It's a bittersweet experience for the viewer. No matter how astounding each new illusion, each ever more daring escape, neither Houdini the character nor Houdini the mini-series, ever escape the palatable sense of tragedy that looms over them both. The execution: We have the disadvantage of knowing about Houdini's sad end which director Uli Edel foreshadows a bit too often. It satisfies our need to know, but also leaves us a bit disillusioned. Along the way, we're shown the the physical workings of his marvelous escapes and illusions (the ingenious hiding places for keys to the handcuffs and locks, the fake floor that lets him pass 'through' a brick wall). The two-part series follows Houdini as he moves from small time sideshows to bigger stages and better tricks, eventually becoming the most famed illusionist in the world. For the purpose of the mini-series, those reasons are as good as any others. Which is true? All of them, none of them. His drive to excel, we're alternately told, comes from his desire to escape the poverty he knew as a child, to win his overly strict father's approval, to outdistance the doubt and fear that plagued him throughout his adult life. Meyer's book Houdini: A Mind in Chains : A Psychoanalytic Portrait, this is a look at not only what he did but why he did it.

(The production is now making its way to DVD.) Though it's more than 60 years later, the new Houdini doesn't rely on camera tricks to wow its audience, but on Brody's talent. Academy Award winner Adrien Brody stared in a two-part television mini-series, Houdini for the History Channel. Tony Curtis starred in a popular bio-flick in the early 1950s and for many contemporary viewers, that film remains the benchmark performance. Harry Houdini, the 19th century illusionist and escape artist, has been the subject of various biographies.

Houdini brody