The Grim Game
Long thought lost, this film was restored and finally made available to the public in 2015 with a screening at TCM Classic Film Festival. Film preservationist Rick Schmidlin oversaw the restoration after obtaining the single surviving print from long-retired juggler Larry Weeks, who had himself gotten the print from the Harry Houdini estate in 1947.,All entries contain spoilers,Harvey Hanford: Let's hope you will soon be independent of the old skinflint and can leave this dismal prison.,Referenced in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: Chapter Six: An Exorcism in Greendale (2018),The Grim Game (1919)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Reporter Harvey Hanford (Harry Houdini), wanting to save his newspaper as well as show how corrupt "circumstancial evidence" can be, stages a murder where the victim is actually alive but what little evidence there is shows that he's dead and that the reporter committed the crime. The plan is for the "dead" man to come back after the reporter is in jail and show how you can't always go by evidence. The problem is that once the reporter is in jail the man really is murdered so the reporter must break out of prison and search for the real killer.

This same story would be redone decades later by Fritz Lang in BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT so it's interesting to see it done here first. For the most part this is an entertaining movie, although it certainly falls a bit short of actually being a good one. With that said, if you're a fan of the legendary magician then you'll certainly want to check this out since he does perform some nice tricks plus there's just not enough footage of him around so getting to see him in the few movies he made is nice.

With that said, obviously the main reason to watch this are for the Houdini tricks, which includes him escaping several times throughout. The famous straight-jacket routine is performed here as well as other chains that the magician is strapped into. There are some nice action/stunts throughout including one where the magician (or his double) are hanging on a flag pole. The highlight of the film comes at the end when there are two planes flying and Houdini (or his double) are on a rope going from one plane to the other. I won't ruin what happens but the scene is terrific.

The story itself is interesting but very little is done with it because people weren't really coming to this film for a story. People wanted to see Houdini in action so obviously that's what the producers gave them.,