Elsewhere, “The Great Houdinis,” an ABC Circle Film that can be seen tonight at 9, is another of those peculiar television concoctions that intentionally blur the line between reality and fantasy. Based on the life of Harry Houdini, the illusionist and escape artist, this one is preceded by the explanation that “the following is a biographical dramatization created from both fact and fiction.” Ponder the contortions of that one.

The movie itself, written and directed by Melville Shavelson, is a shaky affair but it is crammed with delicious moments for collectors of the absurd. The narrator, who is also one of the more prominent characters in the drama, is played by Vivian Vance in the best wise-cracking manner of her “I Love Lucy” days. The problem is that the wisecracks don’t quite jibe with the rest of the script, which focuses on Houdini’s nearly total breakdown by way of his obsession with the occult.

In its incredible variety, the casting is splendid. Paul Michael Glaser, the Starsky of ABC’s “Starsky and Hutch,” plays Houdini, whose real name was Erich Weiss. His possessive Hungarian Jewish lover is Ruth Gordon in thick Yiddish cadences. His shiksa wife is Sally Struthers (“All in the Family”) and his temporary mistress is Adrienne Barbeau (“Maude”). Add to these Bill Bixby as a spiritualist minister, Nina Foch as a spiritualist reverend, Peter Cushing as Arthur Conan Doyle, Wilfred Hyde-White as Superintendent Milville of Scotland Yard, and Maureen O’Sullivan as Lady Doyle—and the mixture becomes irresistible for any self-respecting buff of the “B” movie.

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