The Houdini Centennial DVD Collection

A four-disk set of historic Houdini media

1. Houdini Captured on Film DVD: Houdini in Newsreels 1901-1926
2. The Houdini Picture Show DVD: Houdini’s Feature Films 1920-1923
3. Houdini: The Master Mystery DVD: The 1919 Serial
4. Houdini Sounds of Mystery CD: Featuring Houdini’s Voice and the Final Houdini Séance

In honor of the 2026 100th anniversary of the death of Harry Houdini, we’ve decided to reissue four of our long-out-of-print anthologies of historic Houdini films in a four-disk set we’re calling The Houdini Centennial Collection.

We’re only producing 100 of these signed (by publisher Todd Karr) and numbered sets, so order now while you can. This fascinating collection contains some of the most important archival footage of Houdini ever filmed. If you’re interested in Houdini, these must-have movies and rare clips are essential parts of his legacy.

The set contains three DVDs of vintage Houdini newsreels and feature films plus a fourth audio CD with Houdini’s voice and other rarities.

We’ve freshly restored and remastered the video and sound of these disks, which we originally marketed between 2009 and 2015.

Packaged in four individual slim DVD cases
Full-color labels
Gorgeous printed outer jackets
Long out of print
Unavailable anywhere else
Newly mastered and replicated disks

1. Houdini: Captured on Film DVD
Houdini in Newsreels 1901-1926

Harry Houdini was the master of publicity, and these rare newsreel films show how he captured the imagination of the media through outdoor stunts and celebrity appearances around the world.

Includes:
Excerpts from The Marvelous Exploits of Houdini (1901): An extensive reconstruction of the surviving fragments of a Pathé Films short of Houdini in Paris.
Various escapes, including a bridge jump and overboard packing crate escape.
Film of several upside-down straitjacket escapes while suspended from local buildings, publicizing his show and sales of war bonds
Casual footage of Houdini with Harry Keller, Bess Houdini, and others.
News coverage of Houdini’s 1926 funeral.
Film of Houdini’s brother Hardeen and an audio track of a 1939 radio interview
Over 35 minutes

2. The Houdini Picture Show DVD
Featuring Houdini’s Feature Films 1920-1923

The Houdini Picture Show collects three of the legendary escape artist’s silent films, filled with action, mystery, romance, and stunts.

Includes:
Terror Island (1920): Houdini stars as inventor Harry Harper, who travels to an exotic island in search of treasure.
The Man from Beyond (1922): Houdini plays Howard Hilary, a man awoken after being frozen for a century.
Haldane of the Secret Service (1923): As Heath Haldane, Houdini battles a gang of counterfeiters.
Excerpts from The Grim Game (1919): Newsreel footage of the famed plane crash during a failed aerial stunt.
Over 3.5 hours

3. Houdini: The Master Mystery DVD
The 1919 Serial

As Quentin Locke, Houdini foils cinema’s first evil robot, as well as a fictional conglomerate that’s been hiding the progress of technology worldwide.
Houdini gets to show off his athletic skill and wizardry as he escapes from handcuffs, a packing crate, tossed into the river, an electric chair, barbed wire, ropes, a fishing net, and more.

Special “Escapes-Only” Feature: For the viewing convenience of magicians and historians, we’ve gathered the footage of Houdini’s master mystery escapes into an introductory section. You can then proceed to the full movie series.
Note: This compilation includes the surviving footage of The Master Mystery, and several gaps in the story remain.
Nearly three hours long

4. Houdini: Sounds of Mystery CD
Featuring Houdini’s voice, the Final Houdini Séance, and other Houdini audio material on CD.

Includes:
Nine audio tracks for the Houdini buff
Houdini’s voice in a 1914 recording
The famous 1936 Final Houdini Séance featuring Bess Houdini
1937 Unsolved Mysteries radio program on Houdini
Five Houdini books and articles in audio-book form

On this CD, you’ll hear Houdini on a 1914 Edison cylinder, one of the few surviving recordings of his voice, .
The historic final séance attempt to contact Houdini is here as well, conducted by Houdini’s widow Bess and Dr. Edward Saint in Hollywood in 1936. You’ll also enjoy a 1937 radio episode of Unsolved Mysteries based on Houdini’s life.
Finally, we’ve included five public domain audiobooks of some of Houdini’s most intriguing volumes – Miracle Mongers and Their Methods and The Right Way to Do Wrong – plus the scenario for his movie series The Master Mystery, and two vintage article articles, “Handcuff Releases” from Scientific American in 1912 and “The Story of Harry Houdini” from the New York Times in 1918.