5/10
dull thriller that makes little use of Houdini
11 September 2008
Included in the Houdini box set by Kino, this is a pretty dull and clunky thriller. Houdini plays Haldane, son of the late "Silent Saunders" Haldane also of the Secret Service. Somehow that comes as a surprise to the villains. There's a counterfeiting ring in which an apparently innocent woman is unwittingly entangled, and she becomes the love interest for Haldane. Is she really innocent or isn't she? There's also a subplot involving marriage, who's marrying or already married to whom and why, and that doesn't serve much purpose for the viewer, really.

The best scene is perhaps when Haldane is strapped by the villains to a water wheel. It's an odd thing to do, as it doesn't dunk him in the water, it just spins him around, which would be annoying, not fatal. He really appears to be strapped to it. Somehow the wheel breaks loose, and that does dunk him in the water, and he makes his escape.

Not recommended at all, not even particularly for Houdini fans, but it's nice it survived anyway.
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