Customer Reviews

Houdini DVD - Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh (Import Edition) - BY GOLDEN CLASSIC COLLECTIBLES

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
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By the early 1900s, the extraordinary Houdini earned an international reputation for his theatrical tricks and daring feats of extrication from shackles, ropes, handcuffs, and Scotland Yard's jails...

The film depicts Houdini's memorable escape from any pair of handcuffs produced by the audience; the outdoor exhibition, when he allows himself to be hanged upside down from his ankles, suspended from the roof of a high building, in a strait jacket; and, the dramatic act, when he accepts to be shackled with irons and placed in a box that is locked, roped, and submerged in frozen waters...

The film also exposes Houdini's campaign against mind readers, fraudulent mediums and others who claim supernatural powers... Houdini shows a passionate talent for escapology and the film did much to create the 'Water Torture Cell' illusion...

With his pretty-boy looks, Tony Curtis handles the title role with passionate skill... His energetic performance, as the talented and motivated magician, is very good...

With good period atmosphere, but with more attention to romance than to interesting detail, the film is quite enjoyable and colorful...

Janet Leigh does a great job as Houdini's faithful wife...

"Houdini," has remained the quintessential movie on magic, despite the fact that it came out over 50 years ago. Often imitated, the film manages to recreate the life and times of the great magician in a powerful way. Although it is a fictionalized version of Harry Houdini's life, the charisma and chemistry of both Curtis and Leigh, as well as the beautiful cinematography and musical score, make the magic real. You feel like you know these people.

I would imagine that more magician's started their careers as a result of viewing of this film than for any other reason. It is long past time for a new release, with perhaps an extra commentary by Mr. Curtis -- who has remained a member of the society of magicians since filming.

Presently this product is only available from Tiwanese imports. A new US release by the studio owing the rights in widescreen anamorphic is urgently overdue ! Perhaps even a delux edition.This movie is the grand daddy of of magician movies and can be considered to be the forerunner of The Prestige and The Illusionist . I hope more fans will log in to support me.

A Hollywood version of Houdini's life by Tony Curtis and his wife Janet Leigh. The Chinese subtitles can be removed by accessing the subtitle button and moving from Chi 1 and Chi 2 to "off". Do not press any button for "off" but just leave it on "off." Fair to midland copy of a great movie.

As a Houdini fan, I was thrilled to find this DVD. However, it is a foreign copy of the movie and has oriental subtitles. Which I couldn't remove. Nonetheless, I was happy to find the movie and enjoyed watching it again. Now if I can just find the Paul Michael Glaser version!

I have a Chinese copy of this movie bought on eBay recently, and it was a lot cheaper than $34. (Sorry to the seller, but....) Previously, an Amazon (possibly same?) seller had it at $40. Never heard of "Golden Classics Collectibles," but it also says "import." The question is, imported from where. It may be imported from China, same as my copy. The copy I have is wide screen. Plays/looks decent, and altho not collector great, being for a lot less $, it is just fine. Too bad this film has not been released on a US DVD in wide screen. There are a lot of excellent films that should be out on DVD, rather than some of the garbage that is available.

This film is of course, a bit smaltzy, and reflects the innocence of the period when it was produced. A rather mythologized version of Houdini's life, Harry (they never call him Erich Weiss, Houdini's real name), falls in love with a young girl who shows kindness to a character he is playing in a dime show. Tony as Houdini is handsome in a Tux, young, and slim. The story plays up the humor and idealized story of the nice boy meets nice girl, while dreaming of winning fame as a magician, despite some spooky bad luck with Halloween. There are plenty of traditional magic tricks that nobody does any more, but the story moves along. Lots of fun. Too bad we don't get that many tricks in some of the other movies.

If you like watching magic, I recommend Shag-o-rama (aka The Linguini Incident) which is witty, with a great score, and a lot of fun, as well as The Presitge, and The Illusionist. The Illusionist is really magical, like a fairy tale, and very romantic. The tricks and illusions are charming. The prestige has a harder edge, and the crude reality behind the tricks and the strange sci-fi twist to the story are fascinating, if a bit disillusioning. If you like Houdini, may I recommend the book - The Secret Life of Harry Houdini: The Making of America's First Super Hero, by Kalush & Sloman.