The Truth About Houdini is one of the better Houdini docs, in my opinion. It contains terrific interviews with Milbourne Christopher, Walter B. Gibson, James Randi, and Sidney Radner. It also includes a great deal of unedited Houdini footage, credited as coming from the collection of Larry Weeks (the man who is currently squatting on the only known print of The Grim Game, but don't get me started on all that).
In fact, much of the footage missing from Kino’s Houdini The Movie Star can be found here, including Houdini’s underwater box escape from The Master Mystery and key missing shots from his 1909 movie, Les merveilleux exploits de Houdini à Paris.
This So Act Network copy is a no frills home-made type of thing (listed on Amazon under the title "The Magic of Houdini"), but the quality is decent and the documentary is complete, containing Sid Radner’s punishing punishment suit escape that was cut when the documentary aired on American TV in 1976.
UPDATE: Apparently this DVD is no longer available from So Act Network.
Is this a VHS tape or DVD?
ReplyDeleteIt's a DVD that's for sale on Amazon. But that clip came from a tape.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm not even sure which VHS version this is from. When I digitized the promo for the TNT movie for my other post, I discovered this was on the tape and had digitized as well. So I threw it up here for the heck of it. It's a great little section.
ReplyDeleteThis DVD is no longer being sold by So Act Network for some reason. If you try and order it from this link on Amazon you posted, your card will not be charged. You will recieve an email with 24-48 hrs telling you the same. Do you have another source for the DVD?
ReplyDeleteAh, thank you for the update, Conjurian. Could be they didn't have the rights to sell this. Could be why it was listed under a different title.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, I don't have another source for this.