Houdini

In this 1998 tv biography of Houdini, Johnathon Schaech passionately, and incidentally attractively, stars in the title role. "Houdini" is the perspective of his life by his wife, Bessie Houdini, 10 years after his death during a publicized "last seance," through which she hopes to communicate with him. It is an emotional, love-stricken wife's memories of her obsessed, but loving, late husband. As such, this movie is not a detailed documentary of his life, but an emotionally, romantic reminiscing of the life of the man. As a love-story, Houdini has effectively worked its magic.

It is filled with much admiration, sentiment, and emotional angst as expected from a loving, but emotionally-conflicted widow at the time of her husband's death. Bessie's portrayal seems focused on her mounting discomfort and tension over the course of decades of their marriage due to her late husband's obsessesive life's work to entertain with death-defying feats and his driven attempts to unmask spiritual charlatans as he attempts to communicate with his late mother.

"Houdini" does little to educate us on the many details and exploits of the late master magician, as I had originally expected. I realized, in hindsight, that this interpretation of Houdini's life makes no attempt to provide a significant and detailed retelling of his life's obsessions, but provides just enough information to provide a background to the relationships with the significant women in his life, primarily with his wife and secondly with his mother.

Compared to two other Houdini biographies I remembered from watching on tv many years ago (namely, 1953 or 1957 "Houdini" starring Tony Curtis and 1976 "The Great Houdini" starring Paul Michael Glaser) I find it a more passionate portrayal of the great illusionist and escape artist and offers greater emotional depths that the other two films did not provide; in those portrayals, they attempt to pack in as much information as possible, but unfortunately, some erroneous info. as well. "Houdini" fortunately debunks a popular myth that he did died on stage immediately after failing to escape during an act; in reality, he had died days after his last performance in a hospital, on Halloween of 1926.

Pen Densham, director, writer, & executive producer, turned out an interesting and entertaining & romantic biography. Johnathon Schaech gives a newly alluring and passionate dimension to Houdini, and possibly the most multi-dimensional role, as well, he has yet portrayed. Stacy Edwards sympathetically portrays the worriedly tormented, alcoholic, at times shrewish, but loving wife. Other supporting cast members, Paul Sorvino as Blackburn (radio show host), Rhea Perlman as Esther (spiritualist), George Segal as Martin Beck (Houdini's manager), Mark Ruffalo as Theo (Houdini's brother), and Grace Zabriskie as Cecelia Weiss (Houdini's, a.k.a. Erich Weiss', mother) turned in from suitable to quite good performances, particularly for a tv film.

It is not a biographic movie. It is not homage to a great artist. It is only exploration of a myth. With errors, good intentions and a lot of exaggerations. A film for Johnathon Schaech's charm and for beginning of childhood dreams taste. Delicate and sweet, for who knows than magic is an ingredient of existence. For dreamers. And for remember a name. Old, lost, fascinating. It is not a film about Houdini. It is a short story about a character with his name but others ways of life and different nuances of facts. May be a Rider Digest material. About a shadow of a strange time for who the limits are fiction. "Houdini" is not a bad movie. And not a masterpiece. Only a show, very delicate with details but , in fact, a beautiful stamp, it is first step to discover a impressive science to broke the limits and to understand the days more than a summer rain.

This film did a good job creating the atmosphere of the turn-of-the-century show business world Houdini moved in when getting his start. I had high hopes at the beginning, which covers his early career performing with his brother, then later with his young wife, Bess, as they go from one fleabag music hall to another looking for their big break. Jonathan Schaech is very convincing in his portrayal of Houdini as a consummate professional and egoist, driven to succeed and be the very best at what he does. The movie starts to lose focus at the moment Houdini's career takes off; from this point on, it takes on a soap-operaish tone as it turns its attention away from his performing and towards his private life. The Great Mystifier turns into a slightly pathetic character, torn between his inflexible mother and his grouchy wife, and his fascinating career recedes into the background, where it serves as a mere backdrop to the story of his troubled relationship with Bess. Not only do the filmmakers ignore Houdini's unique position in the world of the theatre in favour of a rather hackneyed romantic drama, they go on to change the facts to fit their theme. Bess was not a perpetual wet blanket on Houdini's career; she was a theatre performer herself, and she often worked as his assistant. Though she must have been anxious for his success and safety in his work, it is inaccurate to portray her as frequently on her knees in a Catholic church, like the wife of a mafia don, imploring divine intercession to help an unendurable situation. By all accounts theirs was a generally happy marriage. Nor was Houdini's brother the incompetent and failure he is portrayed as here; as Hardeen, he was himself a successful magician, though never as celebrated as his older brother.

But these failures are as nothing compared with the ending, which completely turns on its head everything we know about Houdini, and depicts a seance succeeding in bringing back his spirit after death. It is well known that seances conducted for several years after his death were a complete failure, and Houdini himself had only scorn for the spiritualistic frauds who preyed upon the public. It is even more confusing to have the seance succeed, when at the same moment it is being proved that the medium in charge is a phony. I think that, in the end, the film makers simply did not know what really to make of Houdini, and threw everything they could lay their hands on at him, hoping that something would stick. A film with lots of opportunities, most of them missed.

This is a TV movie covering the career, life and afterlife of the illusionist Harry Houdini. It is a romanticized skeletal treatment, covering the basics of the man (raised in poverty, self taught magician, life long mother issues, medium debunker) without any real depth or showing anything new. It is a well done enough production, recreating some of Houdini's daring feats, and the acting is decent (and Jonathon Schaech certainly looks fit enough to pull off Houdini's escapes and high tolerance for pain) but ultimately it is a frame without a portrait, non revealing of the Ehrich Weiss behind the Harry Houdini.

Favorite Line: "I fell in love with Ehrich Weiss; I put up with Harry Houdini."

Worth a rent if you have a mildly curious about Houdini itch to scratch and an hour and a half free.

I give this movie a 9 out of 10 for accuracy. The movie was not accurate but it was an awesome entertainment film. If you watch this movie like a movie and not a biography you'll love it. If you watch it the other way around you'll hate it. It was nothing more than a fictional story that had great romance, death defying escapes and personal screw ups with his brother, mother, and wife that ended terrificly. I would encourage anybody that likes magic, escape acts, and romance in a movie to watch it. Houdinit is a movie that I have watched several time and would watch again. I love the song "Rosebell" that happens to play all throughout the movie.