9/12/2023 0 Comments Young harry houdini movie![]() Young Erich felt the family's poverty keenly, and was hurt by his father's humiliation in his later years he would take pains to ennoble the hapless rabbi. Perhaps it was his advanced age, or his European conceits or his habit of conducting services in German, but for whatever reason the congregation cut him loose, and the Weiss family, now numbering seven, moved to Milwaukee, barely scraping by on Mayer's earnings as a freelance minister. Ultimately, Mayer Weiss was not to the liking of his small-town flock. Houdini was a figure out of Greek tragedy: the indestructible warrior with an Achilles Heel, and his legend, like all archetypal figures, has only increased with time.īorn Erich Weiss in Budapest, Hungary, Houdini was the son of a rabbinical scholar of somewhat dubious credentials who moved his family to America in 1878 after securing a position as rabbi for a small synagogue in Appleton, Wisconsin. Vaudevillians from which he sprang, but the magnitude of his exploits, combined with his tormented personality and unexpected demise, have left an allure that has hardly dimmed over the passing decades. Had Houdini simply been another skilled magician, he might have been forgotten along with the generation of A worldwide celebrity thanks to his relentless touring, he was the first entertainer to take full advantage of the emergent mass media, engaging in death-defying public stunts that cannily made use of newspapers, radio, and film. And the movie does have a satisfying twist that I won’t reveal.Before there was a Doug Henning, a David Copperfield, or a Siegfried and Roy, Harry Houdini was the celebrity magician without peer. The second half of the film gets a little lost in sometimes bizarre “chosen one” mythology, but along the way we get to see Ehrich reading The Memories of Robert-Houdin and perform his first packing crate escape. Grimaldi, he is performing a (Disney-friendly) version of Paligenesia, the effect associated with Ehrich’s real-life influence, Dr. There is a clever variation on the “convict in cuffs” story when Ehrich frees a fellow traveler from handcuffs. Ehrich hops the wrong box car and ends up in Kanas City, as did the real Ehrich Weiss. Here the story travels into wholly fictional territory, nevertheless it still has nods to established Houdini lore. ![]() An encounter with “The Great Merlin” leads to Ehrich losing his locksmith job and after a dressing down by his stern father (Byrne Piven), Ehrich runs away to prove himself as a magician. “It is the most fantastic story you will ever hear,” says Houdini.įlashback to Appleton, Wisconsin, in 1886, where we meet “Ehrich Prince of the Air” honing his performance skills while also apprenticing to a local locksmith. Later in his dressing room, Houdini relates the story of his runaway days to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Roy Dotrice). It’s a pretty good recreation of the USD with a fairly authentic looking cell, although the conclusion owes more to Doug Henning’s interpretation than Houdini. The film begins with the adult Houdini (played by Jeffrey DeMunn who also played the magician in the film version of Ragtime) performing the Water Torture Cell in England. "I've idolized, you could almost say worshipped, Houdini all my life!" "Getting this role was like a dream come true for me," said 14-year-old star Wil Wheaton, who performed card and coin magic at the time. Tybalt Grimaldi (José Ferrer), a love interest in the pretty Calpernia (Kerri Green), and experiences true mysticism via an indian medicine man (J. Screenwriters James Cruickshank and Jim Orr (who also directed) fill in the gaps with a colorful story in which Ehrich finds a mentor in traveling show carney Dr. The young Houdini did run away from home in 1886 and little is known about his year-long adventures on the road. Young Harry Houdini tells the story of the “lost years” of Ehrich Weiss. The two-hour made for TV film starred Wil Wheaton and José Ferrer and was introduced by the relatively new Disney CEO, Michael Eisner (along with a special performance by “Mickey The Great”). On March 15, 1987, the Walt Disney Company aired Young Harry Houdini as part of their recently relaunched Disney Sunday Movie on ABC.
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