Celebrate the 100th anniversary of Harry Houdini’s 1919 film, “The Grim Game” during an outdoor screening at the Catalina Island Museum on Friday, May 17. The film will feature live musical accompaniment by acclaimed composer and pianist Michael Mortilla. Houdini expert John Cox will introduce the film.
“The Grim Game” is a silent drama that showcases Houdini’s talents as an escapologist, stunt performer and aviator. In the film, a gang of men frame Houdini’s character for murder and kidnap his fiancée. Houdini is falsely imprisoned by the police for the crime. Shortly afterward, he escapes and pursues the men who framed him. The film unfolds into a series of Houdini’s trademark stunts and escapes. His tormentors chain him up and imprison him on numerous occasions, only for Houdini to escape. The most memorable scene finds him suspended by a rope between two flying airplanes. The film concludes with a climactic mid-air collision following an airplane pursuit.
The film was considered lost for decades until it was discovered in 2014 and restored. When the restored version was released in 2015 the Los Angeles Times reported, “Though he’s been dead since 1926, Houdini still casts a magical spell.”
Live musical accompaniment will be performed by Michael Mortilla, an award-winning Los Angeles-based composer and sound designer credited with over 1,000 produced works for theater, dance, and film. He worked extensively as company pianist and composer for legendary choreographer, Martha Graham and was on the faculty at University of California Santa Barbara for 14 years. At the university, Mortilla served as lecturer, principle musician, resident composer, and sound designer for theater and dance. In 2000, he relocated to Burbank to devote his full energies to composing. His accomplishments include scoring the world’s first internet broadcast of a feature film with sound (“The Rink”), orchestral works for the 1996 Olympics, multiple commissions from The Academy of Motion Pictures, The National Film Preservation Foundation, as well as The Chicago Symphony, appearing as piano soloist in his own works, and holds the unofficial record for a marathon, non-stop accompaniment of nearly nine hours of German Impressionist silent films at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to an audience of more than 3,000 visitors.
An introduction to “The Grim Game” will be given by John Cox, fan and expert of all things Harry Houdini. A fascination that began in 1975 has turned into a life of research, writing, filmmaking and collecting everything related to Houdini. He regularly advises magicians, including David Copperfield, and was a key researcher for the museum’s Houdini: Terror on the Magic Isle exhibition last year. To learn more about Cox – and Houdini – visit his blog WildAboutHoudini.com.
The screening will take place in the museum’s outdoor Ackerman Family Amphitheater on Friday, May 17.
Doors open at 7 p.m. The program begins at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $20 for members of the museum, $25 for non-members and $10 for children (3-15).
Tickets and info at CatalinaMuseum.org/calendar. A specialty cocktail, wine, beer and other refreshments will be available for purchase.
The Catalina Island Museum offers the best in art and history exhibitions, music and dance performances, lectures by guest speakers from all over the world, and the finest in silent, documentary and international film. Open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., except New Year’s Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.
The Ada Blanche Wrigley Schreiner Building is located in the heart of Avalon at 217 Metropole Ave.
For more information, call the museum at 310-510-2414 or visit CatalinaMuseum.org.
