Rare Action and Fantasy Films from Master Magician

Famed stage magician and escape artist Harry Houdini was one of the most popular world celebrities during the first quarter of the 20th century. Not too many people realize that Houdini was also a movie star who produced and sometimes directed his own films, and even owned a film processing company.

This past Tuesday, Kino Video (http://www.kino.com) released a comprehensive three-DVD box set of Houdini’s surviving films. There is Houdini’s first starring role in a 15-chapter action-adventure serial, along with three complete Houdini features, the only known excerpt from another feature, and several early newsreels of Houdini escapes. There are also image galleries, censorship notes, notes on the films, and an audio recording of Houdini introducing one of his escape routines.

Included on the set are some rare Houdini-related films from the collection of the late MSUM professor Rusty Casselton: a 10-minute 1910 French comedy inspired by Houdini’s exploits and two newsreel clips featuring Houdini’s magician brother, Hardeen.

All of Houdini’s dramatic films spotlight his ability to achieve spectacular escapes from handcuffs, straight-jackets, ropes, and more.

For many Houdini fans, the centerpiece of the collection is the 1919 serial, “The Master Mystery,” which not only brought Houdini his first dramatic role but is the earliest known movie featuring a mechanical man as antagonist (before the word “robot” was even invented). Although a few of its 15 episodes have not survived, about four hours worth of the story is there and the missing segments are bridged by explanatory titles.

“The Master Mystery” is one of the few silent-era serials to survive in something close to a complete version. While it is interesting for both its star and entertainingly melodramatic plot, unfortunately the independently produced film is cinematically mediocre. It is adequate for its plot, but looks more like a film made five years earlier, during a period when filmmaking techniques developed extremely rapidly.

On the other hand, the film’s huge box office success resulted in Houdini signing with Paramount Pictures, where he got seasoned directors like Irving Willat and James Cruze, name Hollywood actors to co-star, and the production resources of a well-established major studio. “The Grim Game” (1919) came out the same year as “The Master Mystery,” but the surviving five-minute excerpt (of a spectacular in-flight plane-to-plane transfer and crash) appears both more ambitious and more polished.

Easily the best-made film in the collection is “Terror Island” (1920), also done at Paramount. In this film Houdini plays an inventor with a submarine who becomes involved in a plot to recover treasures from a sunken ship. Again, unfortunately, a big chunk of the middle of the film (about 20 minutes) is missing, but explanatory titles cover the plot gap, and what’s left still runs about 55 minutes.

Houdini decided to leave Paramount and start his own production company so he could have more personal control. The two surviving features from this period are not quite as slick as the Paramount product, but are both competent and entertaining.

“The Man From Beyond” (1922) is an involving, semi-supernatural melodrama about a man from 1820 who was frozen in ice. He is discovered by an arctic explorer, thawed out, and brought back to New York of 1922, where he meets a girl who looks identical to his long-lost love and who is about to marry a shady villain. The surviving 16mm print it was copied from has somewhat soft picture quality, but the fast-moving story makes up for it, and it demonstrates Houdini’s fascination with reincarnation.

“Haldane of the Secret Service” (1923) was Houdini’s last dramatic film, and is one he wrote and directed, as well as producing and starring in. Little-seen since its first release, it is the film that has survived in the best physical condition, a fine quality 35mm print with color tints. This has Houdini in the title role trying to thwart international counterfeiters. Interestingly, it incorporates footage Houdini shot while on vacation in various European cities, thinking that such location scenes might come in handy for future films. He later wrote the story to make use of these shots, making the budget look higher than it actually was.
All the films have appropriate musical scores added by a variety of veteran accompanists, including Clark Wilson (“Terror Island”), Jon Mirsalis (“The Man From Beyond”), Stuart Oderman (“The Master Mystery”), and Ben Model (all the other films). While there are no audio commentaries, extensive printed notes can be accessed from the menus. Kino Video’s “Houdini Movie Star” box set is a valuable addition to any DVD library, and a must-have for any Houdini fans.