The Grim Game 1919 Houdini

The Grim Game 1919 Houdini.mp4

The Grim Game 1919 Houdini.ogv

The Grim Game, starring Harry Houdini

With
Ann Forrest
Mae Bush
Augustus Phillips
Tully Marshall
Arthur Hoyt

Cinematography Frank M. Blount
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release dates August 25, 1919
Running time 71 min.
Country USA
Language Silent film English with intertitles
Budget $200,000
The Grim Game is a 1919 silent film starring Harry Houdini and Ann Forrest. The basic plotline serves as a showcase for
Houdini's talent as an escapologist, stunt performer and aviator.
This is a five-minute film clip.

Plot
Three men frame Harvey Hanford (Houdini) for murder, and also decide to kidnap his love interest. Hanford is quickly apprehended by the police and falsely imprisoned for the crime. Shortly afterward, Hanford escapes and pursues the men who framed him. The film unfolds as a series of Houdini's trademark stunts and escapes - his tormentors chaining him up and imprisoning him on numerous occasions, only for Hanford to escape. The film concludes with a climactic mid-air collision following an aeroplane pursuit. Following the collision, Hanford is reunited with his love interest.

Accident
The famous mid-air plane collision was not scripted. It was a real accident caught on film over the skies of Santa Monica, California. Stuntman Robert E. Kennedy was doubling Houdini at the time. Miraculously, no one was killed, and the story was rewritten to incorporate the accident. Publicity was geared heavily toward promoting this dramatic "caught on film" moment, claiming it was Houdini himself dangling from the plane.