Miracles for Sale

Miracles for Sale ~ Tod Browning's final film is not only pedestrian and toothless, but also a big disappointment for this Browning fan. Miracles for Sale from 1939 is based on the mystery novel, Death from a Top Hat, by Clayton Rawson, the first in a series featuring the Great Merlini character.

Only a very young Robert Young (who plays the Amazing Morgan, inexplicably changed from Merlini) really stands out in this murder mystery wrapped up in the world of magicians, escape artists, and con men. TV's Uncle Charley from "My Three Sons," William Demarest has some fun here too as a (surprise) curmudgeon.

One would think this setting would be right up Tod Browning's alley, but he never really takes hold and makes it his own. Reminiscent of Houdini's war on frauds late in his life, only nowhere near as exciting, this one has little of that old Browning -pardon the pun- magic.

Swordfish

Swordfish ~ I never saw Swordfish in the theaters, or even on tape or disc since. I knew it only for its legendary topless scene with Halle Berry, and that was it. Flipping through the channels the other day I caught John Travolta's monologue on Dog Day Afternoon and cinema in the beginning, and just from that, knew I had to see this. I checked the next time it was on (so I could see it in its entirety) and DVRred it.

When I sat down to watch, that intriguing opening scene became a tense hostage situation and then into an explosive conclusion. I liked it and wanted more - only to be hit with the caption "4 DAYS EARLIER" - sigh. Now don't get me wrong, I like in media res when it's done well, but when I have to watch a lot if boring bits to get back to the interesting scene we started with? I'm not a fan of that. I think I would have much rather started at "4 DAYS EARLIER."

That is not to say what came after was not good, it is. Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry, both fresh from the first X-Men movie, are really good, as is Don Cheadle, but then again Don is always good. Travolta is still feeding off his crazy cool vibe from Pulp Fiction and Broken Arrow, and Vinnie Jones exudes appropriate subtle menace. The problem is, the opening never leaves my mind. I know what's coming and it sours the set-up.

Here's the gist. Travolta is a mad anti-terrorist terrorist who wants to rob a bank to finance war, yeah, just war, to protect the freedoms Americans take for granted. To do this he recruits super hacker Jackman, and Berry, who unknown to him is a DEA agent. Beyond that it gets cloudy. There are lots of gunfights, car chases, and explosions - all the good stuff that makes for a good heist thriller. It's good if you don't think about it too much.

Another problem of Swordfish is the same that shows up in any hacking movie from WarGames to Hackers, the technology and the methodology are usually outdated by the time the flick hits the theaters, and in the case of old men like me watching it fourteen years later, it's positively ancient and unbelievable. And when the film comes full circle back to the present of the opening, it's very sloppy. Not worth it at all.

The anti-Dog Day Afternoon ending is intriguing, and makes me wonder if what writer Skip Woods and director Domenic Sena really wanted to do was remake that movie. Or Sugarland Express. The airborne bus sequence is freaking amazing, and unbelievable, but it's so cool and visually stunning, you just roll with it.

At the end of the film Travolta says, "not everything ends the way you think it should, besides, audiences love happy endings," and earlier he praises the work of Harry Houdini with misdirection. Is it any wonder this movie has an alternate ending? In Swordfish's alternate ending, depending on your perspective everyone gets a happy ending, or the good guys win. You pick. I kinda like it.

And yes, Halle Berry's all too brief topless scene is spectacular and worth the price of admission.

Houdini on History

The big new television event this last Labor Day weekend was the two-part Houdini mini-series on The History Channel. I love Houdini. I love movies and documentaries and books about Houdini. I even love the surviving fragments of his movie serials. The man was awesome. This mini-series was... a great illusion.

Adrien Brody is in the title role and it's one that fits him well. Not only does he look like Harry Houdini both facially and in body type, he has that mysterious air about him. Despite his miscasting in Peter Jackson's King Kong, he's perfect here. Kristen Connolly is pretty fair in the role of Bess, and even though it's a cameo, it is always good to see Barry from "EastEnders."

The soundtrack, a lively rocking score by John Debney, is one of the best I've heard in some time. I'm looking forward to finding it somewhere soon. This score fits the quick cut flashy MTV way this was filmed. It's not a complaint, but a compliment. Stylistically this is an amazing piece of work, style it has, it's the other areas where it lacks.

The mini-series takes us from the magician's childhood to Harry and Bess Houdini's days on the road before he became famous to his death on stage in 1926. There is both truth and fiction here as with all Houdini stories. This version even takes into account Houdini's supposed service to the US government as a spy. And then there's a lot more iffy stuff here for a program that aired on The History Channel.

History's Houdini was keen on showing us how many stunts and tricks were done, but what it wasn't good at was telling the truth. The facts elude the movie event like the real Houdini escaping chains and cages. The Wild About Harry website had a lot to say about how far from the truth this mini-series strayed, and it's not pretty.

Now the 1960s Tony Curtis film and the 1970s Paul Michael Glaser telemovie weren't that great on the facts either, and I loved them. And I admit to liking this one as well, but in its four hours it lacks the heart the other two had in half the time. Recommended for those who aren't depending on facts or looking for more than a story that barely touches the surface.

The Cape: Kozmo

Here we are with episode three of "The Cape," and perhaps it's time for a bit of credit where credit is due. The series was conceived by writer/producer Tom Wheeler and realized by action director Simon West among others. Either way, this is Tom's baby, and quite an adventure. He's built a continuity from the ground up, and inspired by the heroes of the pulps rather than anything contemporary, so far so good.

This episode in particular is notable, to me at least. It caught the attention of my mom-in-law, who liked it. She's about as far from the comic book genre community target audience of this show as you can get, so extra points to Tom Wheeler and crew for nailing that elusive mainstream audience. Unlike "Heroes" before it, "The Cape" just might have a longer shelf life, especially if it continues like this.

I couldn't wait for this episode because of the title. I remembered from the pilot that Kozmo was the name of the man who used the 'magic' cape before Vince Faraday. Come on, we all knew he'd come lurking back into the picture, for the first time, sooner or later.

It starts well, Gregor the Great, escapes from a Russian prison, establishing himself as a little bit Houdini, a little bit evil Mister Miracle, and we just know where he's headed. Next comes the animated credit sequence, some of which seems to have been lifted from the online graphic novel, but it's not, rather a montage of the actual The Cape comic book used in the show. When a bridge confrontation follows, right out of the beginning of Alec Baldwin's The Shadow, I am once again hooked.

I am surprised when Gregor shows up and calls Max Malini Kozmo. It seems that Kozmo is a legacy, much like the Dread Pirate Roberts, and an identity that is passed down for decades. Max, after seeing what Gregor was capable of with the cape, decided to cut the legacy short. There is much made in this episode that the cape may really be magic, and that there may be more to this world than we thought.

Other highlights this time around include Orwell finally meeting the Carnival of Crime, which is interesting, especially seeing The Cape's two worlds come together. There's also the much un-subtle and too obvious reveal of who Orwell really is. I wish it had been done better.

Also on the side of not-done-well is the set-up for the duel of the cape between The Cape and Gregor. It is sudden and clichéd. I thought we were finally going to get to see the Carnival perform, and was looking forward to it too actually, and it becomes awkwardly a fight scene. There was definitely some clunky writing here, and I was disappointed. There's still enough here to bring me back, hopefully this was just a fluke.

Tony Curtis 1925-2010

This is a bad week for Hollywood, we are losing all the good ones. Yesterday we lost director Arthur Penn, and this morning the news comes that also last night actor Tony Curtis passed away. His daughter Jamie Lee Curtis confirmed his passing from cardiac arrest after several medical maladies this past year. He was 85.

Tony Curtis starred in my favorite film of all time, The Great Race. It was a fave when I was a kid, and remains to this day. I watch it every time it airs from start to finish, nearly three hours. It's got adventure, romance, music, history, satire and comedy. Throw in the fight between good and evil and race cars, and it just can't be beat. And in the center of it all, as the dashing hero radiating charisma, is Tony Curtis. That's the kind of guy he was, the epitome of the leading man, even when he was playing a parody of one.

Curtis was great in everything he was in. Whether he was in drag as in Some Like It Hot, getting an Oscar nod in The Defiant Ones, or being the best thing in the completely dreadful telemovie Tarzan in Manhattan, he was always marvelous. He was the undisputed star of so many movies, including Houdini, Operation Petticoat, Boeing Boeing and Spartacus.

Born Bernie Schwartz in Hells Kitchen, he came to Hollywood in the late 1940s and became an almost instant star. He was married to Janet Leigh and romantically linked to Marilyn Monroe. He also played regular roles on television on shows like "The Persuaders" and "Vega$," and on this the fiftieth anniversary of "The Flintstones," he might be remembered for his guest appearance as Stony Curtis. The last time I saw him on television was on "The Graham Norton Show" a year or so ago. He didn't look well, but he still rocked the house with his stories of old Hollywood.

This is indeed a sad day. We have lost one of the legends of Hollywood.

The Films of Harry Houdini

What better time to talk about master magician Harry Houdini than Halloween? It's actually eighty-two years ago to the day when he died.

Many folks know of Houdini's career as a magician, illusionist, escape artist and debunker of spiritualists, but did you know he was also a movie star? Yep, in the 1920s, Houdini embarked upon a career as a silent action star.

While he had appeared in some of the earliest films ever made in France performing parts of his act, his first real foray into Hollywood was the 15-part movie serial The Master Mystery in 1919. The cliffhanger format of the serial suited Houdini's skills to perfection as each episode ended with his character, the appropriately named secret agent Quentin Locke, in predicament after predicament that needed a 'magical' escape from.

Other films followed, including The Grim Game, notorious for its real life collision of two bi-planes 4000 feet in the air, and The Man from Beyond, about a man revived after a hundred years of being frozen in the Arctic. There was also Terror Island and Haldane of the Secret Service.

While none of these four were movie serials, they were rife with the cliffhanger formula allowing Houdini to do his thing. But that was part of the problem. On the screen audiences could not be sure whether the stunts were real or just Hollywood trickery. And the fact that Houdini was not the best dramatic actor around certainly didn't help the situation. So while the films were quite successful, these factors helped him decide, along with the fact he could make more money live on stage, that Hollywood was not for him.

These films, being made back in the 1920s, in an ever-growing age where more and more movies are considered lost, are not intact for us to see, but what remains has been restored and put into a DVD collection called Houdini - The Movie Star.

As complete as possible, restored here are Haldane, Terror Island and Master Mystery. Also included are intensive notes, clips and information about the other films as well as much about Houdini's life in Hollywood. You can see footage of the bi-planes from Grim Game, as well as actual escapes from his act. This is an excellent collection for any fans of Houdini or film in general. Recommended.