- The Grim Game
Infobox Film
name = The Grim Game
caption = Promotional poster for "The Grim Game"
imdb_id = 0010195
producer =Jesse L. Lasky
director =Irvin Willat
writer =Arthur B. Reeve John Grey
starring =Harry Houdini Ann Forrest Augustus Phillips Tully Marshall Arthur Hoyt
music =
cinematography =Frank M. Blount
editing =
distributor =Paramount Pictures
country = USA
released = start date|1919|08|25
runtime = 50 min.
budget = $200,000
language = Silent film English intertitles"The Grim Game" is a 1919
silent film starringHarry Houdini . The film's basic plotline serves as a showcase for Houdini's talent as an escapologist,stunt performer andaviator .Plot
A gang of men frame Harvey Hanford (Houdini) for
murder , and also decide to kidnap his fiancée. Hanford is quickly apprehended by thepolice and falsely imprisoned for the crime. Shortly after being sent to jail, Hanford escapes and pursues the men who framed him. The film unfolds as a series of Houdini's trademark set-piece 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, which Hanford survives, Hanford is reunited with his fiancée.Accident
The famous mid-air plane collision was not scripted. It was a real accident caught on film over the skies of Santa Monica, CA. 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. [Houdini!!!: The Career of Ehrich Weiss by Kenneth Silverman, 1997, pages 239-240]
References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.