Super-Old-School Week: The Man From Beyond (1922)

Even an escape-artist can still fail at escaping from a failed film project.  After a few films under his belt (check them out, won't you?), Houdini had his own idea for a film.  It would be grand and elegant.  To make sure it happened his way, he founded the Houdini Picture Corporation to Produce it.  Unfortunately, reviews and reception to the film were not kind & the film actually lost money.  Ain't that just a punch in the stomach?!?  Seriously though, what was so different about this film than his other ones.  The plot is certainly different, attempting a bigger scale and grandeur than most films from this Early Era.  Was the film too good for its time or just not that good to begin with?  Let's find out for ourselves as we thaw out...

* A pair of men go out exploring the Arctic.  Thankfully, they brought along their pretentious title cards...

* Oh, hi Captain America.  Wait- you weren't frozen yet...or probably born either.  Who's this schmuck?

* I guess after being frozen in ice for 100 years, regular cold is nothing to our hero.  Time to head home...

* I'm sorry, but you look just like my wife.  This wouldn't have happened if the guys who thawed me out had told me that I was trapped in ice for 100 years, but, oh well...

* Shockingly, the guy that interrupts a wedding and says that his bride is there gets locked up in a Sanitarium. Of course, this is Houdini so escape is inevitable...

* Don't worry- after saving her life, Houdini gets the girl.  No, it's not creepy that I look just like your dead wife at all.  I love you!  The End.

I was frozen today!  The plot of this movie is just kind of silly.  It's a love story involving a man frozen in ice and a woman who wasn't even alive when that happened!  It's not terrible or anything- just weird.  In theory, this could work.  If they had made the time-gap shorter, that might have worked.  Say, for example, he was frozen in ice for ten years.  During that time, his fiancée died of a disease/car accident & he ends up with her sister or something.  Ultimately though, the premise is oddly-mixed with an escape scene, the exploration scene in the beginning and the river rescue scene.  It just doesn't feel like the same movie.  All I can guess is that Houdini wanted to film a set of scenes and was required to work a romance plot into it.  Either that or he tried to make a romance film and was required to work in those action scenes.  Either way, the whole thing feels like a mish-mash of genres & just did not work in its own time.  Today, it's still kind of weird.  It's still a movie starring a famous magician.  If you don't like these films, you're pretty much stuck with Terror Train.  Take us away, oddly-green scene...

Next up, Kino International gives us one final film.  This one is a rare piece of foreign cinema involving murder, bank robberies and...a robot.  Stay tuned...
  

Super-Old-School Week: The Master Mystery (1919)

Try to escape from the excitement!  For those younger readers (or those that aren't obsessed with movie history), Harry Houdini may just be that guy who escaped from chains and died from being punched in the stomach.  For you, here's a bit of history.  With his sudden fame, Houdini got all sorts of offers to do projects.  What he really longed to do was act!  That's right, the famous escape-artist was also a movie star in the early days of cinema!  The first project he worked on was a 14-Part movie serial called The Master Mystery.  Yes, it's kind of silly and doesn't make a whole lot of sense.  Thanks to the nice people over at Kino Films, I can review this serial from 1919.  This is a tricky one to review properly (due to its length and format), but I'll do my best for you here.  On the plus side, most of you won't know if I get anything wrong.  Let's prepare to master solve...

* The film involves an evil Patent Company (early villains, I guess) trying to steal a product from a scientist.  Thankfully, Houdini (not playing himself, but just about) is there to stop them...

* Holy shit- Harry Houdini is being knocked out by a robot!  I have finally lived!

* A robot, you say.  Oh yeah.  Excuse those 'birthing hips' though.

* Here is the main focus of the serial- Houdini being captured.  Hire an escape artist...

* The problem is that he gets captured at the end of nearly ever chapter.  I should mention again that there are 14 Chapters here!

 * You're either the worst hero or the best hero.  You're captured 12 times- bad.  You escape 12 times- good.  Which is he?  You decide!

* In a confusing bit, Houdini and his girl fake an argument because they know that they're being overheard.  Later, Houdini sees the bad guys arguing and tries to take advantage.  THAT, however, was a trick, since they knew that he was faking the fight earlier.  My head hurts!

* The climax of the film builds as the villains prepare their master plan from their cave.  However...

* Houdini manages to best the robot in combat, revealing the identity of the man in the suit.  Hello, 1919 Iron Man!  All is well in a nice little wrap-up.  The End.

Silent, but odd.  The plot of this...um, serial is certainly interesting.  It's neat to watch these kind of works to see what was made before all of the cliche (i.e. the damsel in distress, etc) were established.  A lot of these movies still fall into the cliche, just because of the attitude of people in that time.  The key thing to this one is that Houdini is kind of an odd-looking guy.  He's not ugly or anything- he's just very unique-looking.  That worked in his favor as a magician and does so here, at least to a certain extent.  He always stands out in his scenes, even if he's not that good of an actor.  The draw here was, of course, Houdini escaping the death traps.  On one hand, that makes a lot of sense.  On the other hand, his reputation is as a legitimate escape artist...so he makes a film full of staged escapes.  He does seem to legitimately-escape the bindings/locations on-screen, but I just kind of find the idea to be an odd fallacy.  If you're into old-school films and obscure films (hello, me), check this out.  I would encourage you to watch it over a period of time, as opposed to one sitting.  In total, The Master Mystery runs about 5 hours(!!!) and that's even with three of the Chapters (3, 4 and 5) mostly gone to time/nitrate decay.  The fact that this thing exists is still cool.  Take us away, Houdini in drag...

Next up, I give you a second helping of Houdini.  This time, it's a film that he produced...much to his dismay.  Stay tuned...