Thu 3 Feb 2011
A Movie Review by David L. Vineyard: THE BIG CIRCUS (1959).
Posted by Steve under Films: Drama/Romance , Reviews[10] Comments
THE BIG CIRCUS. Allied Artists/Warner Brothers, 1959. Victor Mature, Rhonda Fleming, Red Buttons, Gilbert Roland, Vincent Price, Kathryn Grant, Peter Lorre, Adele Mara, David Nelson, Howard McNear, Steve Allen. Screenplay by Irwin Allen, Irving Wallace, Charles Bennett, based on a story by Irwin Allen. Director: Joseph M. Newman.
Hokum is usually a detrimental comment on anything, but in this case it is a compliment to this bright entertaining circus movie from producer Irwin Allen.
Victor Mature is ideally cast as Hank Whirling, a man with sawdust in his blood, who has just split with his partners, the ruthless Borman brothers, and needs to float a loan to keep the Whirling Circus in business. To that end he ends up saddled with banker Randolph Sherman (Red Buttons) and publicity agent Helen Harrison (Rhonda Fleming), neither of whom he wants.
The Whirling Circus is a family affair; the prime players being ringmaster Hans Hagenfeld (Vincent Price), sardonic clown Skeeter (Peter Lorre), high wire and trapeze stars The Great Calinos, Zach and Mary (Gilbert Roland and Adele Mara), their catcher Tommy Gordon (David Nelson), and Hank’s sister Jeanie (Kathryn Grant) who dreams of working the trapeze one time before she settles down (her mother fell to her death from the trapeze).
Money problems and his unwanted partners aren’t all that plague Hank — sabotage paid for by the Bormans is making his life doubly difficult: a lion escapes and threatens a press party, a fire breaks out and threatens the animals, a train wreck kills two people, one of them Mary Calino, and strands the show. Add to that bad weather and the bank threatening to sell the show to the Bormans and only a miracle can save them.
Said miracle being Zach Calino walking the high wire across Niagara Falls But just before he is to make the walk his wife (Adele Mara) is killed in the train wreck and Zach loses his nerve. Hank makes him mad enough to go through with it, but at the risk of losing his oldest friend.
And now the saboteur within the circus plans to strike while the circus plays in New York on the Steve Allen Show while Mature has to keep a low profile to avoid the man sent from the bank to foreclose (Howard McNear — Floyd from the Andy Griffith Show).
It all builds to a suspenseful finale as the killer is trapped in the center ring as the cameras roll, after trying to kill Jeanie when she makes her debut with Zach Calino on the trapeze.
The mystery element is done fairly well, with suspicion falling on almost everyone — particularly Vincent Price — mostly because he is Vincent Price, and in 1959 when this was released almost no one would have guessed who the real culprit would turn out to be.
Less a least likely suspect than an almost unthinkable one — at least then. Granted, we perverse minded mystery fans probably would have guessed, but then we’re a suspicious and mistrustful lot given to cynicism and thinking the worst of suspects.
A good many circus films have been made, and most of them are usually quite good; the setting seems to bring out the best in everyone involved. This one holds its own despite the cliches like the lovers who start out hating each other, or Buttons repressed banker, or even Grant as the girl who just wants a home that doesn’t have wheels on it.
The movie is certainly worth seeing, and a fine cast is in fine fettle along with a well written script and more than competent direction along with good camera work and a catchy score add up to a film that is probably better than it deserves to be.
All the performers are at their best with Buttons more subdued than usual, and Kathryn Grayson in a non-singing role is fresh and attractive. Rhonda Fleming is as gorgeous as usual, and no movie was ever worse for the presence of Gilbert Roland. Price and Lorre both have their moments, and Victor Mature has a nice presence in the kind of part he often played as a fast talking faster thinking promoter with a heart well hidden behind the million dollar smile.
On a note of irony, at one point after the train wreck the circus is stranded and Mature has the idea to use the elephants, “like Hannibal,” to get to their next play date. The next year Mature played Hannibal in Edgar Ulmer’s film of that name. Whether the reference is an in joke or a coincidence I don’t know.
For those interested, you can even download the Dell comic book version of the movie for free. The movie itself is available on DVD from Warner Archives.
The Big Circus may not be as gaudy as de Mille’s wide screen Greatest Show on Earth or Samuel Bronston’s Circus World (with John Wayne), but it is entertaining and smart, hits all the marks, and delivers exactly the thrills, smiles, and laughs it intends, and does so with a more than usually attractive and capable cast. It’s pretty big entertainment, even on the small screen.
February 4th, 2011 at 7:10 am
Sometimes when I’m feeling really trashy, there’s just nothing like an Irwin Allen movie. STORY OF MANKIND is probably the greatest bad movie ever made, but BIG CIRCUS has a tawdry charm all its own.
February 4th, 2011 at 11:22 am
It’s not a movie I’ve seen, but with a cast like the one it has, I don’t know why. Perhaps when it first came out I was tired of circus movies, nor am I a big fan of Red Buttons. But Gilbert Roland? Peter Lorre? Vincent Price? Rhonda Fleming?
Note that in the poster at the top Steve Allen’s name is the same size as everyone else’s, but unless I’m mistaken, he played himself in only a small cameo role.
February 4th, 2011 at 12:56 pm
I haven’t seen this one in a long time but it is hard not to remember who the saboteur was. By the way, THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH was made a couple of years before THE ROBE which was the first cinemascope film unless you want to count THE BIG TRAIL which was made in an earlier attempt at wide screen.
February 4th, 2011 at 1:44 pm
Steve,
Steve Allen got star billing because everyone in Allen’s faded “All Star” casts got star billing. Even Franklin Pangborn!
February 4th, 2011 at 2:01 pm
Uh, David …
That’s Kathryn GRANT (aka the 2nd Mrs. Bing Crosby), not Kathryn Grayson from MGM.
The marriage took place just before the movie’s release. I recall that the newspaper ads were amended to call attention to the fact that “Mrs. Bing” was in it.
This was Kathryn Grant’s last starring role in a feature, as der Bingle wanted her to concentrate on his 2.0 family.
That aside, I’ve always had a sneaking fondness for Irwin Allen’s particular brand of cheese, and BIG CIRCUS is as good as that got.
(I even admit to sorta liking STORY OF MANKIND, possibly the most expensive high school play ever produced.)
February 4th, 2011 at 2:17 pm
Mike
You can blame me as well for the Grayson/Grant mixup. My excuse is an extreme overindulgence in snow-blowing these past couple of weeks. My eyes looked at the name Grayson and saw the word Grant. I even saw her face.
In any case, I’ve fixed it, so anyone coming in late won’t have any idea what we’re talking about.
— Steve
PS. Thanks!
February 4th, 2011 at 7:57 pm
Mike
You are absolutely right, and I guess we are doubly lucky she didn’t sing. Mea Culpa. I looked right at the name Kathryn Grant and saw Grayson because I expected to, I guess. I’ll plead the cold and being buried in snow for a week leading to snow blindness, but really just a stupid mistake.
Allen was sort of a roadshow de Mille, cheezy and hokey, but often fun — THE STORY OF MANKIND, THE LOST WORLD, VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA — all relying on aging stars who still had a bit of box office recognition, and ‘high concept’ stories.
MANKIND is, as Mike says, the biggest high school play ever made, and yet it’s hard not to like what with Chico Marx as Columbus, Groucho as a pilgrim doing the Indians out of Manhattan (I know he is supposed to be Dutch, but it’s hard to tell in the movie), and Vincent Price as the Devil. Plus Ronald Colman defending mankind before judge Sir Cedric Hardwicke as the doomsday clock counts down man’s final hours on Earth.
I always thought it a nice irony that the Doomsday clock in the film stopped exactly where the real Doomsday Clock was set by opponents of nuclear weapons; five minutes to midnight.
Before turning to television Allen generally turned out entertaining movies that tended to turn on name casts and special effects. FIVE WEEKS IN A BALOON is another favorite with Peter Lorre having a better role than usual and a young Barbara Eden looking gorgeous.
If my memory is accurate I think there was a little controversy about the villain in this one at the time of its release. It seems silly now, but at the time some things were sacred and that particular casting upset a few people.
Steve Allen is in the thing for all of a minute with Peter Lorre in a television ad for the circus being on his show, but he was a big name then, and never say Irwin Allen passed up a chance to cash in on a good thing.
Hokey, corny, and with slightly tarnished all star casts Allen’s films were often more entertaining than bigger films with fresher names. THE BIG CIRCUS manages to do almost everything the bigger circus movies do in half the time and without most of the schmaltz.
Having grown up in a circus town and around lots of circus people TBC has an authentic feel about it (both GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH and CIRCUS WORLD were so big as to dwarf most real circuses).
The best circus films for me were the more intimate ones — this, TRAPEZE, RING OF FEAR, a handful of others, that captured some of the authentic feel of the people and the behind the scenes world. But I guess when you live next door to a tightrope walker, one of your teachers is an actual clown, you’ve been in the cage with the big cats with Clyde Beatty, and you wash elephants instead of cars for extra money you have a different perspective.
Yes, it is certainly tawdry, but then so was the real thing, the canvas patched, the greasepaint a foot deep, and the ammonia smell of the elephants and big cats something you wanted to avoid. Tawdry, and cheap, and kind of wonderful in an odd way.
February 5th, 2011 at 7:32 am
Dave, TRAPEZE is one classy film, and deserves a review all its own.
February 5th, 2011 at 8:06 pm
I agree about TRAPEZE, which may be the best circus drama ever done, and features outstanding performances by Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis, who, if memory serves, both did all their own trapeze work.
June 24th, 2012 at 10:08 pm
Just came across this tonight (this site AND the movie, both!) I dearly love me some gaudy cheesy all-star spectacle, and TCM certainly has a few in their vault. I thought it was quite strange to see whatsis name crossing Niagara Falls on a tightrope just days after the Wallenda grandson did the same. (Of course, back in the 50’s, when men wore hats, maybe anybody who cared to could have a high wire tossed across Niagara Falls and just walk across, just like that, LOL!)