kenjha This colorful biography of the famed magician focuses on his later life and career. It is less than factual but that's not a bad thing, as the primary purpose here is to entertain, not necessarily to inform. And it is quite entertaining for the most part, although it tends to become silly as it touches on premonitions and the supernatural. Houdini was best known for his escape routines and many of them are on display here. Curtis performs well in one of his best early roles, bringing a lot of energy and nicely conveying Houdini's passion for his craft. Leigh, who was married to Curtis at the time, is lovely as his devoted wife in their first screen pairing.

mickran 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.

DKosty123 Tony Curtis was the proper person to play Harry Houdini when this movie was made. He had the right attitude. Janet Leigh, his wife in real life then, was outstanding as Bess Houdini and the sparks between them show on this film. To me the problem is the script.The real Houdini's life was much more interesting than the points of his life presented here. The story covers some highlights of Harry's life, and a little of the special relationship with his mom. It totally leaves out Harry's brother, the great Hardine. It doesn't get into the barn storming career or the great tricks Houdini did enough.The film also fails script wise to show how well Erich Weiss promoted himself enough. I think the script was designed for Curtis & Leigh and misses the best parts of Harry's life. From what I have seen and read about Houdini, a much more interesting story is there to be told. This story does not tell it entirely.I am glad they tried to do what they did here. For Curtis & Leigh fans this is a great showcase. If it were to be remade, there are more highlights of Houdini's amazing life that could be written to make a better film. I'd challenge Hollywood to tackle that. For now, this is the best we've got, but I have to wonder what could have been with a better script.

encyes There are too many elements that are wrong with 'Houdini' to make it anything more than 'just another Tony Curtis movie'. Coming into it not knowing the magician's biography might work initially, but once you learn about the real Harry Houdini, you'll soon find to like this film less and less as the story get more and more further from the truth. One has to wonder what the studio executives were thinking when they went in making this film with such "blinders" on. It is truly sad in the sloppy play-out of the man who would become the world's most famous magician. The real facts are just a snippet in the movie and although it entertains, it does an injustice to the great illusionist. Houdini's life won't be made with some accuracy until the 1970's with "The Great Houdinis" (with 'Starsky and Hutch's Paul Michael Glaser and 'All in the Family's Sally Struthers). Sadly, this TV movie has yet to make it to DVD. Clearly Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh are not bad, and their on-screen romance is convincing, but 'Houdini' - once scrutinized - is nothing more than a quickly-produced picture made to cash in on the illusionist's name.