![]() We didn’t have an extensive period of time. You had to learn a lot of Houdini’s tricks. For somebody to excel on that level, to come from such humble roots, is beyond awe-inspiring. He was a Jewish, Eastern European immigrant, so he overcame anti-Semitism. Also, he overcame much more than the constraints of chains. He had the perfect alibi because he had access, he spoke foreign languages and he had a fan base abroad, as well. He ended up being a secret agent for the U.S. He has reinspired me to be even more disciplined with my work.ĭid you learn things about him that you didn’t know before? It’s pretty fascinating to portray someone who had such an influence on me at an early age before I even knew anything about acting. I used to dabble in magic as a boy and had dreams of becoming a magician. Instead, the force that propels this “Houdini” is not so much “why” but “how” and “what.He was a real childhood hero of mine. Did he serve as a spy for the British and American governments in the years leading to WWI? Maybe, maybe not. Did Houdini actually jump into a frozen river while in chains, as the film’s opener posits? Maybe, maybe not. Whether all of it is true remains open to question, and a more deftly made film would have leveraged that mining the fertile land between truth and illusion. Including, apparently, assignments from the British and American governments to spy on German and Russian leaders in the years leading to WWI (a theory, advanced by William Kalush and Larry Sloman in their 2006 book “The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America’s First Superhero”). When it’s not cluttering the joint with clunky exposition and asides (“Some things can hit you in the gut worse than any punch,” Houdini says in one of the 5 million scenes foreshadowing his death), “Houdini” is a well-shot, decently acted and beautifully costumed chronicle of all the daring exploits. This led him, as we are reminded ad nauseam during the above-mentioned voice-over, to both court and defy death. Houdini was famously attached to his mother, and at least as depicted here, permanently traumatized by a disapproving father, seen only briefly as a rabbi so Old Country he refuses to learn English. ![]() This is particularly so toward the end of the series, when the death of Houdini’s mother leads him to wage a public (and slightly ironic) campaign against fake mediums, including the wife of Arthur Conan Doyle.īut the psychology explored in “Houdini” is so obvious and garden variety that it squanders Brody’s talents. Though never allowed to explore Houdini’s real talent - to remain calm under extreme pressure and to never drop the tiny gadgets that would free him - Brody lends a haunted/obsessive air to the proceedings. Along the way, he acquires a wife, Bess (Kristen Connolly), to increasingly fret about his safety, and an assistant, Jim (Evan Jones), to create the many ingenious devices that allowed Houdini to be Houdini. Magic led him to vaudeville and what would become his signature ability: to free himself from any locked device under increasingly adverse conditions. We meet the illusionist as he jumps, chained, into an ice-covered river only to be transported back, through artful flashback and ruminative voice-over through his Early Years, in which young Erik was instantly drawn to the mystery of and public enthusiasm for magic. No one exploited the public’s desire to be thrilled by deception more than the man born Erik Weisz. But then this is a drama, and History has been smudging the lines of scholarship for a while now, especially since it got into the docudrama business. Not all the escapades featured are historically documented, at least as they are presented here.
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