Houdini Filmnotes

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PART ONE: THE MASTER MYSTERY

Many performers have enjoyed the luxury of becoming

film stars as a secondary career. But few made the transi-tion as effortlessly as Harry Houdini. While at the height of

his fame in the late 1910s, the jump to screen stardom was

not a difficult one to make. Once the decision had been

made, he simply waited for the right opportunity. He didn’t

aspire to be a matinee idol. He merely consented.

Beyond the worldwide recognition of his name, Houdini

was armed with a physical talent that audiences -- even

those who had seen him perform live -- were eager to

study up close. And it was a talent that would not be hin-

dered by the medium's lack of sound. The cinema was a

feather just waiting to be plucked by Houdini and placed inhis cap.

The greater challenge was sustaining his cinematic fame.

His first film would be virtually guaranteed to be a hit, but

could he forge a long-term career for himself in the film in-

dustry? As shrewd a businessman as he was flamboyant a

showman, Houdini sought to insure his success by involved

himself in every facet of filmmaking: acting, writing, direct-

ing, promoting.

This meant every film in which he starred bore his indeli-

ble signature but, as he was not an experienced filmmaker,

this was not always a blessing.

The first major vehicle to bear Houdini's name was The

Master Mystery , a fifteen-chapter serial that began unspool

ing the week of January 6, 1919. But this was not Houdini'sfirst exposure to motion pictures. He had already been en-

gaged in numerous filmic projects extending back to the in-

fancy of the medium.

If we date the origin of cinema to the Lumière Brothers

exhibition of the Cinématograph on December 28, 1895

the medium was only five years old when Houdini made his

"By the end of the war, Houdini had more serious competition to worry

about than 'frauds and cheapskates doing imitation handcuff acts'

...something had to be found to replace his vaudeville act not only as a

money-maker, but also to keep his torch of fame burning bright. And

in 1919 the answer was obvious -- he should become a movie star."

William Lindsay Gresham

Houdini: The Man Who Walked Through Walls

1959



screen acting debut. It was 1901, and Houdini was enjoying

a successful European tour when he appeared in a film en-

titled Merveil leux Exploits du Célèbre Houdini á Paris (Mar-

velous Exploits of the Famous Houdini in Paris), produced

by the Pathé Frères film company.

Walking along a Parisian street with his wife, Bess, Hou-

dini breaks up a melée between the police and a drunkard.

Houdini is taken off to prison and bound in a straitjacket.

He quickly slips out of the device, only to be locked in a se-ries of manacles, from which he also escapes. From his shoe

he takes a key, which he uses to escape the stone cell.

The next time Houdini appeared on film was May 6, 1907,

undressing, being bound in chains and climbing to the top of

the Weighlock Bridge in Rochester, New York. Houdini

commissioned the film as a visual record of his successful

leap and underwater escape. He would later screen this

footage (featured on disc 3 of this collection) as part of his

stage act -- a daring escape too enormous to fit into the

typical vaudeville house.

This second film was often shown alongside another

crude Houdini production. A revisitation of his Merveilleux

Exploits, the untitled two-minute fragment (featured on disc

3 of this collection) was shot on location on the streets of

Paris, in April 1909. Much more elaborate than the

Weighlock Bridge jump film, it is comprised of seven shots

(instead of two) and embellishes its stunt with a bit of dra-

matic intrigue.

In an undated article entitled “Handcuff King – Dives into

the Seine from Top of the Morgue,” an unidentified news-paper provided an account of the film itself, as well as the

making of the film:

The many idlers who were basking in the sunshineclose to the river noticed an automobile pull up at

the Morgue. A man clad in the briefest of bathing cos-tumes descended, to the wonderment of the specta-

tors. Two fellow passengers gripped the scantily-clad

man, secured his wrists with handcuffs and bound hisarms tightly. The crowd, believing it had to do with a

band of lunatics, shouted for police assistance.Four policemen, who had been dozing on duty at

the side of Notre Dame, suddenly woke up and rantowards the wildly gesticulating crowd. In the mean-

time, the principal lunatic, by the aid of a ladder, had climbed to the roof of the Morgue. He stood there for a moment with his enchained hands held above his

head, while the four policemen below looked help-lessly on: Come down, said one policeman, coaxingly.

The man's reply was to plunge headlong into the river.He is gone without a doubt, was the general com-

ment of the spectators of the incident.There was an immediate rush to the bank. Two

working men and a policeman flung off their coats

and plunged in, hoping to save the madman when hecame to the surface. He appeared presently with his

arms freed from the chains, and before the policecould reach him was rescued by a boat which put out

from the opposite bank. On reaching shore, he jumped into the motor, and was driven on.

The police, however, discovered Houdini's identity,and he is said to be prosecuted for being improperly dressed and for bathing in the Seine during prohibited

hours.

Apparently, Houdini suggested that the film was a care-

fully choreographed stunt performed without a break, with

out the authorities' permission, filmed as it happened. But

this is highly unlikely, since it would have required the in-

volvement of at least six cameras (and cameramen) strate-

gically placed to capture every angle of the action. More

than likely, he filmed with a single camera, with the usua

breaks between set-ups (which disproves the belief that thegendarmes were actually chasing him).

These early efforts may have been primitive, but they

planted the idea in Houdini’s mind that feats of escape could

make for exciting cinema, setting into motion the career of

Harry Houdini the actor.

Beyond expanding his popularity and increasing his

wealth, the cinema held another possibility for Houdini. It

would allow him to shape his own persona beyond that o

a clever illusionist. He fancied himself an inventor, patriot

humanitarian, and master criminologist, but these qualities

were not so easily conveyed in stage appearances and inter-views. The movies would allow Ehrich Weiss to be sure

that the public recognized Houdini as the physical and intel-

lectual superman he wanted to be. Thus did his protago

nists invent and operate a variety of high-tech devices

including a hidden microphone, a television camera, diving

suit, gas-powered bullets, a submarine, etc.

In 1917,The Moving Picture World announced that, “The fa

mous self-liberator has accepted the offer of the Williamson

KINO INTERNATIONAL CORP. www.kino.com/houdini333 West 39th Street • New York, NY 10018 • (800) 562-3330



Brothers, and will be featured by them in an international

drama of thrills in the air, on land, and underwater, receiving

for his services the largest sum of money ever paid to any

one performer for a single motion picture.” The salient de-

tails were withheld, which is unfortunate, since the deal was

never consummated. The article continued, “An author

whose virile fiction marks him as one of the greatest men

of letters of the present day has been secured to prepare

the story for this super-picture in which Houdini will bestarred.” This suggests a writer of the ilk of Arthur Conan

Doyle, originator of Sherlock Holmes. Doyle and Houdini

would become friends, but by most accounts, their corre-

spondence didn't begin until 1920, and even then they were

united not by the cinema, but by investigations into the

spirit world.

Liverpool-born John Ernest and George Maurice

Williamson are best known for pioneering the science of

underwater photography, as showcased in Stuart Paton's

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916). They were just com-

pleting The Submarine Eye (1917) when the Houdini project

was announced.The article explains that the film was to be shot “in the

clear waters of the West Indies,” where Houdini would es-

cape from the steel-and-glass tube integral to the

Williamsons' underwater photography. “If the test is suc-

cessful and Houdini performs the impossible, there will be

photographic evidence of it incorporated into the picture

of which he is the star.” Apparently, the challenge was never

conducted, and the film was never made, though his 1920

film Terror Island (written by Arthur Reeve and John Grey)

borrowed several elements from the aborted 1917 proj-

ect.

Undaunted by the collapse of the Williamson Brothers

deal, Houdini began pursuing an acting career in earnest.

According to biographer Kenneth Silverman, entrepreneur

Harry Grossman introduced Houdini to producer B.A.

Rolfe over lunch. Rolfe had made a number of melodramas

at Metro Pictures, including several directed by Tod Brown-

ing. Rolfe and Grossman suggested that Houdini capitalize

on his penchant for daring escapes by starring in a

cliffhanger-style serial.

Rather than put the project under studio control, they

opted to form their own company, the Octagon Film Corp.,

and produce it themselves. The film would then be sold viastates’ rights distribution, a model in which a small company

(without a large distribution/exhibition network) would

lease distribution rights to small companies in specific ter-

ritories. This system allowed for the producer to keep a

larger share of the box-office, but (as Houdini would later

discover) made it very difficult for them to get an accurate

accounting of the film’s actual earnings.

Though he was a notorious micro-manager, Houdini had

the good sense to rely upon experienced filmmakers to

craft this freshman effort. This would not always be the

case.

Arthur B. Reeve was the creator of “Craig Kennedy, Sci-

entific Detective,” an all-American super-sleuth whose ex

ploits began in the pages of Cosmopolitan Magazine in 1910

and continued through a variety of pulp magazines and

more than a dozen novels into the 1930s. In 1914, Reeve's

story The Exploits of Elaine (another Craig Kennedy adven-ture) became one of the earliest and most successful film

serials, in the tradition of The Perils of Pauline, released ear-

lier that year.

To Houdini, Reeve was the perfect candidate to craft his

onscreen persona. He (along with melodrama writer

Charles Logue) was engaged to write a treatment for a fif

teen-chapter serial, punctuated by daring escapes: from a

straitjacket, chains, a diving suit, a garrote, suspended over

a vat of acid, beneath a descending elevator, within a col-

lapsed cave, strapped to an electric chair, nailed inside a

packing crate dumped in a river. The movie would show

case Houdini's greatest escapes, reenacted within a melo

dramatic framework, stretched out over the course o

fifteen weeks.

The film was shot in and around Yonkers, New York.

The story follows the efforts of secret agent Quentin

Locke (Houdini) to expose an elaborate plot masterminded

by Herbert Balcom (Charles Graham) to corner the tech-

nology market buy buying patents and then suppressing the

inventions. In solving the mystery and winning the heart o

the beautiful Eva Brent (Marguerite Marsh), Locke escaped

a variety of tortures, repeatedly eluded the grasp of crimina

henchmen known as “emissaries,” and waged war against aseemingly indestructible robot: the automaton.

“As serials went, it was not very much worse than most,”

wrote biographer William Lindsay Gresham (author of

Nightmare Alley ). Entitled The Master Mystery , Houdini plays

not only a mechanical genius, but a man who fights for the

rights of other entrepreneurs. Gresham observed, “Teddy

Roosevelt had waged strenuous war against trusts which

stood in the way of progress and were suspected of buying




up inventions and killing them; Houdini was a great admirer

of T.R. The ideology seems of clear derivation.”

Upon its original release, The Master Mystery ran slightly

longer than five-and-a-half hours. Several episodes are lost,

or only exist in fragmentary condition. Thus the Kino Inter-

national edition runs slightly less than four hours (238.5

min.) One fragment that exists in particularly poor quality

can be seen in “The Censor’s Report” (in which Houdini is

dangled over a vat of acid).

The first episode, “The Living Death,” premiered in NewYork the week of January 6, 1919. The Moving Picture World

reported, “To say that the opening was auspicious is to use

terms which do not adequately describe the facts. It was a

tremendous success." The film packed the three thousand-

seat Proctor's Theatre in Yonkers and another estimated

three thousand were turned away.

Billboard raved, “This cracker-jack production will thunder

down the ages to perpetuate the fame of this remarkable

genius whose unparalleled achievements have reached from

Aroostook, Maine, to Singapore, China, from Zululand to

the Bering Straits.”

The serial opened in sixteen theaters throughout NewYork state. Because the film was independently distributed,

box-office figures and details of its national exhibition are

limited. It proved so successful in New York that it was re-

released in 1924. By that time, a state censor board had

been established, and the film was subjected

to numerous cuts to soften its depiction of acts that were

deemed “inhuman” and might “tend to incite to crime.” (see

the Censor’s Report on disc 1).

The states’ rights distribution plan, as it often did, proved

to be a problem. “By [Houdini’s] arithmetic, the picture

grossed $225,000, with a net of $80,000, to half of which his

contract entitled him, atop his salary,” wrote Silverman

“When the money failed to come, he decided the partners

had squandered it and were ‘trying to cheat

me out of my 50% profit.’ He was forced to sue Octagon

for $43,000. As depositions and affidavits stacked up, the remaining partners sued one another over the sale of terri-

torial rights...the company, having produced one picture

went bankrupt.”

Rolfe gave up filmmaking to pursue a musical career as a

trumpet player and band leader. Houdini’s early romances

with the cinema had ended badly, but he was undaunted

Having gotten a taste of screen stardom, he knew he

wanted more.

PART TWO: THE GRIM GAME,

TERROR ISLAND, THE MAN FROM BEYOND

“I think the film profession is the greatest...

and that the moving picture is the most

wonderful thing in the world.”

– Harry Houdini

Motivated by the success of The Master Mystery , Houdin

announced that an independent company would be formed

headed by Christian Hemmick of Washington, D.C., “to

make feature films with the magician as star. Houdini wil

write his own stories and he will be directed by Burton

King.” (The Moving Picture World , March 8, 1919)This company would be formed, and King would, in fact

direct one of the films, but this wouldn’t happen for another

two years. Instead, Houdini suddenly abandoned the idea

and signed a deal with Famous Players-Lasky (Paramount-

Artcraft), and would begin filming a new project in Holly

wood on May 1. This news came just two weeks after the

announcement of the independent production company.

“Although the name of Mr. Houdini's director is not avail-

able at this time, it is said that the productions in which he

will appear will offer high-class mystery stories, especially

written for him and affording him the opportunity to prop

erly present his most startling feats.” (The Moving Picture

World , March 22, 1919)

Houdini departed for the West coast on April 16, 1919

His pay rate had escalated from $1,500 to $2,500 per

week. As hot a commodity as he was, Famous Players-Lasky

was reluctant to sign him to a long-term contract.

“Houdini’s original contract with Famous Players called

for only one picture, for although his ability in his particular




line of work was acknowledged to be of the first order, its

potential value as screen entertainment was a more or less

uncertain quantity, especially so on account of the fact that

his picture experience had been limited to one serial.” (The

Moving Picture World , September 13, 1919)

Houdini’s first studio picture was The Grim Game. Based

again on a story by Reeve and Grey, and directed by Irving

WIllat, the film continued The Master Mystery ’s formula of

Houdini as a technical wizard with a knack for escaping anyform of bondage, only this time in a single feature rather

than a serial.

Houdini made it clear he would not deviate from his es-

tablished screen persona. And the characters he portrayed

would always be thinly-veiled versions of himself. Lest the

audience momentarily lose themselves in the drama, and

forget who was playing the role, his characters’ names

served as gentle reminders: Harry Harper, Howard Hillary,

Heath Haldane.

The following detailed plot synopsis appeared in the De-

cember 6, 1919 issue of The Moving Picture World :

Harvey Hanford, the part played by Houdini in The

Grim Game , is a special writer on The Call , who is

noted for his nerve and daring in gathering news. He

has an eccentric millionaire uncle who lives with his

ward, Mary, and will not let Harvey come near him.

The old man knows that his nephew and his ward are

in love with each other, and is opposed to the match.

He is also aware that he is surrounded by three men,

any one of whom would profit by his death. The first

is his lawyer, Richard Raver, who has misappropriated

some of the Cameron funds. The second is Dr. Tyson,

his physician, who expects to marry Mary, heiress to

the Cameron millions, when their owner dies. Clifton

Allison, owner and publisher of The Call , is heavily in

debt to Cameron, and the old man has threatened

several times to drive him to the wall.

A plan is hit upon by Harvey to work up a big sen-

sation for the paper by getting the old man away se-

cretly and then making it look as if he (Harvey) had

murdered his uncle. After he has been convicted of

the crime, Dudley Cameron will be brought back and

circumstantial evidence will be given a heavy blow.

The three men agree to this, but each one is deter-

mined that the old millionaire shall never return home

alive.The scheme is set in motion and Harvey is arrested

for the murder of his uncle. Then commences a series

of Houdini escapes, the last one being a genuine thrill

and the most dangerous of the Handcuff King's ca-

reer. While trying to change in midair from one flying

machine to another, the two airplanes crash into each

other. This, of course, is an accident, but the camera

caught it and also the dive to earth of the machines

which followed. None of the actors in the accident

were seriously hurt, and The Grim Game is able to

show on the screen an "escape" that is a thriller of

thrillers. The story is brought to a highly satisfactory

close, and Harvey and Mary are united.

This spectacular scene was indeed an unplanned accident

and the studio was sure to capitalize on it. For years, Hou-

dini took credit for the near-tragic wing-walk, but it was in

fact performed by Robert E. Kennedy. Looking at the film

today, one can easily distinguish between the actual collision

footage and the staged close-ups of Houdini, taken whilethe plane was safely moored to the ground. But, consider-

ing the range of hairbreadth escapes already performed by

the illusionist, it was not such a stretch to believe that he

was performing the stunt himself.

Exhibitor’s Trade Review wrote, “There are more spectac-

ular thrills in this five-reeler than are usually found in the av

erage death-defying, hair-raising serial, and the exciting

results thus gained are not due to trick photography, either

Take, for instance, the aeroplane chase in the grand climax

when Houdini, as the reporter hero, pursues the fleeing

murderer. The two machines crash together at an altitudeof 5,000 feet, and go whirling to earth and apparently cer-

tain destruction.”

“According to an address delivered by Houdini himself

when the picture was exhibited at the Broadway Theatre

New York, it was his intention to drop by means of a rope

into his antagonist's plane and capture him, but the two pro-

pellors became entangled.”

Houdini told Picture Show magazine, “I was dangling from




the rope-end ready for the leap. Suddenly a strong wind

turned the lower plane upwards, the two machines crashed

together – nearly amputating my limbs.” The New York Times

reported that, at the New York premiere at the Broadway

Theatre, “Houdini appeared in person after the picture was

shown and declared that he would give anyone $1,000 who

could prove that the collision was not an authentic one. He

explained that a real accident had occurred, but that they

were saved only because the machines were 4,000 feet inthe air and were able to right themselves before they

reached the ground.”

Only a brief fragment of The Grim Game exists today.

Fortunately, it is the plane crash sequence, and it appears on

disc 3 of Kino’s collection.

The Grim Game was released on August 25, 1919, at a

running time of 53 minutes. Gresham cites domestic gross

receipts of $150,000, with an additional $50,000 from for-

eign markets.

Variety was less than thrilled with the film. “This feature

isn’t up to expectations. It has a very serious fault in edi-

torial construction, and, with one exception, Houdini’s

stunts do not seem more unusual than those given the

screen by serial stars such as Antonio Moreno and Charles

Hutchison. What really will get this feature by as something

more than a good program filler came about by chance...

the star’s muscle contracting stunts are not effective in pic-

tures for the reason no one is quite certain he is doing what

he seems to do.”

Houdini’s films are rousing entertainment, as long as he

is plying his trade. It’s only when the action slows that their

weaknesses become apparent.“As a motion-picture star, Houdini lacked one important

talent – acting ability,” Gresham wrote. “Audiences then,

as now, insisted on their adventure stories well-spiced with

romance and Houdini was much too bashful to kiss his var-

ious leading ladies without wincing, even with [wife] Bess

standing off camera and cheering him on. His embarrass-

ment was so evident that directors gave up on him. Ro-

mance before the camera was for Houdini a Grim Game

indeed.”

Biographer Kenneth Silverman concurs. Of The Maste

Mystery , he writes, “His ‘acting’ consists of three expressions

pucker-lipped flirtatiousness, open-eyed surprise, and brow

knitted distress.”

Although undeniably charismatic, Houdini never devel-

oped his dramatic skills. In a review of 1922’s The Man from

Beyond, The New York Times noted, “It shows practically no

acting at all. Its players merely register certain stereotypedexpressions.”

Because of the success of The Grim Game, Paramount

signed Houdini for another picture. Russell Holman was a

press agent for Famous Players-Lasky when Houdini signed

his new contract, and in 1953, recalled meeting Houdini

“Five minutes after Adolph Zukor signed the contract with

him, the famous Houdini walked alone into the publicity de-

partment and asked our boss for a meeting with the whole

staff. The first words he said were, ‘I regard you men as im-

portant as the people who make the picture, and I’ll work

as hard and as much for you as I do for the producer. I’m

at your service for anything, anywhere, any hour I’m notworking at the studio.’”

Produced under the title Salvage, Houdini’s second film

at Paramount was released as Terror Island , and is probably

Houdini's best film, certainly the most polished. Shot largely

on location on the island of Catalina, it has an epic scale

that perfectly suits Houdini’s hyperbolic personality. Reeve

and Grey’s story was directed by James Cruze, who would

find renown for his epics The Covered Wagon (1923) and Old

Ironsides (1926). Cruze was the most accomplished of the

Houdini directors, and his is the only film that has a life of

its own, and doesn't feel like an elaborate window-dressing

designed to showcase its star.

Location photography occurred on or around the island

of Catalina.




Motion Picture News wrote, “The picture is nothing more

or less than a wild serial compressed into five reels... One

must accept it in a spirit of good nature and forget its im-

probabilities.” (May 8, 1920)

“It starts off with zip, and it is carried on with enthusiasm,

but Houdini is too intent on exploiting his tricks to realize

that, even in sensational melodrama, it is dangerous to

grossly falsify the admitted facts of nature,” wrote The Mov-

ing Picture World , “The spectator may concede much, but, for

the sake of good entertainment, the unplausible, the impos-sible, should not be thrust down his throat.”

“This Artcraft picture is less gruesome than its title might

convey. In the main, it is only an excuse for bringing Houdini

back to pictures to familiarize picture fans with the same ac-

complishments he has made equally familiar to vaudeville,”

wrote Variety 's critic.

Apparently the film was originally issued with a disclaimer

of sorts, which does not survive today. “As a matter of in-

terest, the introduction offers an apology for melodramatic

flavoring. In this respect, the authors do well to dictate

their opinion beforehand that present-day audiences may

have an aversion to it.” Variety reported, “But that scarcely

absolves them from an almost incredible incompetency in

providing a vehicle for Houdini which might prove less ex-

asperating.”

The film earned a modest $111,000 in the U.S., plus an-

other $54,000 overseas, according to Gresham, who added,

“The first-run gross of the average film with a popular star

was $375,000.” It was his last studio production.

After the release of Terror Island , Houdini spent some

time in England, performing feats of magic, and exploring

the possibility of psychic phenomena with acclaimed author

Arthur Conan Doyle. Houdini had a mixed view of spiritu-

alism. On one hand, he took pleasure in exposing the

fraudulent workings of numerous mediums. Yet he exper-

imented with clairvoyance as a means of communicating

with his dead mother, and later encouraged his wife to at-

tempt psychic communication with him after his own de-mise.

The idea of life after death became the foundation o

Houdini’s next film, The Man from Beyond . But since Hou

dini’s belief in the supernatural was tentative, the film as-

sumes a confused, quasi-religious attitude toward

reincarnation.

The film was the first production of the newly formed

Houdini Picture Corporation, of which Houdini was presi-

dent. The company’s formation was announced in the

March 12, 1921 issue of The Moving Picture World : “The pur-

pose of the company is to make and release four feature

productions a year, in which Houdini will be the star. Thefirst release will be begun in a short time, the production

being chiefly ‘shot’ in the vicinity of New York City.”

According to Silverman, “the business was capitalized at

a half million dollars, offering fifty thousand shares of com-

mon stock at ten dollars each.” Houdini had toyed with

the idea of shooting adaptations of The Count of Monte Cristo

or the works of Edgar Allan Poe, as well as a film about

counterfeiters, but only the last of these projects would

ever reach fruition (as Haldane of the Secret Service, in 1923)

The Man From Beyond debuted on April 2, 1922, at a

length of seven reels. Later that year, it was shortened to

six reels, and it is the shorter version that is preserved at

the Library of Congress in a 16mm print, and is featured in

this collection.

Burton King (The Master Mystery ) returned to the direc

tor's chair, but the story (by Houdini) and screenplay (by

Coolidge Streeter) afforded him no stalking robots and few

opportunities for dramatic escape. Reflecting Houdini's cu

riosity about the hereafter, the story is a melodramatic

meditation on reincarnation.

Proclaimed in its ads as “The Weirdest and Most Sensa-

tional Picture Ever Screened!,” the film follows the adven-

tures of Howard Hillary, who is discovered frozen in a blockof ice on board a derelict sailing ship in the Arctic. The ex

plorers chip Hillary out of the ice and reanimate him. He

is taken back to civilization, where he disrupts the wedding

of Felice Strange (Jane Connelly), who is identical in name

and appearance to Hillary’s 19th-century fiancée. Felice is

being married to the corrupt Dr. Gilbert Trent (Arthur

Maude), who has masterminded a plot to seize Felice’s in-

heritance by kidnapping her father (Albert Tavernier)




Hillary is placed in an asylum and subjected to harsh pun-

ishment (see “The Censor’s Report” on this DVD for more

details). Hillary evades Trent’s henchmen, resists a seductive

vamp (Blood and Sand ’s Nita Naldi), and rescues Felice from

the rapids on the brink of Niagara Falls, bringing the film to

a suitably rousing climax.

Gresham suggests that the film was inspired by a case, re-

ported in The American Weekly , in which “the body of a

Viking, complete with winged helmet and flaxen beard...hadbeen discovered in the Arctic, perfectly preserved after a

thousand years.”

Today, The Man from Beyond is probably Houdini’s least

compelling film. But it was surprisingly well received in

1922. “A thrilling melodrama, fantastic of theme and highly

adventurous, has reached the screen in The Man from Be-

yond ,” gushed Motion Picture News. “It carries a climax which

reminds you of the one staged by Griffith in Way Down East.

That is its big punch scene, but this is not to say that the pic-

ture is deficient in thrills. Far from it. Indeed the feature de-

pends upon elemental action, for that is Houdini’s way.”

“It is an exciting moment and you are caught in a tightembrace of suspense. It is certain that the escape expert

risked his life in staging these scenes. But that is an old trick

to him. His power of bobbing up just a trifle the worse for

wear after a hazardous adventure is a tribute to his uncanny

ability to make his escape.” Houdini did, in fact, perform

his own feats of daring. In shooting the swim above Niagara

Falls, Houdini was attached to a steel cable to keep him

from being swept away.

The swim in the rapids was supposedly shot simultane-

ously by eight cameras—two on the Canadian side and six

on the American side. A photograph of Houdini and crew

overlooking the falls has five cameras in the shot, so the

claim of eight cameras may not have been a typical Houdini

exaggeration.

Houdini recycled his Grim Game publicity stunt and of-

fered a $5,000 reward “to any motion picture director or

producer who provides a greater thrill than is to be seen in

his special feature picture The Man from Beyond .” There

were no details as to how an ambitious director or pro-

ducer might accept the challenge.

The Arctic scenes were taken in Lake Placid, New York,

where Houdini braved the cold weather to romp through

the snow in little more than a swimsuit. Houdini hadtrained himself to endure frigid conditions in preparation

for his underwater escapes by immersing himself in a tub of

ice water—so this display of endurance was a relative cake-

walk.

According to the pressbook, an alternate ending was

filmed, “an entirely different finish to this picture than was

called for in the original script.” The unspecified ending was

supposedly shot in the event that Houdini died during the

performance of the stunts. “Houdini well realized the dan

ger that confronted him and knowing that he might not be

spared, he took no chances that his picture might never be

shown.”

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle provided Houdini with a testi-

monial, which appeared in the official pressbook:

Dear Mr. Houdini,

I have seen the Houdini picture The Man from Beyond

and it is difficult to find words to adequately express my en-

joyment and appreciation of it. I certainly have no hesita-

tion in saying it is the very best sensational picture I have

ever seen. It is a story striking in its novelty, picturized su-

perbly and punctuated with thrills that fairly make the hair

stand on end.

From the opening scene showing the actual chopping of

a frozen man from the center of a mass of ice and restoring

him to life, to the closing scenes of the sensational rescue o

the girl on the very brink of Niagara Falls, it holds onebreathless. I consider The Man from Beyond one of the re-

ally great contributions of the screen.

This letter was written just before Houdini and Doyle’s

friendship crumbled. While performing a séance, Lady

Doyle claimed to have reached the spirit of Houdini’s de-

ceased mother. Houdini publicly refuted this claim (basically

calling Lady Doyle a fake), which began a long-running feud




between the two men.

Because the Houdini Picture Corporation couldn’t com-

pete with the distribution apparatus of, say, Paramount’s

Publix theatre chain, he sold the film to states’ rights distrib-

utors (in the same manner as The Master Mystery ). This

makes it nearly impossible to estimate the film’s total box-

office earnings, so we cannot gauge how successful the film

was in comparison to his earlier efforts.

From the beginning, Houdini planned to boost the film’spotential with personal appearances. An advertisement in

the trade publication Motion Picture News states, “HOUDINI

AGREES to make personal appearances in conjunction with

The Man from Beyond in a limited number of key cities.”

When The Man from Beyond played New York’s Times

Square Theater, he performed several of his signature acts

(such as the needle trick and a straitacket escape), as well

as a more elaborate illusion: his disappearing elephant act.

This form of misdirection did not cause every viewer to

ignore the film’s shortcomings. The Variety critic wrote, “It

is a five-reeler of about the grade of a serial built along lines

of candid melodrama, but aspiring to higher appeal throughits spiritual import, which deals in a rather stumbling way

with the problem of the hereafter. The two things don’t go

together.”

The New York Times concurred, “It is a stunt picture, but

the trouble is it is not all stunts. It tries to be a dramatic

composition and doesn’t succeed.”

As much as he enjoyed being a film star, Houdini no doubt

realized the new career path was fraught with challenges

and had not been an unqualified success. But he was no

quitter, and was already devising new ways to exploit his

fame and realize the cinema’s earning potential.

PART THREE:

HALDANE OF THE SECRET SERVICE

For years, the motion picture industry had attracted

Houdini’s interest. Cinema was a means of achieving

greater fame, assuring himself of some form of immortality.

Even when he invested in a film processing lab in 1916,

ego was to some degree at play. Houdini yearned to be an

inventor, a desire that is reflected in the plots of his films.

He filed patents for his inventions, including his milk can es-cape and a diving suit designed to permit easy underwater

removal. In the 1914 audio recording featured on this DVD,

one hears Houdini refer to his water torture cell as his “in-

vention.”

The Film Developing Company appealed to Houdini be-

cause it was founded upon a novel invention: a method of

automated film processing, developed by Gustav Dietz. Of-

fices were opened on Broadway, and a factory in Hoboken,

New Jersey. Houdini’s initial investment was $4,900 but the

company was never able to turn a profit. In April, 1918

Houdini fired Dietz and attempted to improve upon the

mechanism himself, assigning his brother, Theodore W

Hardeen, to run the company, all to no avail.

In October, 1920, Houdini wrote to a friend, “I have over

100,000 dollars invested in the F.D.C. but have never re-

ceived a penny from same. This does not include the many

weary months I spent in and around the place trying tomake a success of what an ordinary man in the business

would have known was a failure. My education is certainly

costing me a high price.” (Houdini to Harry Kellar, quoted

in William Kalush and Larry Sloman’s The Secret Life of Houdini).

Houdini to Kellar, October, 1921: “It will be a Godsend

for all of us if we get away from it [F.D.C.] in a legitimate

manner. The only good of the whole thing is that it was the

cause of my going into pictures. Let us hope that I have no

made a serious mistake.”

It seemed only natural that, owning a film processing

company, he should make his own films, rather than relyingon the resources and expertise of a motion picture studio

He formed the Houdini Picture Corporation and produced

The Man from Beyond (featured on DVD 2 of this collec-

tion).

Even though The Moving Picture World had announced that

the H.P.C. would produce “four feature productions a year

in which Houdini will be the star,” the filmmakers must have

quickly realized how impossible it would be to live up to

this ambition. So, Houdini sought other ways to keep the

Film Developing Company busy, and to shore up his film-

making empire.

During his tours through Europe, he had discovered that

there were many high-quality films there that might never

be exported to the U.S. What they lacked in popular Amer-

ican stars, they made up for in production values. Thus did

Houdini become the figurehead of yet another company

the Mystery Pictures Corporation, formed on December

27, 1921. Harry Houdini was the president. Hardeen was

vice president and Harry H. Poppe served as secretary.

Some Houdini filmographies erroneously list a 1921 fea-

ture, directed by and starring Houdini, entitledThe Soul oBronze. This is, in reality, a French film which he imported

for distribution. Directed by Henry Roussel in 1918, L’Âmedu bronze starred Harry Baur and Gaston Rieffler.

Because the Mystery Pictures Corporation was short-

lived and not very successful, it is unclear how many films

they actually imported and modified for American distribu

tion. Papers in the company’s files include numerous clip

pings about Viktor Tourjansky’s Pathécolor spectacle LesContes de mille et une nuits ( A Thousand and One Nights)which Houdini was also interested in releasing stateside.





The company’s most bizarre acquisition was Aldo Moli-

nari’s Il mistero di Osiris (1919), produced by the Vera Film

company, in Rome, Italy. Details are sketchy but it appears

that Houdini obtained the film when he purchased two

boxes of films at an auction of unclaimed goods from Cus-

toms Service’s Seizure Room on October 26, 1921.

It seems unfathomable that Houdini would acquire a

print of the film, almost by chance, and then release it in

the U.S. without permission of its creators but—from the

surviving documents among the Houdini papers at the

Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center of the Univer-

sity of Texas at Austin—it appears as though that is precisely

what he did.

Houdini translated the film into English and had new in-tertitles created, renaming the film Ashes of Passion. He also

translated the novella that was published upon the original

Italian release, entitling it Il Mistero di Osiris or The Mystery of

the Jewel (Talisman). Houdini removed the original photo-

graph from the cover and replaced it with a portrait of him-

self.

Reading the introductory passage of the pamphlet, one

can easily see what attracted Houdini to the film:

Many centuries before Christ, Egypt believed in the

immortality of the soul and in this faith found the key

to eternity. This great thought grew out of the Metempsicosi, the transmigrator of the souls; they

(the souls) reincarnate themselves according to their

destiny of good or bad. Thus it represents the har-

mony of the universe, and for it nothing in the world

becomes lost. Out of this faith logically was born the

legend of Carma, the legend of vendetta. Each fault

is punished through centuries in successive reincarna-

tions until justice is done.

The heart loves many times, but the soul only once;

and loving, sacrifices all. Misunderstood it comforts it-

self in the reigns of Crisis–the fountain of light, of

knowledge–of the universal equilibrium; the eternity

and the divine inspirations are for her and she shall

return to this earth forced by her destiny to punish

the bad and revindicate the rights of purity. Thus is

the philosophic salvation of the human vindicated.

The themes of eternal life and reincarnation in Il Misterodi Osiris coalesce beautifully with the subject matter of The

Man from Beyond , which was in production at the same time

Houdini was at work on the Italian film.

Beyond such metaphysical concerns, the film was also a

lavish costume spectacle, in keeping with the great Italian

epics of the 1910s. Houdini’s business secretary, Harry H

Poppe, submitted frames of the film to the Library of Con-

gress to secure its American copyright (in Houdini’s name

with Giovanni Deodata credited as author) on Novembe

12, 1921.

Very little is known about the release of Ashes of Passion

or The Soul of Bronze. For that matter, we don’t know much

about the fate of The Man from Beyond , since it was distrib-

uted in the states rights model (in which regional compa-

nies licensed the rights to specific territories). From wha

we can tell, the film does not appear to have been as suc-

cessful as his first commercial effort (The Master Mystery ) o

his two films at Paramount (The Grim Game and Terror Is

land ).

Much to his chagrin, Houdini’s independent film compa-




nies appeared to have followed the path of the ill-fated Film

Developing Company.

Back when the Houdini Pictures Corp. was first unveiled

in 1921, press reports declared that, “On his last tour of

England and France, Houdini had a cameraman with him

and many ‘shots’ were made... Some show him entering

and emerging from noted prisons, landing from aeroplanes

on foreign fields, a jam with the French police and several

good scenes in London.“This was all made with a view to utilizing the material

in the forthcoming releases, and will serve to give an au-

thentic foreign flavor to those scenes in which the action

takes place abroad.”

This might seem like a clever way of injecting location fla-

vor into a film, but without benefit of a script, such stock

footage would function as little more than a gritty trave-

logue.

Much of this footage did eventually appear, clumsily in-

serted into a film called Haldane of the Secret Service. As ex-

pected, it amounts to various shots of Houdini walking

through various cityscapes looking concerned with someyet-to-be-scripted mystery. We see him aboard a double-

decker bus in Glasgow, on the streets of Hull, England,

posed in front of Westminster Abbey, and slipping into a

kiosk at the base of the Eiffel Tower.

Haldane was the last project the Houdini Picture Cor-

poration would ever undertake, released by the low-budget

Film Booking Offices (F.B.O., which would later evolve into

R.K.O.) on September 30, 1923. As if cutting every con-

ceivable corner, Houdini not only wrote and produced and

starred in the film, he also directed it.

With or without the location footage, the film is a rather

stiff pot-boiler about a government agent’s pursuit of coun-

terfeiters. The name of the primary character was most

likely a tribute to Viscount Richard Haldane, who was afriend of Houdini’s and Britain’s Secretary of State for War

and who was instrumental in the creation of the British Se-

cret Service.

It seems as though the film was actually shot concurrent

with The Man from Beyond , but had sat on a shelf for two

years. This is suggested by a letter from Houdini to Kellar

in late 1921, in which he writes, “My two pictures are fin-

ished. Now I must put them on the market and see how

good they are.”

The market was not favorable. Biographer William Lind-

say Gresham observed, “While the critics were good to him

in Beyond , what happened to Haldane shouldn’t happen toa dog show.”

“Perhaps the renown of Houdini is fading, or more prob-

ably the Broadway managers were wise to how bad a film

this one is,” Variety wrote, “There is only one [escape], and

that is a poorly staged affair showing the star free himsel

from a giant water mill.. With all due respect to his famed

ability for escapes, the only asset he has in the acting line is

his ability to look alert.”

The film was sold on the value of Houdini’s name, and lit

tle else.

Realizing that producing his own features (as the Houdin

Picture Corporation) and acquiring foreign films for distri-

bution (as the Mystery Pictures Corporation) were losing

propositions, Houdini finally brought his commercial film

career to a close.

But he did not stop making films. He utilized the H.P.C

cameras to shoot 35mm motion picture footage of himsel

performing public escapes staged across the country (al

most always in front of local newspaper buildings) to pro-

mote his stage appearances. An assortment of these filmed

records appear in the “Harry Houdini Archival Footage”

section of this DVD.

Had he not met his untimely death on October 31, 1926Houdini might have continued to dabble in filmmaking, and

may have even undertaken another feature project. As it

was, the cinema was a world of opportunity that never paid

off for him.

Kalush and Sloman wrote:

In retrospect, Houdini’s involvement in movies, fi-

nancially speaking, was a nightmare...He wound up




in litigation over his fifty percent share of the profits

for the hugely successful Master Mystery. When he

branched out on his own and took charge of the pro-

ductions, his quirky sensibility and attempt to run

away from the elements that made him successful on-

stage doomed their success. The only positives from

Houdini’s involvement in motion pictures were that it

spread his fame worldwide and greatly increased his

vaudeville salary, ironically at a time when he had no

real interest in performing again.

Some of Houdini’s films (such as the filmed escapes) are

remarkably well preserved, while others either exist in frag-

mentary form or in poor-quality 16mm prints (The Man

from Beyond ). In some cases, it is due to the lack of consid-

eration the major studios paid silent films once sound rev-

olutionized the industry, allowing (neither of the films

Houdini made for Paramount exist in their entirety). An-

other reason is that, as a short-lived independent company,

the Houdini Picture Corporation had no facilities to pre-

serve the original film elements.

In Kenneth Silverman’s biography, Houdini’s niece, MarieHinson Blood recalls the fate of some of these archive

prints.

One day the fire inspector came on a routine inspection

trip, and my father took him all over the house. When they

got to the storage room, he asked my father what the metal

cases contained. My father very proudly said, “I am Harry

Houdini’s brother-in-law and these are all the movies he

made.” They were old 35mm film and my father opened

one up and showed the inspector. The inspector said, “I am

canceling all of your insurance. You could blow up this

whole block as these films are very combustible. You must

get rid of all of them immediately.”

My father was aghast at the whole thing. His beautifu

home without insurance—these wonderful movies. With-out discussing it with anyone else, other than my mother

who was just as heartbroken, during the night they took

every one of the containers of film and put them in cartons

in front of the house and stood there as the rubbish men

hauled a fortune in Houdini films.”

Special Thanks to Felicia Feaster, Renata Gibson, Renée

Rodriguez Gresham, Brian Shirey, Rob Sweeney, Rick Watson;

The Performing Arts Collection at the Harry Ransom Re-

search Center of the University of Texas at Austin, The New

York Public Library for the Performing Arts at LincolnCenter, The New York State Archives, a program of the State

Education Department

Additional research and editing: Sarah Callahan, Daniela

Currò, Vincent Pirozzi, Inés Toharia Terán, Ishumael Zinyen-

gere, students of the Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preser

vation at George Eastman House.

Houdini and crew at Niagara Falls, shooting The Man From Beyond.

Houdini Filmnotes

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