Legendary escape artist
Harry Houdini both produced and starred in The Man From Beyond. Houdini plays a man who has been frozen in an Arctic block of ice for 100 years. Once he's thawed out, Houdini tries to straighten out the lives of the descendants of his old friends and lost loves. The sequence everyone remembers from
Man From Beyond involves Houdini's near-plunge over Niagara Falls, which has been excerpted in several silent-film pastiches, notably 1961's
Days of Thrills and Laughter. Question: If we know Houdini's prowess for wriggling out of straitjackets, prison cells etc., how can there be the least bit of suspense in
Man From Beyond? Never mind: you'll want to see it anyway, just for the chance to glimpse the great Houdini in action. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide