Movie |
Drowning | Magic
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A talented amateur magician, Tony Curtis performed most of his own tricks in this film.
The movie contains several factual errors, the most telling of which is the dramatization of Harry Houdini's death. In the film he almost drowns in the torture tank trick and dies on the stage in the arms of his wife. In real life he was punched in the stomach by a college student who had heard that Houdini could withstand any blow without harm. This did, indeed, rupture his appendix. He later collapsed on stage, was taken to the hospital and died there.
Harry Houdini's real name was Weiss (the German word for the color white), and he is played here by Tony Curtis, whose real name is Schwartz (schwarz is the German word for the color black).
Although Houdini didn't die onstage at a Halloween performance, as this film would have you believe, he did, indeed, die on Halloween, 1926, several weeks after his last stage performance. To this day, in Houdini's memory, October 31st is celebrated as International Magic Day.
Billy Bletcher's, Oliver Blake's, and Michael Pate's voices are dubbed.
"Harry Houdini: I hadn't prepared anything for tonight, but perhaps I have something that will amuse you. So if you'll get a couple of broomsticks, I'll get my wife - and we'll see what we can do."
"Harry Houdini: It'll be the most spectacular thing I've ever done. Bess Houdini: And the most dangerous! Harry Houdini: Bess, people aren't going to stand in line and watch me pull rabbits out of a hat. Bess Houdini: Why? Why must every act you do be flirting with death? Harry Houdini: Because it's the only act that'll hold an audience spellbound. People fall asleep at the opera, but they stay wide awake at the bullfights because ther's one man defying death down in that arena. You take this out of my act and I'm nothing! Bess Houdini: You keep it in and we're both nothing!"
