Harry manages to escape from a strait-jacket, gets out of a Scotland yard jail cell, and nearly dies when he is caught beneath the ice in the Detroit River. Nevertheless, he wins her over, the two are married, and the couple head for Europe where Harry is determined to become a great magician. Harry Houdini (Tony Curtis) is performing as the 'wild man' in a carnival sideshow when he encounters the pretty Bess (Janet Leigh), who finds him a little headstrong. With such a winning combination, it’s easy to understand why any nit-picking over this film's accuracy all but magically disappeared.HOUDINI (1953). Torin Thatcher, in a fictional role as Houdini’s assistant, provides the occasional level of gravitas. The much underrated Tony Curtis provides a charming, sympathetic hero with then-life wife Janet Leigh providing radiant support. Yet the general public didn’t seem to care. Sumptuously produced by George Pal, this film rollicks along from one escapade to another, pausing only momentarily for some witty aside or some other such delight. Though all of this is true, their presentation here is heavily fictionalised, causing much consternation among Houdini devotees at the time. Upon his return to the United States, he uses the same flair for self-promotion to become vaudeville’s biggest star. Now billed as The Houdinis, the married couple travel to Europe where he becomes a sensation, boasting that there is nothing from which he cannot escape and challenging authorities to prove him wrong.

Touching on many milestones of the magician’s life and career, we first encounter Houdini as a side-show alley performer who meets and falls in love with Bess. Arguably the image most film-goers would conjure up, is that of Tony Curtis in this highly enjoyable film. Harry Houdini has been the subject of many a biopic over the years, materialising in the form of Harvey Keitel, Guy Pearce and even Wil Wheaton.

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