Houdini

This lavish 2014 History Channel-aired biographical miniseries—directed by Uli Edel and written by ace screenwriter Nicholas Meyer—chronicles the life of illusionist Harry Houdini (1874-1926), the subject of earlier films starring Tony Curtis and Paul Michael Glaser. Here, wiry Adrien Brody takes on the role of the iconic escape artist who started out as the driven Ehrich Weiss, Wisconsin son of a struggling, unassimilated Hungarian rabbi. Renaming himself in honor of another popular magician, Harry took a shine to onstage prestidigitation (as did one of his brothers; the pair remained friendly competitors), slipping out of handcuffs, chains, straitjackets, and sealed tanks as a real and metaphorical release from his limited, mundane existence. Houdini is based on the 1976 book Houdini: A Mind in Chains—A Psychoanalytic Portrait (written by Meyer's father, Bernard C. Meyer), although the Freudian overtones are mostly left out in favor of questionable Houdini assertions, such as his possible espionage work during overseas tours (debated by scholars), and the degree to which he was unfaithful to his wife/stage assistant, Bess (Kristen Connolly). The film also suggests that Houdini's odd Halloween death from a ruptured appendix arose in part from the magician's high-profile campaign against spirit-mediums and their fakery (David Calder here portrays Sir Arthur Conan Doyle—a believer—as a dazed cult convert). Along the way, some of Houdini's escape-trick secrets are revealed. Presenting both the original broadcast and an expanded 174-minute cut, extras include behind-the-scenes featurettes. Recommended. (C. Cassady)