While the image quality could be better, during the scene I immediately spotted two landmarks nearly aligned with each other, the squat ‘chocolate drop’ dome tower of the extant Hotel Trinity and Auditorium at 851 S. This sequence was filmed on the roof of the now lost Harbour Apartments at 612 St. Breaking free again, Houdini falls over the edge of the roof, suspended upside down, but escapes the jacket and his captors before the rope breaks. Harbour Apartments – A Visit to Old Los Angeles.Ĭhased onto the roof, Houdini is re-captured and trussed in a straight-jacket, his ankles tied with rope. At left, this view ( John Cox) shows Houdini hanging from a studio jail set for a different stunt. The jail interior (upper right) also looks too elaborate to be merely a set). (I’ve never seen images inside the jail, but since they filmed exterior scenes beside the jail (below), and Houdini commonly performed escapes at real jails, it’s reasonable to assume they filmed inside the jail too – a fine example of how cinema often preserves history in real life. The stunt was preceded by his escape from what appears to be the interior of the Los Angeles County Jail. While The Grim Game is noteworthy in part for a real-life plane crash caught on film (no one was hurt, see my prior post), Houdini’s roof-top escape from a straight-jacket (above) may be the most thrilling moment in the picture. See Houdini – Keaton – The Grim Game – Cops. Remarkably (could it be just a coincidence?) Keaton staged three scenes from Cops at places where Houdini had filmed previously. Over the edge – with death below and imprisonment above! Harry Houdini in The Grim Game (1919), taken on the roof of the former Habour Apartments, discussed below.Īfter shooting a 15-part serial The Master Mystery, world famous magician and escape artist Harry Houdini made his feature film debut in 1919 with The Grim Game, screening at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival’s special A Day of Silents held at the Castro Theater this December 5.īilled as a stirring story of love, mystery, and dare-devil adventure, The Grim Game was scripted to maximize opportunities for Houdini to escape from various traps and shackles on screen.Īs discussed in my previous post, Buster Keaton dedicated his most famous short film Cops (1922) to Houdini, while crediting Houdini in his autobiography for giving Keaton his first name.
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