'Ernö Verebes'' last film before retirement.
Harry Houdini's real name was Weiss (the German word for the color white), and he is played here by Tony Curtis, whose real name is Schwartz (schwarz is the German word for the color black).
A talented amateur magician, Tony Curtis performed most of his own tricks in this film.
Although Houdini didn't die onstage at a Halloween performance, as this film would have you believe, he did, indeed, die on Halloween, 1926, several weeks after his last stage performance. To this day, in Houdini's memory, October 31rd is celebrated as International Magic Day.
The movie contains several factual errors, the most telling of which is the dramatization of Harry Houdini's death. In the film he runs into a prop sword handle and ruptures his appendix, then almost drowns in the torture tank trick and dies on the stage in the arms of his wife. In real life he was punched in the stomach by a college student who had heard that Houdini could withstand any blow without harm. This did, indeed, rupture his appendix. He later collapsed on stage, was taken to the hospital and died there.