$4,000
Houdini, Harry. Twenty Six Minutes of Houdini Film Footage. Two canisters of 35mm film running just over twenty-six minutes. The footage — some of which is possibly unknown to Houdini scholars — was used to create the 1970 BBC documentary, The Truth About Houdini. The reels contain tantalizing glimpses of Houdini at his best — and at his worst. Scenes from The Master Mystery, including many of the first robot to appear in a motion picture, abound, as well as unedited scenes from Houdini’s funeral procession and the moving of his coffin, coverage of his Australian flight in his own biplane, and a number of public straight-jacket escapes, including various angles showing how Houdini was strapped in to the jacket and hoisted in the air. In one scene, he dangles from a rope in Washington, D.C. with the Washington monument in the background as he wriggles free. The Master Mystery scenes involving a chair escape and the robot are spliced together with shots not included in other releases of the footage, and they are also edited in a different manner. At the funeral, Bess Houdini is seen swathed in black crepe. Houdini’s brother and Houdini’s assistant Jim Collins are seen as pallbearers. A throng of thousands watches as his coffin is carried to a hearse. A number of sequences filmed in Paris are included, and this footage consists of out-takes from Houdini’s aborted projected called The Dupe. Material from that film was salvaged for inclusion in another Houdini serial, Haldane of t
Auctioneer:
Potter & Potter
Date:
2016-04-09
