On August 25, 1919, Harry Houdini made one of his boldest attempts to escape the limitations of the theater when his first feature-length motion picture, The Grim Game, opened at B.S. Moss’s Broadway Theatre in New York City.
Already one of the most famous entertainers in the world, Houdini hoped motion pictures would introduce his escapes and physical stunts to an even larger audience—and preserve them long after his stage career ended.
The result was a silent mystery thriller filled with handcuff escapes, dangling straitjackets, speeding vehicles, rooftop danger and a genuine midair collision between two airplanes.
Houdini Sets His Sights on Hollywood
By 1919, Houdini had spent years building an international reputation through dangerous escapes, personal challenges and brilliant publicity.
He also understood the growing power of motion pictures. Film could take his performances beyond the cities he visited and allow audiences around the world to witness his most spectacular feats.
Houdini had already starred in the 15-part movie serial The Master Mystery, which began appearing in theaters in 1918. The serial featured escapes, action sequences and even a mechanical villain known as the Automaton.
Following that experience, Houdini signed a two-picture agreement with Famous Players-Lasky, the studio associated with many of the silent era’s biggest stars. Production on The Grim Game began in California under director Irvin Willat.
The movie would become Houdini’s first feature-length film.
Houdini Plays a Reporter Framed for Murder
In The Grim Game, Houdini portrays newspaper reporter Harvey Hanford, who becomes involved in a scheme intended to demonstrate how circumstantial evidence can make an innocent person appear guilty.
The plan goes disastrously wrong when an actual murder occurs and Hanford is blamed for the crime.
After being arrested and imprisoned, Houdini’s character escapes and begins pursuing the men responsible for framing him. The story was deliberately designed to place him in one dangerous situation after another.
Throughout the film, Houdini escapes from handcuffs, chains, a bear trap and a straitjacket. He climbs buildings, hangs from ropes and participates in several dramatic action sequences that allowed movie audiences to experience a version of his live stage persona.
The final portion of the film includes its most famous sequence: a collision between two airplanes high above the ground.
Unlike most movie stunts, that collision was real.
The Real Airplane Collision in The Grim Game
The aerial sequence was filmed near Santa Monica, California, on May 31, 1919.
The original plan called for stuntman and former military airman Robert E. Kennedy to double for Houdini. Kennedy was supposed to climb from one airplane, hang from a rope and transfer into a second aircraft flying beneath him.
A third airplane carrying director Irvin Willat and the camera crew followed the action.
During the stunt, an unexpected air current pushed the two participating airplanes together. Their landing gear and wings became entangled, sending both aircraft spiraling toward the ground.
Kennedy was left hanging from the rope as the damaged airplanes descended.
Remarkably, the pilots managed to separate the aircraft and make emergency landings. One airplane came down upside down, but the accident resulted in no deaths.
Willat and his crew continued filming throughout the ordeal, capturing what was promoted as the first genuine midair airplane collision ever recorded by a motion-picture camera.
The accident was never part of the original script. Once the filmmakers realized what they had captured, however, the story was rewritten so the footage could become the movie’s enormous climax.
Was Houdini Really Hanging from the Airplane?
Publicity surrounding The Grim Game often encouraged audiences to believe that Houdini personally survived the airplane collision.
That was not the case.
Robert E. Kennedy was the stuntman hanging from the aircraft during the accident. Houdini performed many difficult and dangerous feats during his career, but this particular stunt was completed by his double.
Famous Players-Lasky nevertheless used Houdini’s fearless reputation to promote the scene. Posters and advertisements placed his name and image alongside descriptions of the genuine collision, allowing audiences to assume that the famous escape artist had been directly involved.
Houdini did little to discourage the growing legend. He understood that the real accident gave the movie something no staged effect could match.
The collision was authentic—even if Houdini was not the man hanging between the airplanes.
Houdini Appears at the Broadway Theatre
When The Grim Game opened at B.S. Moss’s Broadway Theatre at Broadway and 41st Street on August 25, 1919, Houdini appeared in person.
Following the picture, he spoke to audiences about the production and the dangers involved in filming its stunts. He also discussed the airplane collision, emphasizing that it was a genuine accident captured by the camera.
Houdini reportedly offered $1,000 to anyone who could prove the collision was not authentic.
A review published by the New York Tribune praised the film as a “smashing success” and said its final reels were filled with miraculous escapes, airplane flights and action. The reviewer was particularly impressed that Houdini’s feats were presented clearly for the motion-picture camera.
Other reviews likewise praised the excitement of Houdini’s escapes, although some critics were less impressed with the film’s melodramatic storyline and his abilities as a conventional actor.
Audiences, however, came to see Houdini do what Houdini did best: escape from apparently impossible situations.
The Grim Game Disappears
Despite its successful release, The Grim Game eventually performed a vanishing act worthy of its star.
As the silent-film era ended, the movie became increasingly difficult to see. For decades, only a short fragment containing the airplane collision was believed to have survived.
A complete print was actually being preserved by Brooklyn juggler and Houdini admirer Larry Weeks. He had acquired the film from the Houdini estate in 1947 and occasionally screened it privately, but consistently refused offers to sell it.
That changed in 2014 when film preservationist Rick Schmidlin approached Weeks on behalf of Turner Classic Movies. Weeks finally agreed to part with the print.
When preservation experts examined the film, they discovered that all five-and-a-half reels were present.
The movie had escaped destruction.
Houdini’s Lost Film Returns to the Screen
Schmidlin supervised a complete restoration of The Grim Game in association with the Barbara Goldsmith Preservation and Conservation Department at New York University Libraries.
The restored film premiered at the TCM Classic Film Festival on March 29, 2015, accompanied by a new musical score composed by Brane Živković. Turner Classic Movies later presented the movie on television, allowing a new generation to see Houdini’s first feature film nearly a century after its original release.
The restoration preserved more than an entertaining silent thriller. It recovered one of the most important surviving visual records of Houdini’s physical ability, screen ambitions and remarkable instinct for promotion.
Houdini’s Greatest Movie Escape
The Grim Game did not transform Houdini into a permanent Hollywood star. He would make additional films, including Terror Island, The Man from Beyond and Haldane of the Secret Service, before eventually abandoning his movie career.
Nevertheless, The Grim Game remains the strongest example of Houdini adapting his famous stage identity for motion pictures.
The film presents him as audiences already imagined him: an unstoppable hero who could escape handcuffs, chains, traps, prisons and seemingly certain death.
Its famous airplane collision also demonstrates how quickly Houdini could recognize and promote an unexpected opportunity. The accident was real, the cameras were rolling and Houdini helped transform a nearly disastrous moment into movie history.
On August 25, 1919, New York audiences watched Harry Houdini attempt something larger than another escape. He was trying to make his magic and daring live forever on film.
More than a century later, The Grim Game survives—and Houdini’s plan worked.
Read the historical account of the film’s 1919 New York opening.
Learn how NYU and Turner Classic Movies restored the long-lost film.
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