The Great Houdinis aired twice on American television; first on October 8, 1976 and again on April 6, 1977. If you didn't catch one of those airings, then you probably didn't see what I consider to be one of the better Houdini biopics. That's because
The Great Houdinis was never released on any home video format in the U.S.
But the rest of the world had a better shot at seeing the film. I've never been able to determine weather
The Great Houdinis got a theatrical release in Europe (as some American T.V. movies did back then), but I do know it was released on VHS in The Netherlands, France, England and Australia. Below are a few covers for the film on VHS. To my knowledge, all of the home video versions carry the title
The Great Houdini and not the original broadcast title,
The Great Houdinis (
which can be seen here).
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| Star Video release from Australia (click to enlarge). |
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| Dutch release from ABC Video. |
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| UK release from Guild (note reduced running time). |
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| French release. |
Thanks to Robert from Sydney, Australia for the Star Video artwork and Kai Andersen for the Dutch sleeve.
Star Video - I remember them. I don't remember this cover though or I would have made sure to watch it.
ReplyDeleteSaw the film first on TV at the end of 1980 and then didn't see it again for another 30 years. Clearly I didn't try hard enough!