Made to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Houdini's death, The Great Houdinis first aired as the ABC Friday Night Movie on October 8, 1976. It was retitled The Great Houdini after its first airing and released on VHS in some international markets. The movie never saw a home video release in the United States and never transitioned to DVD in any country. So it's now one of the harder Houdini biopics to see.
Therefore, I've decided to uploaded a full HD version to my WILD ABOUT HARRY YouTube channel for all to enjoy. I'm not sure about copyright so I might need to take this down. But for the moment I give you The Great Houdinis.
A very big thanks to Brad Hansen of Retro Cars Forever for his help converting this to HD and improving the overall video and audio quality.
I liked it despite some historical inaccuracies. There were many things they did get right. But, of course they had to ruin it by having Houdini die in the Water Torture Cell.
ReplyDeleteAlso, they showed Hardeen as inept replacement for his brother Houdini. As we all know, Theo was a very accomplished magician and no mere replacement.
Still, there was many very interesting things that was shown. And Paul Michael Glaser was a good Houdini
Jack Carter wasn't bad as Hardeen. He came off as gruff, which Hardeen was capable of being.
ReplyDeleteI just loved that Hardeen was in the movie. That was a real surprise in 1976. I also love that Hardeen talks about nearly killing himself in the Milk Can. Which we know really happened. And that he's about to do the Walking Through a Brick Wall. Which we also know he did.
ReplyDeleteYes--the writers appeared to have researched Hardeen. Carter kinda looked like Hardeen, plus he had that gruff swagger you know Hardeen had.
ReplyDeleteJust a single writer-producer-director for this one; the great Melville Shavelson. He died in 2007 and I deeply regret never interviewing him. I feel like he had accessed insider information for his script.
DeleteI watched this upload last night and noticed it has a couple missing moments. Gone is Bess calling out to Minnie when there's a second knock at the front door. Also the edit on the first commercial break omits some of Minnie's voice over dialog. This is too bad, but this still remains the version with the best picture quality.
ReplyDeleteWasn't Minnie played by Vivian Vance? Bess's care nurse?
ReplyDeleteIf you can't find the answer to that yourself, it must be impossible to know. :p
DeleteYes, Vivian Vance played Minnie.
DeleteBut here's something I just stumble on! I always assumed Minnie was fictional, but in Christopher (p. 254) he says at the Ford seance was Bessie's old friend "Mrs. Minnie Chester, who had been acting as her nurse."
Nice catch!!! THAT is very interesting. Christopher just keeps on amazing me in Untold Story. I also thought Minnie was a fictional character. Vance's salty recollections as the film's narrator is part of its charm. Wouldn't it be great if a tell all manuscript written by Minnie suddenly see the light of day?
DeleteAt least the ending was pretty close. Bess never denied that Arthur Ford had the exact message.
ReplyDelete