In “The Great Houdini,” he relies on a mysterious string-based start to a piece that many critics have noted seems to augment Houdini’s Jewish ancestry, thus “mixing in klezmer style… to heighten character.” In one of the most colorful and inventive tracks on the album, we’re introduced to Zeta-Jones’s stage character "Princess Kali" — a psychic who works in tandem with her daughter (played by Atonement Oscar nominee Saorise Ronan) — in tricking her audience with psychic visions. Using a flute and employing an Eastern based Egyptian and Indian blend of folk, it’s both seductive and tongue-in-cheek at the same time as Zeta-Jones works the audience with her obvious beauty and the great ease with which she falls into character and the music helps us buy right into her act right along with the audience.
Skubiszewski returns to the teasing motif he introduced within the opening seconds of “Death Defying Suite,” with the Danny Elfman-esque “Hello Edinburgh,” announcs Houdini’s arrival to Scotland and we can practically envision the stampede of eager fans, newspapermen, and photographers in this catchy, fast-paced track. It alternates between strings and a chorus chanting breathy “ahs” that punctuate each pluck of the string in building anticipation.
And a few tracks later, the characters coincide as Zeta-Jones’s Mary answers Houdini’s $10,000 challenge to channel his deceased mother in the afterlife, in “The Audition.” Fighting the urge to be sentimental as we see the way Houdini is bombarded by fortune-hunters, Skubiszewski heightens the ridiculousness of the situation in which the otherwise rational Houdini who adamantly disbelieves in the idea of a medium still wishes to be proven wrong as an overgrown boy who misses his mother. Musically, it works quite well. The silly exuberance of “The Audition” gives way to the lush, melancholic tones of “You’re the One,” that begins to introduce the mysterious connection between the two characters whose business agreement blossoms into a romance, yet one that’s still tinged with precaution and apprehension. It finishes abruptly, as though in the middle of an incomplete question.
Using the 1926 backdrop to perfect effect in “Maid Does The Dishes,” Skubiszewski mimics the musical styling of the era in a ballroom worthy track to which you can easily dance. The romance between the two leads culminates in the delicate piano laced number “Just Like Falling,” as the escapologist realizes that he’s unable to escape as a man from the lure of the beguiling possibility of true love. However, just when it starts to border on too sentimental, Skubiszewski brings back the same vocal chorus from “Hello Edinburgh” and with a few somber notes, seems to foreshadow the end of Houdini’s life which would ultimately conclude the film’s events.
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