. During his trial, Harry denies that he ever made claims to supernatural powers, insisting that all his tricks are accomplished through physical means. While performing an impromptu levitation trick with Bess at a restaurant, Harry is arrested for fraud. In Berlin Harry is joined by his mother and begins searching for the reclusive Von Schweger. Now billed as the "man who escaped from Scotland Yard", Harry begins a successful tour of Europe with Bess. Despite the added difficulty, the dexterous, determined Houdini picks his cell lock and appears on time for his next performance. Harry, who hired Dooley to issue the challenge, accepts, unaware that the cells do not have locks in the doors, but are mounted on the outside walls. Sometime later, at a London theater, Harry and Bess are concluding their magic act when a reporter named Dooley ( Michael Pate) challenges Harry to break out of one of Scotland Yard's notoriously secure jail cells. Soon, a contrite Bess finds Harry performing with a carnival and presents him with two one-way tickets to Europe. That night, in front of his mother (Angela Clarke), Harry and Bess argue about their future, and frustrated by Bess's insistence that he quit magic, Harry walks out. Before he can get out, however, the foreman orders the safe blown open, then fires Harry. Later at the factory, Harry locks himself inside one of the big safes, determined to make an escape. Bess then persuades Harry to give her the prize, a single, round-trip boat ticket to Europe, so that she can cash it in for a down payment on a house. Afterward, however, Fante advises Harry to "drop it", noting that Johann Von Schweger, a German magician, retired at the height of his career after performing a similar feat, fearful of his own talents. Harry accepts the challenge and, through intense concentration, extricates himself from the jacket, greatly impressing Fante. On Halloween, Harry and Bess attend a special magicians' dinner at the Hotel Astor, during which magician Fante offers a prize to anyone who can free himself from a straitjacket. Bess becomes Harry's onstage partner, touring the country with him, but soon grows tired of the low pay and grueling schedule.Īfter Bess convinces Harry to take a job in a locksmith factory, Harry works as a lock tester while fantasizing about escaping from one of the factory's large safes. Bess admits her attraction, and soon after, the two appear at Harry's mother's house, newly married. When Bess shows up to watch Harry perform two more times, he finally is able to corner her. Harry flirts with the unsuspecting Bess during his act, but she flees from him in a panic. Harry then appears as magician "The Great Houdini" and, spotting Bess in the audience, invites her on stage. In the 1890s, young Harry Houdini ( Tony Curtis) is performing with a Coney Island carnival as Bruto, the Wild Man, when Bess ( Janet Leigh), a naive onlooker, tries to protect him from the blows of Schultz ( Sig Ruman), his "trainer". The film also follows his love for his wife Bess Houdini and his most dangerous stunts and stage illusions. Following the death of his mother, he exposes various fraudulent mediums in the spiritualist movement, while always hoping to make contact with her. It details his beginnings as a carnival performer, later as a worker in a safe factory, and finally his international success as a world-renowned escape artist and stage magician. The film's storyline is a fictionalized account of Houdini's life. The art direction was by Albert Nozaki and Hal Pereira, and the costume design by Edith Head. The film's music score was by Roy Webb and the cinematography by Ernest Laszlo. The film's screenplay, based upon the life of magician and escape artist Harry Houdini, was written by Philip Yordan, based on the book Houdini by Harold Kellock. Houdini is a 1953 American Technicolor film biography from Paramount Pictures, produced by George Pal and Berman Swarttz, directed by George Marshall, that stars Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |