Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh in Houdini (1953)

Producer George Pal and Paramount Pictures brought Houdini to movie theaters in the summer of 1953. Real-life husband and wife Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh – appearing in their first film together – deliver top-notch performances as the amazing Houdinis.

Harold Kellock’s Houdini Book

Houdini is based on the book Houdini: His Life Story from the Recollections and Documents of Beatrice Houdini (Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1928) by Harold Kellock. Philip Yordan penned the screenplay and George Marshall directed.

Houdini Cast

Tony Curtis (Harry Houdini) and Janet Leigh (Bess Houdini) head the cast. Other players include Torin Thatcher (Otto), Angela Clarke (Mrs. Weiss), Stefan Schnabel (German Prosecutor), Ian Wolfe (Malue), Sig Ruman (Schultz), Michael Pate (Dooley of the London Examiner), Connie Gilchrist (Mrs. Schultz), Malcolm Lee Beggs (British Warden), Frank Orth (Mr. Hunter), Barry Bernard (Inspector Marlick) and Douglas Spencer (Simms).

It was producer George Pal who proposed the teaming of Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, who had married on June 4, 1951. At the time Curtis was on loan from Universal while Leigh was under contract to MGM. Both actors would earn their normal salaries for work on Paramount’s Houdini, which in Curtis’ case amounted to $1,500 a week.

Tony Curtis Becomes Houdini

Upon her death in 1943, Beatrice Houdini had willed some 300 of her husband’s magic tricks to renowned magician/mentalist Joseph Dunninger. Paramount Pictures hired both Dunninger and another magician, George Boston, as technical advisors.

“George Boston was the one who taught me all the tricks,” Tony Curtis reports in his book, Tony Curtis: The Autobiography (William Morrow, 1993). “I worked with him every day for about four months before the picture started on escapes and sleight of hand. I was a pretty quick study, and it stayed with me for life.”

Houdini the Movie

Houdini opens at a carnival where young Harry is appearing as the sideshow attraction, Bruto the Wild Man, in Schultz’s Dime Museum. On the side Harry is allowed to practice his magic, impressing a young woman named Bess during one of his performances.  

Harry and Bess marry, with the new husband taking a regular job at a lock and safe factory. While dining out one evening Harry participates in a contest, whereby he escapes from a straitjacket. The first prize is a trip to Europe, with Harry and Bess departing on an ocean liner.

In Europe Houdini becomes an overnight sensation, escaping from a British jail and even performing some of his tricks for an overzealous German prosecutor, who had brought him up on sorcery charges. Houdini returns home to America where he engages in a series of death-defying tricks, including the infamous Water Torture Cell.

Houdini Release, Reviews

Houdini was released with great fanfare on July 2, 1953.

“…Most of Houdini is factual hogwash. Historical accuracy notwithstanding, Houdini is a very entertaining film…” reports TV Guide Online, giving the film three out of four stars.

Houdini Film Analysis

Tony Curtis gives a brilliant performance as Harry Houdini, with Janet Leigh every bit his equal. It’s sheer delight to watch Curtis as he performs many of the great illusionist’s most daring tricks, including one where he is shackled, placed in a locked trunk and dropped through a hole in the frozen Detroit River.

Houdini is an entertaining blend of fact and fiction, with the supernatural thrown in for good measure. The factual portions of the movie correctly portray Houdini’s attempts to contact the spirit of his dead mother, along with his subsequent campaign to expose various spiritualists and mediums as frauds and con artists.

The most blaring piece of fiction comes at the end of the picture, where Houdini dies as a result of a miscalculation inside the Water Torture Cell. The real Houdini died at Detroit’s Grace Hospital on Halloween, October 31, 1926. The cause of death was diffuse peritonitis resulting from a ruptured appendix.

One can’t help but admire Houdini for its mystic qualities as well. That comes in the person of a deceased German magician named Von Schwager, whose assistant Otto presents Houdini with a mysterious icon depicting a man trapped inside a glass cube. The reclusive Von Schwager, it was rumored, had discovered the secret to “dematerialization.”

Houdini on DVD, Houdini Silent Movies  

• Houdini – and it’s no illusion – is available on DVD (Legend Films, 2008).
• Harry Houdini Silent Movies