Houdini le maître du mystère

Quentin Locke (Harry Houdini), a government agent sent to infiltrate a fraudulent patents company runs afoul of a vicious gang of thugs led by the Automaton, a formidable mechanical man. This lengthy (15 chapters), tedious silent serial would have been long consigned to celluloid oblivion if not for the novelty of its star, the legendary 'escapologist' and magician Harry Houdini, and his co-star, 'The Automaton', one of the first 'robots' in movie history (predated by the mechanical chauffeur in 1911's 'The Automatic Motorist'). Most of the chapters are set-ups for a Houdini escape (tied up, hanging from a noose, wrapped in a fish net, locked in a trunk, put in a straight-jacket, etc). Houdini recognised that 'moving pictures' were luring audiences away traditional magic shows and starred in (and later produced) a number of films showcasing his talents. Unfortunately, 'trick photography' could make a magician out of anyone and film-viewers didn't care if the escapes were 'real' as long as they were exciting, and Houdini's career as a filmmaker/star career never took off (see Erik Barnouw's 'The Magician and the Cinema' (1981) for a history of the transition of stage magic to movie magic). 'The Master Mystery' (or what remains of it) is a four hour challenge to get through. The silent acting is typical stagey histrionics, the plot meanders from kidnappings to hidden identities to surprise revelations, with most of the action coming from the various failed attempts to 'trap' the elusive Locke (Houdini's escapes may have been real but they are not very interesting to watch). Little is done with 'The Automaton', which features prominently in the posters, and although it lumbers in and out of many scenes, the characters express little interest in exactly what it is or where it came from. The pace picks up a bit in the last third when the action shifts to a mysterious 'oriental' temple, with deadly features such as a god with burning eyes but overall the serial is repetitious and dull. The lumbering pop-eyed, barrel-hipped Automaton, a forerunner to the endless humanoid 'movie robots' of the 40s and 50s is a ludicrous contraption (although some contemporaneous reviewers were impressed: Variety (Nov 15, 1919) opined that "Floyd Buckley as an automaton is remarkably good..." and that the serial was "...one of the best of its kind"). Unfortunately, unlike other robot-featuring serials such as 'The Phantom Creeps' (1939) or 'The Mysterious Doctor Satan' (1940), Houdini's film lacks the goofy charm that makes some of the old chapter-plays, however dated and simplistic, so watchable (at least to some audiences). A moderately complete version of 'The Master Mystery' is available from Kino Video, in which missing chapters are summarised.

It's been around a century since Houdini's superstardom, and the fact that EVERYONE still knows his name is nothing short of phenomenal, especially when you consider how much of his legacy is word-of-mouth ONLY. Therefore, Kino Video's restoration of this 15-chapter serial (along with four other features and performance footage on this FABULOUS 3-disc set) is of ENORMOUS importance. Too bad the serial is more than a little bit tedious, and even with a few chapters gone forever due to nitrate rot (Kino's done their level best to compensate with some summarizing title cards), the four remaining hours are a challenge to endure. BUT...nearly EVERY surviving chapter cliffhangs with Harry bound and/or dangled in some heinous manner, and each ensuing chapter opens with a no-camera-tricks escape, and that's why any further complaints about this title become meaningless. And that robot...the 'trivia' on this page states that it may be the first in the annals of cinema, but BOY OH BOY is it goofy! But I do believe that with the re-emergence of this title and its companions, the Houdini legacy is guaranteed PERMANENCE.