Continuing my scene-by-scene dissection of the 1953 biopic HOUDINI starring Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh. Last time, Houdini returned to America only to find himself ignored by the press. That's about to change.
Chapter 17: America's Sensation
We start in the bedroom of an unknown woman (Maxine Gates). She's in a nightgown and is clearly just waking up. The sound of a band in the street briefly draws her attention, but she shrugs it off. As a New Yorker, she's seen it all. She then raises her blinds to find Harry Houdini hanging upside-down in a straitjacket outside her window and flips out.
We then cut outside to the scene of a classic Houdini suspended straitjacket escape. There's a crowd watching as Houdini struggles high above what is later identified as Times Square. It's worth noting that Houdini is using the same style of straitjacket from the Magician's Club dinner scene. It's also fun to know that this was shot on the Paramount backlot on Halloween (1952).
In the crowd, a policeman on horseback briefly blocks Bess and Mama's view. I'm not entirely sure of this policeman's purpose. Are we supposed to be worried he will stop the performance? Houdini did famously have trouble with the New York police during two such stunts, so this might be a way to express the idea that New York police kept a close eye on Houdini street stunts. Or maybe it's just a way to draw our eye across the crowd.
The policeman moves on once Houdini sheds his straitjacket and the crowd applauds. Among them is a reporter, Simms (Douglas Spencer), who tells his companion, "Remarkable fellow. I'll interview him today."
The suspended straitjacket escape became Houdini's go-to outside stunt in 1915 and continued until the end of his career. Houdini only did the escape in North America, so its use here as Houdini's first big American outdoor stunt is perfect.
Houdini finally received permission to do the stunt in Times Square in 1917 to promote a war benefit at the New York Hippodrome. In 1923, he repeated the escape in front of the famed Palace Theater in Times Square. He got into the air before police could stop him and was later fined.
The movie now dissolves into a montage of Houdini's American success. This is the second montage of the film, and as I said in Chapter 13, I love a good Houdini movie montage! So let's break this one down.
We begin with a shot of B.F. Keith's Palace Theater in New York, where we see Houdini is held over for his "26th week." Houdini certainly played the Palace, but no vaudevillian would be held over 26 weeks! Houdini's longest engagement was 19 weeks at the New York Hippodrome with his Vanishing Elephant. And speaking of the Vanishing Elephant...
Houdini's most famous feat of magic is represented on the front page of Variety. We see two photos of the elephant vanish with Tony Curtis inserted into an actual photo of Houdini (see below). The date on the paper is August 12, 1919, which is a year after the vanishing elephant, but still close. This also re-establishes an in-movie chronology that I will track as we continue.
The montage continues with Houdini and Bess doing a levitation. The Houdinis did do a Trilby levitation early in their careers, but it wasn't a trick Houdini was ever known for. But it's another nice uncut magic trick for the actors to perform. However, Tony makes a small mistake that reveals the trick if you know what to look for.
Other material was shot for this montage that never made it into the finished film. This includes Houdini's plane-to-plane transfer from The Grim Game (shot in black and white and undercranked to look like a silent film), a cremation illusion (again, not something Houdini was known to perform), and the Milk Can escape. It's a shame to lose The Grim Game clip, as it would have been a nice nod to his film career. (Houdini's movies would not get acknowledgment until the 2012 Houdini Miniseries.)
However, the true heartbreaker is the loss of the Milk Can escape, which still did make it onto posters and promotional material. Photos from the scene show Houdini performing it at the Orpheum Theatre in Harrisburg, PA. At the start of the montage, we saw the B.F. Keith's name on the Palace marquee. This name-checks the two primary American Vaudeville circuits of Houdini's day. These names would have been familiar to 1953 audiences, and it's a great way to show that Houdini was a vaudevillian for much of his career.
The montage concludes with a shot of Mr. and Mrs. Schultz (Sig Ruman and Connie Gilchrist) from the Dime Museum opening sequence sitting among Houdini's appreciative audience. They have a short and one-sided argument about who exactly fired him. It's a nice callback and a great way to end the scene.
Up to this point, Houdini has been a light, colorful, and celebratory movie. But it's about to shift tone and travel into darker waters with its most famous and frightening sequence.
Want more? The poster we see in the cut Milk Can scene is based on an actual poster from Houdini's appearance in Harrisburg in 1912. You can see that, as well as a review of his Milk Can escape, as a "Scholar" member of my Patreon below.
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