The Man from Beyond

A very odd film indeed, which completely mystified me on the first run. I couldn't make sense of the story at all, let alone follow the complicated plot. It wasn't until a second viewing that it all came together. The reason, of course, is that it's edited in a very peculiar manner. This is not your standard Hollywood grammar of 1922 at all. It's the editorial grammar of "Caligari" and other German expressionist films of the period. Mind you, this is pretty identical to the editorial grammar in use in 2008—which is one reason I don't watch contemporary movies. I can't follow them. When I see a close-up, for example, I immediately conclude the director is going to special pains to draw this particular character to my attention, so in my mind I file away this player for further reference. Five minutes and fifteen close-ups later, I'm totally lost.

When "Grand Hotel" received its New York premiere, many critics (including Mordaunt Hall of The New York Times) walked out, claiming that director Goulding had used so many close-ups, they couldn't follow the story. But "Grand Hotel" is poverty indeed compared to the plethora of odd close-ups in "The Man from Beyond". True, it makes sense the second time through, but who wants to watch a melodrama like this twice? Even to see Houdini brave the rapids of Niagara Falls, "Niagara" fashion? And even to eye Nita Naldi at her slinkiest?

Mind you, the tinted print offered by Kino in their "Houdini" box is much easier on the eyes than both the black-and-white DVD versions available from Alpha and Grapevine. This said, however, I cannot recommend the Kino print unreservedly as it is missing the key sequence of Houdini's first recorded glimpse of his savior's home. This sequence features the most effective close-up in the whole movie.

On the other hand, although there seem to be other bits and pieces missing from here and there, the Kino copy does restore at least one important sequence that was presumably censored from the black-and-white prints.

Most peculiarly, none of the three current versions feature an actual brought-back-to-life sequence, although we do receive a tantalizing glimpse of it in a flashback. Presumably it was removed from the movie at an early stage.

Which brings me back to the very odd way in which the movie is edited. Another feature of German expressionism is that shots often don't match, a deliberately contrived device to startle the audience. The same device is used here. For example, in medium shot a character may be smiling placidly. In close-up, however, his features are contorted with rage. In long shot, his arm may be raised. In close-up, his arm is by his side. This device is used neither too often nor too sparingly so that I wonder if it was the result of a deliberate intent or merely due to either the director's or the film editor's incompetence. Fortunately, it is in dialogue (or sub-titled) scenes that this often occurs. The action sequences on the other hand are very astutely and effectively edited.

To enjoy the action highlights at their best—particularly the extended climax which culminates at Niagara Falls—it's essential to view the Kino edition. The tinting is not only so realistic that it immeasurably adds to the thrills, but the print is so sharp that it's obviously Houdini himself performing these dangerous stunts (and not Bob Rose as some critics have claimed).

Although Houdini had a much-publicized interest in life after death, his story is pure melodrama of the most ridiculous caliber imaginable. Even on its own puerile level (and disregarding its supernatural elements), the gaslight plot makes no sense whatever. (Of course, Bela Lugosi could have given the villain a good run, but Arthur Maude is far too conventional). Its purpose, however, is primarily to showcase Houdini's various escapist stunts and thrills; and this it does quite well. As an actor, however, his powers are somewhat limited, but these limitations are cleverly disguised by the role he plays here. He has seen to it that he is given plenty of close-ups and it's fascinating to watch this somewhat odd-looking, yet undoubtedly charismatic little man, go through his paces.

Harry Houdini is found frozen in a black of ice and thawed out after 100 years. He finds what he thinks is the reincarnation of his lover and has to help her over come some bad guys.

Well made melodramatic thriller chugs along at a good clip until you suddenly realize that other than some great stunts Houdini isn't going to do anything "magical". Its not bad, actually far from it, its just that this is Houdini and you want something wondrous. Worse the one magical bit, the cell escape is cut up in such away as to make it dull and unbelievable. I'm guessing it wasn't filmed that way, but breaking it into the start of the event and then having it finish as a flash back kills it. From what I've read this is the problem with most of Houdini's films and was the reason it never really went anywhere. Worth a look for magic nuts who'll want to see Houdini in action, and for anyone else who wants to see an okay little melodrama.

Granted, that only the grandest of silent films ever rises from the flailing ruins of those stuttering sentimental gestures, so mechanically struck by it's insubstantial shadow-marionnettes, faithful to the chattering death of the stilted society which rattled their bones like beads, only to shatter in the moonlight that drains any human warmth, just as night without a candle stiffly draws the blizzard of mothy ashes into the lime-light, light falling, frozen, dusty, over scenes that vision forgets - - - yet, at their best, these ghosts can demonstrate how to die with style.

Alas! not here the preposterous glories of a Phantom of the Opera.

Here, au contraire, a fitfully animated corpse rapidly freezes our living interest. The Man from Beyond, even as Houdini's alter ego, never succeeds in escaping his writer's block of ice. A notion not necessarily more preposterous than the gibbering of many a later entertainment, that has dabbled in the matter of Death, is quickly doomed by the unseeing eye of the director, and the shambling course of the plot.

The only escapade in which Houdini at last, though briefly, sloughs off his bonds of frozen celluloid is during the Niagra rescue sequence, when rapid cutting almost renders the drama fluid. But the trickle of inspiration issuing from the love-lorn block of ice, through the cold shower and restraint put on passion (in the cell where a heart was supposed to beat), gathering to an irresistible torrent of overwhelming passion above the Falls, just never gathers force. Perhaps Houdini's Freudian slipperiness was just too much for director Julian's imagination to hold on to?

Despite Julian's habitual Big White Hunter impersonation on set, with jackboots, johdpurs, and solar topee, this film is definitively the One That Got Away. Julian was himself the original and quintessential parody of the silent, Stroheim-fixated, movie director, and this film is the essential guide to everything we feared was true about Film before the sanity of sound came, and filled up the booming emptiness of those trackless wastes, where stranded, phosphorescent phantoms open and shut their useless mouths under the empty glare of the sand-filled lens of other days.

Let us restore these ashes to that Vault, from which no light escapes. This thing is a parody of light - a jerking, staggering, Dance of Death. Lock it away - the Horror!

Early in his career on the stage escape artist and magician Harry Houdini made a living partly showing how the popular faze of spiritualists were hoodwinking the public. He did this by demonstrating to his audiences some of the tricks they used to supposedly communicate with the dead. Houdini still believed there was a spiritual world in the afterlife, but he saw the dishonesty of those who exhibited such interactions with the dead during their seances. When he met Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, novelist of super sleuth Sherlock Holmes, the two established a friendship despite the writer possessng a firm belief in spiritualism, reinforced by the death of his son during World War One who he felt was always near him .

Houdini had acted in a series of films before he established his own movie production company to get more control over his pictures. Partly inspired by Doyle's firm belief in the spiritual world, the magician embarked on a project that dealt with reincarnation and the afterlife. In April 1922's "The Man From Beyond," he plays a man frozen on an old sunken Arctic ship who's thawed out, only to eventually meet his fiancee of 100 years before. She, meanwhile, is caught up in a riveting scheme by modern day shysters.

Doyle was impressed by the Houdini movie. The author believed the magician had super human powers in interacting with the next dimension by his staged acts. The writer's second wife, Jean Leckie, was a self-prescribed spiritualist who claimed she could communicate with Houdini's late wife. Harry agreed to attend her session. When Jean produced a handwritten passage of her transcription of what Houdini's mother claimed to say during the seance, he scoffed at the session. His mother, he claimed, did not know hardly any English, yet Jean's submitted page had her speaking flawless English.

Houdini and Doyle argued the point in public, causing a rift in their friendship. The magician did agree with his wife Bess that if he died he would attempt to communicate with her in secret code. When he passed away from an untimely death in 1926, she conducted a seance every year around Halloween for 10 years, when she gave up the annual tradition. "10 years is long enough to wait for any man," she lamented.

"The Man From Beyond" was Houdini's fourth movie, which didn't produce the box office results he had hoped for. He acted and produced in one more film, 'Haldane of the Secret Service,' in 1923, before he gave up movies and returned to the stage. As one biographer commented, "His 'acting' consists of three expressions: pucker-lipped flirtatiousness, open-eyed surprise, and brow-knitted distress."

Man From Beyond, The (1922)

** (out of 4)

Early science fiction mixed with drama has a man (Harry Houdini) frozen in the Arctic for 100 years. When he's discovered, a scientist thraws him out and when he awakens he wants the love of his life back. This is a pretty boring film even with its short running time of 61-minutes. There's really not too much going on as a murder sideplot is pretty boring. An exciting ending and seeing Houdini do some of his famous stunts are the only reasons to watch this.

Now available through Kino with other Houdini shorts. This version is a lot better than the public domain release by Alpha.