Our city has long felt a bit of kinship with one Harry Houdini. After all, how many of us have zoomed up Laurel Canyon looking for the performer's mansion of secrets and wonders, or at least what remains of it? Many, we're wagering. The seances, the stunts, the mystery; can't keep an Angeleno away from that stuff. We've got to get the spooky skinny.
And when a modern-day escape artist puts on the metal ropes and drops into a cube of water, much like Mr. Houdini did so many years back, we're keen to watch the whole thing go down. Curtis Lovell II is doing the wearing-of-cuffs-water-escaping, and Tony Curtis -- *that* Tony Curtis -- is there to keep an eye on the entire escapade.
"Houdini" screens after the aquatic amazements -- Mr. Curtis, of course, played Houdini in the famous film from 1953 -- but there are several more Curtis-y things on the day's bill. It's part of a Jules Verne Festival daylong downtown to-do centered around the movie star, and if you're a Tony Curtis fan, and we know you are, then you should investigate it all at once. Too much Tony is a wonderful thing.
A pre-show field trip just flitted through our minds: Drive up Laurel Canyon past Houdini's old digs, then take the 101 downtown, past the famous Tony Curtis mural. Done.
