Haldane of the Secret Service

Houdini seems to be making a bid for himself as leading man of moving pictures, as there isn't a pair of handcuffs in the film's six reels. At one point he is surround by the bad guy's henchmen and knocked unconscious and then - after their leader says "You know what to do with him!" -- thrown in the river...but is not bound in chains, stuffed in a sack, locked in a trunk etc. The film's sets and costumes are great, and the location footage in NYC, London and Paris are nice to see. The story and plot is contained in main dialog inter-titles, and feels like one of those silent films that was a stage play first, with a lot of scenes of people standing around doing exposition via inter-titles. At best this film is an interesting curiosity, and the surviving print looks great and is complete.

Much weaker than the more widely seen Houdini movie "The Man From Beyond." In this one, Houdini is a Secret Service agent on the trail of international counterfeiters. Houdini has a star's intensity on the screen, but the story is confused and badly told, and horribly melodramatic. The one escape sequence is reasonably good, but otherwise Houdini mostly delivers dialog or engages in unconvincing fisticuffs with bunches of extras, neither of which show him off to advantage. The film has a rather unpleasant "yellow peril" theme and thuggish Caucasian actors done up in "Chinese" makeup, which is somewhat offset by a heroic Chinese actor in a secondary role.

Rarely screened, not available on video, and thus not easy to see.

Most people probably don't know that magician Harry Houdini made a few movies during the latter part of his life. The last of these was was HALDANE OF THE SECRET SERVICE. Well, I haven't yet seen his earlier ones, but you might assume this could be his best because he had so much experience with his earlier films. If that is the case, then the earlier ones were REAAALLLY bad! That's because HALDANE was a very dull film whose only strength were its location shots in Paris and the UK--something quite amazing for a 1920s film.

The plot is about Haldane (Houdini) investigating a ring of counterfeiters led by a mysterious Chinese baddie. Along the way, Haldane meets a young lady (who seemed rather dim) and despite having very little reason, he falls for her by the end of the film--even though her family is deeply involved with the criminal empire.

As for what I didn't like about the film, there was quite a bit. First, this was about the talkiest silent film ever made. Having a talky film may not be bad, but with a silent, it's a huge problem. Too often, you read and read and read and there isn't all that much action despite it being an action film. Second, while Houdini was an amazing magician, he was no great actor actor AND there is only one minor magic trick (of sorts) in the film. It just doesn't play to his strengths. In addition, the film just seemed uninspired and unexceptional.

Overall, it's worth seeing as a curio--you can see Houdini doing something other than acting in old archival footage. But, for the average viewer, it's eminently skipable.

The best thing thing this movie has going for it is that it has Houdini starring as Haldane, a Treasury agent who is tracking down a worldwide counterfeiting ring. Also a plus is that it uses a lot of extras for crowd scenes and has a large number of different sets including a couple in London. One of the interesting crowd scenes was of a Chinese festival in Chinatown. The most exciting scene is when Houdini is tied to a water wheel and escapes - that was good. But the movie was a real slog to sit through - very dull. It was overloaded with title cards. The movie's introduction is three long frames starting with "China - old in wisdom when the world was young - mother of mystery and the black arts of necromancy behind her yellow veil of secrecy"...and on and on. Along the way, Haldane falls in love with a pretty but really dim (and dull) damsel in distress. With one important exception, all the Chinese characters are described as being sly, wily or sinister. Even the title cards are boring. The crooks, who are hiding out in a monastery are describe as "... Disguised in the habiliment of Godly men." Habiliment? You don't see that word used too often (like never). Glad I saw it once but that was enough.

Included in the Houdini box set by Kino, this is a pretty dull and clunky thriller. Houdini plays Haldane, son of the late "Silent Saunders" Haldane also of the Secret Service. Somehow that comes as a surprise to the villains. There's a counterfeiting ring in which an apparently innocent woman is unwittingly entangled, and she becomes the love interest for Haldane. Is she really innocent or isn't she? There's also a subplot involving marriage, who's marrying or already married to whom and why, and that doesn't serve much purpose for the viewer, really.

The best scene is perhaps when Haldane is strapped by the villains to a water wheel. It's an odd thing to do, as it doesn't dunk him in the water, it just spins him around, which would be annoying, not fatal. He really appears to be strapped to it. Somehow the wheel breaks loose, and that does dunk him in the water, and he makes his escape.

Not recommended at all, not even particularly for Houdini fans, but it's nice it survived anyway.