6/30/2023 0 Comments Buster keaton movies ice![]() ![]() The idea of suspended animation has long literary and indeed mythological roots, being present in so-called King in the mountain stories (Holger Danske, King Arthur, etc) as well as fairy-tales like Sleeping Beautyand Snow White. The draw of the film, beside Houdini, for science fiction fans is naturally that it is the first feature film to display the theory of cryonics, albeit in a rather unscientific manner. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments (1923), and in Alfred Hitchcock’s second film as a director, The Mountain Eagle(1926). She is famous for appearing in several films with Rudolph Valentino, in particular the 1922 blockbuster Blood and Sand, as well as in Cecil B. She got her breakthrough playing opposite John Barrymore in the famous (and one of the best to this day) version of Dr. One fun exception from the mediocrity is that one of the bit parts is played by Nita Naldi, one of the silent eras most famous vamps. But the sheer physicality of his presence brings a bit of magic to the film. Houdini is charismatic as always, but no great actor. What Houdini has done is basically surrounded himself with passable bit part actors and industry professionals, that pull off a passable thriller-melodrama with sci-fi elements. Danger and thrill is exactly what is missing from this film. ![]() Most of the things in the film were already being done by actors like Buster Keaton and Douglas Fairbanks, but with special effects and a lot more inspired filming and directing – where one could actually feel a sense of danger and thrill. The famous Niagara Falls escape is basically shots of Houdini swimming around and he never seems to be in any real danger of going over. The problem is that in a fictional setting Houdini’s real-life escape acts come off as unimpressive. Harry Houdini just saved from the Niagara Falls. What this film is really about, though, is Houdini climbing walls, escaping from a torture chamber, getting into fisticuffs and replicating one of his most famous acts – escaping the Niagara Falls. There is also the love story between Felice and Hillary, which is also pretty basic melodrama fare, ending in a strange conclusion about reincarnation. The thriller element is very standard fare, stiffly acted, badly explained and not very interesting. Felice is, naturally, the descendant of Felice, and she is blackmailed into marrying a rich and shady man in return for him helping her to find her father who has been kidnapped. The only problem is that he meets her at her own wedding to another man and starts raving. What happens is, basically, that he meets Felice’s doppelgänger, who also happens to be called Felice ( Jane Connelly), and is convinced she is his girlfriend. As far as I can tell, this film, which is his best remembered movie, is the first feature film that depicts the theory of cryonics – that a human being can be frozen for an infinite amount of time and then awakened hundreds of years later without having aged a day.īut of course this facade must be maintained for the basic premise of the film to work. ![]() Now, this doesn’t mean that the 1922 film The Man from Beyond – Houdini’s second and last foray into sci-fi, is wholly without interest. The films were largely unsuccessful, as the thrill of his live acts – which were the draw of the movies – didn’t translate successfully onto the screen. Once the Hungarian magician had become America’s best paid vaudeville act and a successful businessman, he was offered to play the lead in the 20-part sci-fi serial The Master Mystery(1919, review), which fuelled his passion for acting, and not long after he established the Houdini Picture Corporation, which produced five films, all starring Harry Houdini, and partially written by him. In 1907 Houdini started to show films as part of his vaudeville show, and made a few short films with arbitrary plots to show off his escape acts. Less known is the fact that Houdini was also something of an action hero during the latter silent film era. Nearly every living human being knows the name Harry Houdini, the world’s most legendary escape artist. ![]()
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