Chapter 22: Pagoda Torture Cell
We now enter the final act of Houdini (1953). It starts with Bess arriving at a theater advertising Houdini's return. Much to her alarm, she sees a large poster for the "Pagoda Torture Cell." Beside it is a sign reading, "Opening Tomorrow Night, Halloween." Fate is screaming out at Bess (and us) from the theater front.
It's a shame we don't see the theater name. But we know this is New York, not Detroit, and based on the Variety headline we saw in the preceding montage, this is Halloween 1925, not 1926. So the movie is taking liberties in the buildup to the big climax.
As Bess dashes into the lobby, a janitor tells her Houdini is not at the theater; he's at "Sherman Ironworks on 14th Street." Notice there is a Houdini handcuff case on display in the lobby with a man looking at it. Before high-resolution, I wondered if this could be a cameo by Joseph Dunninger. It resembles him, and what is a great idea, especially as Dunninger knew Houdini in these final years. But I can now see it's just an extra, dang-it.
Bess arrives at Sherman Ironworks, which is not rooted in any real Houdini history. Houdini's
workshop was in New Jersey. There, Bess finds Harry and Otto working on the large glass Pagoda Torture Cell. Bess folds her arms and says. "So this is why you kept me in the country all week." Bess spending time in the country while Harry worked in New York is rooted in Houdini
history. In fact, I'm pretty sure Bess was in the country when Houdini performed his famous Shelton Pool Test.
Houdini says they just wanted to see if it was "workable." Bess calls him out on this, saying she has been to the theater and it's "plastered all over the front." Houdini shrugs and says he's done water escapes before; this is nothing different.
"Nothing different?" says Bess, "It's an exact copy of Von Schweger's man in the bottle. It's what killed him. Don't you understand, Harry? It's what killed him."
Wait a minute. While this is a copy of the model Harry received as a gift from the late Von Schweger (see
Chapter 15), Otto said nothing about it having anything to do with Von Schweger's death. I can only assume that Bess means Von Schweger's obsession with his "man in the bottle" trick isolated him and led to a collapse in health, hence "killing" him?
Notice that Bess does not mention the fact that Harry is planning this for Halloween. Remember her warning before the ice escape in Detroit: "That's not your day." But this would have been redundant, and there is something smart about letting the audience see this red flag without having to articulate it once again.
Harry says he's not worked before an audience in two years (further muddying the timeline as established in the montage), and he has to give them something new. "People aren't going to stand in line to watch me pull rabbits out of a hat," he says. This line reminds us of the poster that stood on Harry's platform at Schultz's Dime Museum. A rabbit from a hat was enough for audiences back then. But now Houdini and the world have lost their innocence. Both have hardened like the iron we see and hear being forged all around them.
Harry and Bess then address the key underlying issue, and we have this excellent exchange:
BESS
Why? Why must every act you do be flirting with death?
HARRY
Because it's the only act that'll hold an audience spellbound. People fall asleep at the opera, but they stay wide awake at the bullfights. Because there's one man defying death down in that arena. You take this out of my act and I'm nothing.
BESS
You keep it in and we're both nothing.
It's a standoff. Notice the X on the glass of the cell between them during this confrontation. A clever visual that separates them and marks the cell as the ultimate object of their core conflict.
Harry chooses death. He tells Otto, "Have this sent to the theater. We'll test it for tomorrow's performance." Even Otto, the enabler, seems upset by this decision. Houdini snaps at him, "Well, what are you standing there for?" Bess turns and leaves. Everyone is at odds as we head into the final show.
By the way, I've always thought Otto looked more like Houdini in his famous workshop photos than Tony Curtis, amiright?
Houdini (1953) presents the "Pagoda Torture Cell" as Houdini's final creation at the end of his career. That is far from the truth. Houdini debuted his Water Torture Cell, later known as The Chinese Water Torture Cell, in 1912, midway through his career, and he performed it hundreds of times. But it was still Houdini's penultimate stage escape, just as it is here.
Contrast this with the
Houdini Miniseries of 2014, in which the Water Torture Cell is presented as Houdini's
first major stage escape. That movie has nowhere to go (and it doesn't). So, as far as old-fashioned drama is concerned, making the Torture Cell Houdini's final escape is a great way to build up its importance...and menace.
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