Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Houdini Blu-ray Movie Review

A prestige release?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 30, 2014

Nicholas Meyer famously “introduced” Sherlock Holmes to Sigmund Freud in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, putting a post-modern analytical spin on Arthur Conan Doyle’s iconic (and substance abusing) detective hero. Now Meyer does much the same head shrinking routine with another late 19th — early 20th century icon, Erich Weiss, better known under his stage name of Houdini. In this case the Freudian approach is a family affair of sorts, for Houdini’s teleplay is based upon a book entitled Houdini: A Mind in Chains: A Psychoanalytic Portrait by Meyer’s own father, Dr. Bernard C. Meyer. The result is an interesting if not very insightful peek at a figure who looms large in the public consciousness, though often as more of a symbol or unapproachable object of devotion rather than a living, breathing human being. Ironically, it’s the external elements in Houdini—recreations of magic tricks and other spectacles—that work quite well in this History miniseries, while attempts to delve into Houdini’s recondite psychology largely fall flat. Perhaps ironically, Arthur Conan Doyle "himself" (portrayed by David Calder) shows up here as well, as part of Houdini's well publicized tirades against spiritualists and mediums, whom the escape artist felt were defrauding the public with claims of access to the great beyond.

There’s psychobabble galore running rampant throughout Houdini, with Houdini (Adrien Brody) providing most of it himself via near nonstop narration and voiceover. You see, Houdini just wants to escape, a word that is used over and over to diminishing effect, without ever really being all that well defined to begin with. On top of that evanescent desire, Houdini has major mommy issues, with an almost obsessive attachment to his dear old Ma, Cecilia Weiss (Eszter Ónodi). But, wait—Houdini also has daddy issues as well, courtesy of a distant and stern father, a rabbi who never learns to speak English and who similarly never learned to show paternal affection to either of his sons. What’s a budding magician to do? Why, create a new identity, of course—which is exactly what little Erich Weiss did, becoming Harry Houdini.

Houdini takes a more or less chronological journey through the iconic illusionist’s life, with occasional flashbacks filling in some of the childhood traumas and triumphs that helped shape the man as an adult. We’re privy to short but supposedly telling anecdotes about his early home life (Dad didn’t want a son in show business, in the time honored tradition of rabbinical fathers like the one in The Jazz Singer). Later, young Erich is mesmerized by a traveling magician who saws a woman in half and invites Erich up on stage to witness the bisection up close and personally. Later still, Erich becomes a magician’s assistant while still a fairly young boy, learning all kinds of (literal) tricks of the trade.

But the bulk of this somewhat bloated story revolves around Houdini’s life once he meets attractive carnival singer Bess (Kristen Connolly), marrying her seemingly within minutes of having met her and then making her an increasingly large part of his routines. His climb up the magician’s ladder is aided by his serendipitous meeting with Jim Collins (Evan Jones), a master illusion constructor who is able to formulate the technologies to bring some of Houdini’s more flamboyant theatrical enterprises to life. Another time honored tradition—the march of newspaper headlines in a brief montage—charts the course of Houdini’s meteoric rise in the show business firmament.

Despite the addition of the often unwelcome psychoanalytic elements, so far this Houdini is a resolutely traditional affair, and in fact not all that much different from the glamorous Hollywood-ized treatment of the magician’s life found in 1953’s Houdini starring Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh. Things get relatively more interesting once Houdini is recruited by the Secret Service and MI5 to do a little undercover work while on a European tour pre-World War I, but even here Houdini shirks any real analysis of the situation, settling instead for patently ridiculous vignettes involving both Kaiser Wilhelm and the Romanovs. (Grand Duchess Anastasia gets special treatment, perhaps due to her lasting fame, while Rasputin stumbles around drunkenly grimacing throughout the performance.)

Houdini’s famous attempts to debunk spiritualism take up the last third or so of the miniseries, with an initially friendly if forced interaction with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his wife, supposedly a medium, turning into a fracas after Houdini accuses the two of perpetrating a fraud. There are some fun little moments in this set of sequences detailing how Houdini unmasked the trickery behind these performances (there are also “spoilers” galore sprinkled throughout the miniseries letting the audience in on how certain tricks were engineered). But once again Meyer retreats to really hokey psychobabble (or in this case psycho-visualization) once Houdini’s penchant for letting people punch him in the gut leads to a burst appendix and gangrene. The solicitous nurse tending to him in his final moments morphs into—yep, you’ve guessed it, his Mother, evidently welcoming him with open arms to the Pearly Gates. Now that’s magic.

Houdini Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Houdini is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Despite the regular use of some fairly soft looking (and at times unconvincing) CGI, Houdini generally looks beautifully sharp and well defined on Blu-ray. Director Uli Edel favors close-ups (and extreme close-ups, as shown in screenshot 1) a lot of the time, and those exhibit excellent fine detail. Colors are very accurate looking and are also very nicely saturated. The production design here has moments of nice opulence, including some well done costumes which pop very well. Contrast is generally very strong and consistent, though seems intentionally boosted in some scenes, including some of the CGI elements.

Houdini Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Houdini's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 has some nice if inconsistent immersion courtesy of sequences that utilize gobsmacked crowds oohing and aahing over Houdini's exploits. There's some good attention to detail in terms of various ambient sounds, including nice effects like a "point of hearing" perspective on what things sounded like to Houdini while he was dangling upside down in his Chinese water torture device. Dialogue is very cleanly presented and there are no problems of any kind to report on this track.

Houdini Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Original Broadcast (Part 1 1:23:54, Part 2 1:07:38) and Extended (Part 1 1:26:48, Part 2 1:26:53) Versions


• Houdini the Greatest (1080p; 3:56) is a brief EPK with a bit of archival footage and stills of the real Houdini, behind the scenes footage, interviews and scenes from the miniseries.


• The Great Escapes (1080i; 4:00) features more interviews with Brody discussing some of Houdini's history and magic making.


• The Real Houdini (1080i; 3:09) has a bit more footage of the real deal, but is sadly lacking in any real information.


• Cheating Death (1080i; 3:34) shows Brody learning how to deal with things like straitjackets.

Houdini Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There is so much fascinating material just waiting to be exploited in Houdini's life that it's something of a shame that this miniseries takes a decidedly questionable tack by trying to apply Freudian analysis to the man's admitted eccentricities and tics. But even in purely "factual" information (despite the warning at the head of the piece that it's both fact and fiction) Houdini hedges its bets, by simply alluding to events without ever really trying to delve very deeply into them. A completely pat (and fake feeling) melodrama involving the Houdinis' marriage doesn't help matters, and despite Adrien Brody's athleticism and innate appeal, this is one trick that never quite makes it to "prestige" levels. The production is quite handsome, however, and while disappointingly generic and rote, Houdini is decently entertaining, especially for those who wonder how the master magician managed to pull of some off some of his stunts.