Houdini wrote, produced and starred in two of his feature films; he wrote a number of treatments – plots for potential productions; and he self-published several of these treatments. *
This post kicks off a series of posts where I summarize (or share tidbits about) the film treatments he wrote:
- The Marvelous Adventures of Houdini (1917)*
- The Man From Beyond (1921)
- Haldane of the Secret Service or Mysterious Mr. Yu (1921)*
- Frizzo––Master Magician (1921)
- Yar, the Primeval Man (1921)*
- Il Mistero di Osiris or The Mystery of the Jewel (1921)*
- The Great Tontine (unpublished)* [Tom Boldt Collection (TBC)]
- The Monster (unpublished)* [TBC]
- The Vulture (unpublished)* [TBC]
- Floating Through Space (unpublished)* [TBC]
- Blood Brothers (unpublished) [TBC]
- Out of the Shadows (unpublished) [HHCE Collection]
* “Film Treatment” can be found in Patrick Culliton’s book, Houdini’s Strange Tales – A Collection of fiction by the legendary Harry Houdini [1992]
Today, we look at, The Marvelous Adventures of Houdini
The above copy sold at a Potter auction for $9000 in 2017:
Houdini, Harry (Ehrich Weisz). The Marvelous Adventures of Houdini The Justly Celebrated Elusive American. New York: Harry Houdini, 1917. Brown printed wrappers. Bust portrait of Houdini on the recto of the first leaf. 20pp. 4to. Old cellotape reinforcing spine, one piece on verso of upper wrapper, tears to spine, one corner of lower wrapper lacking, scuffing and general wear. One of two examples known, the other held institutionally a variant copy. Most likely a treatment for a film, the booklet lays out a cast of characters including Houdini, his leading lady (“Beulah”), and several “heavies” who take part in the scenario its pages describe. Houdini’s movie career began in 1918, a year after this work was published, and his first film, The Master Mystery, debuted in 1919. Perhaps this treatment was a first attempt at working in Hollywood. This example is the same copy reproduced as an appendix to Milbourne Christopher’s Houdini: A Pictorial Life.
According to Kalush:
…he presented the Williamson Brothers with a scenario for a film that he tentatively called The Marvelous Adventures of Houdini, the Justly Celebrated Elusive American
…
By July of 1917, three months after signing a contract, Houdini was still hashing out the script with the Williamsons. Both the war in Europe and a war between the Williamsons derailed the project. Desperately trying to salvage his film, Houdini entered into an arrangement with a company called Westart to film the opening scenes of his scenario, a manacled jump into the sea off the pier at Atlantic City. Though Westart would in a few years produce a series of low-budget Westerns, this one-day shoot appears to be all that became of The Marvelous Adventures of Houdini.
Per Silverman:
Houdini wrote and copyrighted a treatment for a film that would display his talents dazzingly. Entitled “The Marvelous Adventures of Houdini The Justly Celebrated Elusive American,” its thrill-a-minute plot, a harbinger of rockem-sockem action picture, provided for him to write a code message by a pencil gripped between his toes; wrestle a thug to death, underwater; climb a wall human-fly fashion; get fired from the torpedo tube of a submarine; and escape from [being thrown from a pier in chains; and strung up in ropes], among other things [a ships anchor, a piano box, a diving suit], a straitjacket suspended from a ship’s yardarm, a steel submarine net, and a burning warehouse in which he sat roped to a chair.
What I found fascinating, are the many elements of the story that make their way into his other films:
- Master Mystery: Wrestling a thug to death underwater; Patented diving suit escape after life-line is cut
- The Grim Game: Suspended straightjacket escape; bound and spread in the air
- Terror Island: Packing Box Scene/Escape; Burning Warehouse Scene/Escape; Submarine; Natives
- The Man From Beyond: Scales the walls of a building; Uses sheets from bed on side of warehouse; makes his way down waterpipe or from window to window
Highly recommend you give it a read.
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