Purely Joyful Movie!

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Here's a bright, colourful, entertaining if not always factually accurate biopic of the great escapologist Harry Houdini. Tony Curtis plays the part with great brio as you'd expect and is well supported by his fretful but usually supportive wife played coincidentally by his real life wife of the time Janet Leigh.Of course being a Hollywood screen biography, it plays pretty loosely with the facts, most obviously with his apparent death scene in the last reel just after he's broken out of his not-quite death- defying water torture escape. Maybe the director thought that the reputed story of a young student punching him in the stomach unawares was a bit tawdry but this substitute conclusion seemed over-melodramatic in the extreme.Otherwise, while I'm no expert on Houdini's career I did recognise other familiar incidents in the entertainer's life, including breaking out of a London prison, the straitjacket escape suspended outside a New York skyscraper and the plunge under the ice sealed in a safe although you have to wonder how he could possibly miss the big hole cut in the ice right above him through which the safe was dropped. The movie also takes in his interest in spiritualism as he attempts to connect with his mother in the afterlife after her death.These quibbles apart, the movie was energetic and highly watchable as befits its subject. Curtis and Leigh make a handsome couple and the sets variously including recreations of a carnival show- ground, jail and vaudeville theatres are also easy on the eye.In short, this film was fine escapist entertainment - sorry!

After being introduced to this movie as a child by my father, I remembered it being quite a spectacular. To a child's eyes, it probably was. However, from an adult perspective, this is the epitome of the "style over substance" Hollywood that ruled the decade in which it was made (1950s).For a basic plot summary, this film tells the rough story of Harry Houdini (Tony Curtis), known to this day as the greatest magician of all-time. His wife, Bess (Janet Leigh), also plays a key role, as the two sometimes work together while other times are at odds over Harry's magic-fueled obsessions. This film follows the rough chronological timeline of Houdini's life, but to say that it is an accurate portrayal would be a disservice, as it really mashes a lot of things together and is just plain wrong on other accounts.Simply put, "Houdini" is a product of its times, back when movies weren't supposed to be anything "deep". Families went to movies together, so they had to have a broad (which often equaled bland) appeal. The tale of Houdini is an utterly fascinating one, but in this portrayal it is more about letting Curtis be his charming self and putting Leigh in as many fancy dresses to show off her curves as possible.So, if you are old enough to have watched "Houdini" around its theater date, this movie might hold a good deal of nostalgic value to you. It also seems to be great for children, as it is quite colorful and the action is always moving forward. However, if you are looking for even a hair of substantial material about Houdini and his life, please look elsewhere. Only a few scenes (mostly in the final 15 minutes of the picture) convey any real, heartfelt emotion. Otherwise, this is all about the "pomp and circumstance".

This is one of those exercises in Hollywood in the 50s of just fitting a story to the formula. This is a truly awful movie on two levels, both as a movie and as a biography, even in the loosest sense of the medium.As a biography, even one loosely based on a the life of the man and supposedly entertaining it is terrible. The key facts of his life are completely ignored which is a shame as many of them are far more interesting and entertaining than the ones included. His brother doesn't even exist in this movie who was as key a figure in his life as his mother. The movie briefly shows a photo of Houdini's trick where he made an elephant disappear on stage. In the days before TV this was a truly amazing stunt, which they chose to ignore in the movie and show repetitive handcuff openings. Watching this movie one might wonder why Houdini was famous at all.The story telling was bland and repetitive continually showing off the cuff (no pun intended) challenges to Houdini and how he rose to the occasion. The dialogue is childish (in one scene Houdini is upset because no one from the press is there to interview him so he organizes a publicity stunt to which (seconds later in the movie) a journalist in the foreground of the crowd announces "I'm going to interview that fellah." Gee, problem solved!)And while I'm a fan of Tony Curtis he portrays none of Houdini's passion, charisma and enthusiasm that made him famous. And the later spirituals scenes are as embarrassing to watch for the viewer as they are supposed to be for the so called psychic. All the drama is cast aside for lightweight romance and slap my thigh obvious laughs. The humour is extremely dated and was unsophisticated even for it's day.But my biggest disappointed was the ending. Spoiler! Houdini did not die performing one of his stunts. He never filed in his performances. And how he died was far more tragic than the movie version. For this the movie is unforgivable for ruining the great name of Harry Houdini and the great man he was.

It is what it is, namely a smashing piece of entertainment loosely based on a fabulous entertainer of days gone by.The set up is very tidy as we see Houdini in his early days before he was an auditorium filler, we get a nice introduction to his interest in tricks and of course his romance with his sweetheart Bess (a lovely Janet Leigh). We then follow his career arc and get involved with his ego and the ever lasting pursuit of pleasing the audience that we now know leads to a dreadful conclusion. The set pieces are OK and the story from the page is handled very well, Tony Curtis shows both his best and worse sides in this, on one hand he is a wholesome handsome devil may care entertainer, yet on the other hand during scenes where he is one on one with another (notably Leigh), he hams like the front counter in the Butchers Shop.This was the first time I had watched this since about 1990, and the thing that really hits home to me even now is that come the finale, I'm still hoping the great entertainer lives, I believe he will survive that final trick, and regardless of how accurate the film is, what I do know is that the film and its characters have engaged me from the off, job done. 8/10