Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Inadvands Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

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.

Robert J. Maxwell It's 1953 and Tony Curtis is just as cute as Janet Leigh in this likeness of the life and time of Harry Houdini, née Eric Weisz. He and Leigh meet at an exhibition in New York where Curtis plays the Wild Man of Borneo and minutes later, after a quick change, appears as a tuxedo-clad stage magician pulling lines of scarves out of a hat and dodging tomatoes.The courtship is over with quickly and Houdini brings his blond bride home, the bride with no nose to speak of, to meet Mother for the first time. Happily, she does not throw up her hands in horror and shriek, "OMG -- a SHIKSA!" Neither does she tip-toe in on Janet Leigh in the shower and butcher her with a kitchen knife.Not that everything is rosy between the couple as the years go by. He's married to his magic act and she wants to buy a home and settle down. This is a very familiar set of catycorner marital values, as any John Wayne movie will demonstrate, but it's not meant to be taken too seriously -- not enough to interfere with the kids' enjoyment of the movie. What I mean, for instance, is, well, here is an exchange about as serious as any that occurs. Leigh: "You can't pull bread out of a hat!" Curtis: "If you wanted bread you should have married a baker!" More years pass. Houdini becomes a household word, and will remain so, even today. But the tricks become more dangerous. And there are hints of the supernatural, both in the music and in the admonitions of older, more experienced illusionists. Please, Mr. Houdini, do not try to learn the art of dematerialization. It's good advice. There are some things man was never meant to know. Some folks call it hybris. But Houdini is too ambitious for his own good.I think -- I don't want to bother looking it up -- but I think that Houdini didn't die as shown in the movie, drowned in a stunt that had killed another illusionist who was too full of himself. I think he may have asked someone to punch him in the abdomen to demonstrate his rock-hard abs, but the punch caught him unprepared and he suffered some sort of hollow organ injury.In any case, he dies in the movie promising Leigh that he will come back to her, wherever he is. Historically, Mrs. Houdini took this seriously. Harry himself had been deeply into the spiritualist craze of the time. She tried for a dozen or more years to contact Harry through spiritual means. She didn't succeed and finally gave up. Such an ending would be a decrescendo and isn't in the movie, which ends with the possibility at least of Harry's supernatural return.Janet Leigh is certainly attractive in a 1950s movie-star sort of way. You could lay out a hand of solitaire atop her magnificent bosom. She seems to have been a quick study and was a reliable lead in musicals and comedies, with only one truly challenging role. Tony Curtis, on the other hand, was mannered in his acting for years. It wasn't until later that he'd learned his chops and did some splendid work in both comedies like "Who Was That Lady" and "Some Like It Hot", and in dramas like "The Outsider" and "The Boston Strangler." The film itself is a cartoon but it's colorful, capricious, lively and should provide interesting entertainment for the kids -- and some amusement for the more sophisticated.

wes-connors Loosely based on the life of renowned daredevil escape artist Harry Houdini; the operative word is, of course, "loosely". An Internet search for the biography of Mr. Houdini reveals material for a much, much better movie. Still, this is a very entertaining, briskly-paced, and colorful film. A George Pal production, ably directed by George Marshall, this "Houdini" focuses on slight-of-hand, magical "tricks" more than "special effects"; this results in a much more realistic-looking film than you might expect. The story emphasizes the romantic relationship between handsome Tony Curtis (as Houdini) and shapely Janet Leigh (as Bess). They are a very good-looking couple.****** Houdini (7/2/53) George Pal : George Marshall ~ Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, Torin Thatcher, Angela Clarke

Michael_Elliott Houdini (1953) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Highly entertaining film has Tony Curtis playing Harry Houdini, the legendary escape artist. We see Houdini's early life in the circus, the meeting of his future wife (Janet Leigh) and some of his most famous tricks. It goes without saying that a lot of things are made up in the film, including the bizarre ending, which changes how Houdini died. That one change never made much sense to me as it's pretty common knowledge how the man died but outside of that this is an incredibly entertaining movie that features a pretty standard story but a remarkable performance by Curtis. When I say standard story I'm meaning that the screenplay really doesn't try too hard to get into the mind of Houdini or tell us who he was. Instead of giving us much story depth we instead get to see countless tricks being performed by Curtis and Leigh. Everyone knows that the two were married in real life and that certainly rings true as they have no problems playing husband and wife here. Leigh is very good in her role, which is pretty much just a supporting one but Curtis is where the true magic is. Even though he's one of the most recognizable actors in the history of cinema there isn't a second in this film where I didn't see him as Houdini. Curtis does a brilliant job at transforming himself and he even looks very good while performing the various stunts in the film. I'm not sure how much work he actually did but all of the tricks look very real with the exception of the scene where he cuts Leigh in half. There are many dramatic moments in the film full of suspense and this is true in the best sequence where Houdini is performing above the Detroit River when the ropes break and sends him through the ice. We then get a long sequence with him under the ice trying to find his way out. If people are wanting a hard look bio of the man then they'd be recommended to get a book because they aren't going to find anything here. If they want to see an excellent performance with the master's tricks being performed then this film offers that along with a lot of entertainment.