At 9 P.M., WNEW/Channel 5 has an hour-long BBC-Patria Pictures documentary called “The Truth About Houdini.” Using photographs and film footage, the documentary examines some of the great magician and escapologist’s techniques—his ability to swallow and later regurgitate a key or the unusual expansion and contraction of muscles that accounted for his phenomenal rope escape. The documentary also shows that, in addition to his tricks, Houdini was the first man to fly a makeshift plane in Australia. Any publicity, evidently, was good publicity. But the most intriguing parts of this documentary are clips of the great man from movies he produced himself in a failed business venture. The result may not encompass the entire truth about Houdini, but it makes for absorbing television.

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