The Great Houdini (film)

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The Great Houdini was a highly fictionalized made-for-TV movie biography of Harry Houdini featuring TV stars Paul Michael Glaser (Starsky and Hutch) and Sally Struthers (All in the Family) was written and directed by Melville Shavelson (who also wrote the novelization). This film first aired on ABC on Friday, October 8, 1976 under the title The Great Houdinis. The "s" was dropped for the first repeat in 1977.

The movie focused not on Houdini’s conflicted personality or his spectacular magic and escapes, but on his family life, depicting him as the harried referee between his wife and mother, who were shown frequently squabbling with one another. In reality, Houdini’s wife and mother got along well, considering that Houdini’s mother spoke little English.

In an attempt to differentiate itself from the 1953 movie starring Tony Curtis, The Great Houdini ended not with the magician’s death, but with the medium Aurthur Ford’s successful(?) attempt to contact Houdini from beyond the grave. In reality, while Aurthur Ford did attempt to contact Houdini and reveal the secret code between Houdini and his wife, it was later shown that the code had been widely published before Aurthur Ford’s attempt, and Beatrice Houdini rejected the authenticity of Ford’s seance, a fact that was not shown in the movie.

Some notable performances were turned in by Vivian Vance as Beatrice’s nurse (and the narrator), Ruth Gordon as Houdini’s mother, Peter Cushing as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Bill Bixby as Rev. Arthur Ford.