The great Houdinis

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Movie
German title The great Houdinis
Original title The Great Houdinis
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1976
length 96 minutes
Rod
Director Melville Shavelson
script Peter Benchley
Melville Shavelson
music Peter Matz
camera Archie R. Dalzell
cut John Woodcock
occupation

The great Houdini is an American television - Biography from the year 1976 .

action

After her husband Harry Houdini passed away, Bess Houdini cannot explain what happened to all the mysterious signs, such as the music box that suddenly starts playing, the picture of her hanging crookedly over and over, or the knock on the door, even though nobody was in front of it stands on himself. In the cemetery at her husband's grave, she meets the Reverend Arthur Ford, who tells her that he is a man of God and not a deceiver, so he knows that someone is trying to contact her. But she blocks.

After they had known each other for ten days, Houdini introduced his future Catholic wife, Bess, to his Jewish mother, Cecillia Weiss. The mother is just as dissatisfied with her as she is with the son's desire to earn a living as a magician and not as a lawyer or doctor. Against his mother's wishes, there is still a Catholic and then a Jewish wedding. Houdini takes Bess with him as his assistant and goes on tour, which sometimes goes more and sometimes less well. After a bad performance, she asks him to give up sorcery and do something decent. But Houdini cannot imagine anything other than sorcery. Slowly but steadily, he is becoming more and more popular. When challenged by the Bridgeford Journal , he lets himself sink tied up in the Atlantic and free himself.

Although Bess is always loyal to her husband, she does not feel welcome in the Jewish family, especially through Harry's mother. Rather, she has to be accused of having become sterile after a premature birth. To reassure her and to prove his love, Harry sells all of his magic equipment, uses the money to buy her a ring and promises her that he will continue to do a regular job. Bess is horrified and tries to dissuade him from giving up his dream. But it's only his mother who convinces him to keep going. She gives him all her savings with which he is supposed to finance a trip to Europe. In Europe he meets Sir Arthur Conan Doyle , whom he impresses by being able to escape from a cell of the police station completely naked and tied up. His European tour will be a huge success. He invites his mother to his home country Hungary and wants to take part in a gala evening with her and his wife. But the mother feels humiliated to be seen with a Catholic.

Back in America, Houdini is a celebrated magician. His numbers are getting bigger and more dangerous, and he is getting more and more famous. During a magic show, he learns that his sick mother has died. A world collapses for him and he seeks solace from necromancers in his pain . He cancels all shows and experiences a huge fraud at a séance where he allegedly speaks to his mother. Deeply hit and unable to process his loss, Houdini ends up in the psychiatric ward of the Bellevue Hospital Center . After a while he is visited by Bess, who is angry that Houdini is more mourning for his mother than for being a good husband to her. He assures her of his love and makes the decision to expose all the spiritistic charlatans.

However, since many people believe in magic and wonder, his new shows, in which Houdini shows off the tricks of the charlatans, are very poorly received. With the help of Congress , he is fighting against the fraud. During a rehearsal with his friend Conan Doyle, he also shows him the tricks. Houdini is appalled that Doyle, the creator of the brilliant Sherlock Holmes , continues to believe in the spiritual. Before the Congress, Houdini later asserts that he does not want to attack the religious aspects, but only wants to expose the frauds.

Since Houdini bet that he could take any blow in his stomach, two students appear in his dressing room at a magic show on October 22, 1926. Unprepared, someone hits his stomach and hits him hard. He gets up and demands a second blow, which he can easily block. But with the first hit he feels really bad and he spits blood. Although Bess wants him to see a doctor, he's putting on his show. He is getting worse and worse and he almost drowns during his escape act. Shortly afterwards he is admitted to the hospital. He died on October 31, 1926 at Grace Hospital in Detroit . The newspapers report that he passed away on Halloween and took his secrets with him.

Two years later, at his home in New York City , Bess accepts Ford's invitation to find out what the news is behind all of this. In the subsequent séance, in which Ford acts as a medium, the message that Ford gives her seems so real that she believes that Houdini still loves her and speaks through Ford.

criticism

The lexicon of international film says about film: Sometimes lengthy television film staged according to conventional models, which is primarily of interest because of many prominent guest appearances and spectacular tricks.

background

NBC originally planned to release a television film on the 50th anniversary of Houdini's death. The main actors were Robert Blake and Charles Bronson . Jean Holloway would write the script and Bill McCutchen would produce the film. Under the working title The Heart Is Quicker Than The Eye , however, the film never got beyond script development.

The film was shot within 20 days from April 28, 1976 to May 25, 1976. Peter Cushing Actor Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, came directly from the filming of Star Wars from England when he turned off all his scenes on 11 and 12 May

On May 25, 1976, the last day of shooting, a scene was scheduled in The Belmont Amusement Park / Coney Island , in which Houdini Bess asked for her hand on the roller coaster. Although the scene was in the script, it was never shot and is therefore not included in the film.

The film had its first television broadcast on October 8, 1976 on ABC , then under the original title The Great Houdinis . When it was re-broadcast on April 6, 1977, the title was shortened to The Great Houdini . In Germany, the film was broadcast for the first time on Tele 5 on August 5, 1991 with the translation of the original title .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The great Houdinis. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  2. ↑ The men who almost played Houdini on wildabouthoudini.com from 23 August 2011 (English), accessed on 16 September 2012
  3. ↑ MAKING 'THE GREAT HOUDINIS' on wildabouthoudini.com from March 19, 2011 (English), accessed on September 16, 2012
  4. ↑ Paul Michael Glaser helps solve a 'Great Houdinis' mystery on wildabouthoudini.com from February 13, 2012, accessed on September 16, 2012
  5. ↑ 'Great Houdinis' title mystery solved on wildabouthoudini.com on July 19, 2012 (English), accessed on September 16, 2012