Jumbo, la sensation du cirque

Billy Rose's Jumbo is based on a play of the same name produced by Billy Rose. The play was adapted from the book written by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, the screenplay here is written by Sidney Sheldon. Music is scored by George Stoll, with songs written by Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart. It's directed by Charles Walters, with Busby Berkeley on second unit duties, and stars Doris Day, Jimmy Durante, Stephen Boyd, Martha Raye and Dean Jagger. William H. Daniels photographs and it's a Panavision/Metrocolor production out of MGM.

The Pop Wonder Circus is suffering desperate financial problems, with rival Noble Circus circling like a vulture ready to strip it of its greatest assets. Then one day a stranger walks in and joins them as a wire walker and things start to pick up. But as romance blossoms and problems begin to ease, shocking news brings great disruption to the equilibrium.

It's the sort of musical production that can be picked apart to reveal many problems. Problems in length, quality of song execution and certain casting issues, they are there and undeniably stop the film being great. However, if one is just after a breezy piece of fluff, in the company of a delightful leading lady, then it's a film that does its job. Structured as a series of songs and circus routines, there is little room for an intelligent plot, it's a basic boy/girl romance played out whilst some bad guy lurks in the background threatening to drive a wedge between the lovers. Still, the foot tappers keep it charming, the production value is top notch and the Metrocolor used is very pleasing. While the actual circus performers are truly great at their art (wire walkers a favourite over here).

So, as shallow as a puddle in terms of story and character depth, but even tho it should have had better care and attention afforded it, it remains above average and of appeal to musical fans. 6.5/10

JUMBO might be silly (actually very deliberately silly, therein much of the enjoyment) but it is genuinely beautiful to look at and easy to enjoy. I saw it on DVD in widescreen and with a superb 5.1 sound system. The orchestral score by MGM arranger Roger Edens with Rodgers and Hart songs is truly sensational and as such adds a jumbo sized level of thorough professional musical lushness. Clearly made on the MGM back-lot with some obvious budget constraints, JUMBO is still delivered with the MGM polish for screen spectacle and a hankering to 'really entertain the audience'. There is some very unkind animal scenes (especially the muzzled bear dressed in a bonnet which looks like Hannibal Lecter in a fur coat and Grandma Duck hat) which only emphasizes how public acceptance of entertainment has changed. The special effects in some high-wire scenes are very clever and the tightrope act supposedly with Jummy Durante is perfectly achieved. As big as it could be JUMBO is solid family entertainment. Other comments will rave about Doris Day and moan about Stephen Boyd and they are all very right. Since this was Boyd's next film after BEN HUR do you realize that an advertisement could actually say "Stephen Boyd star of BEN HUR now in his biggest film: JUMBO" and it would actually make sense that JUMBO was indeed bigger than BEN HUR.............!! Yes, I know......I just wanted to say that. (but it IS true!)

The usual circus fun: a determinedly old-fashioned big-top opus with animals, parades, high-wire attractions, songs by Rodgers & Hart. Doris Day manages a struggling traveling circus in the early 1900s, while pop Jimmy Durante gambles away their earnings and show-performer Martha Raye halfheartedly attempts to get Durante down the aisle. Ever-earnest Stephen Boyd shows up in need of a job, and quickly gets Day's heart racing, before it's revealed he's the son of their chief rival--and what he's really after is star-attraction Jumbo the Elephant! Good-looking hokum, if your tastes run to squeaky-clean backlot romps. Too bad the scenarists skimp on any colorful glimpses of the eccentric carny lifestyle (what drives these people so hard anyway?). In the 1960s, Doris Day mainly concentrated on her series of popular bedroom comedies; this effort (her last musical) broke up her routine and she's delightful as always. The piqued direction is by Charles Walters, who has his work bolstered a bit by Busby Berkeley, overseeing the circus sequences. **1/2 from ****

Doris Day's final musical role was in Jumbo which finally came to the screen almost 30 years after it played at the legendary Hippodrome Theater for 233 performances in 1935. Henceforth all of Doris's films would be screen comedies in which she may have sung a ditty or two in the film or over the title credits. But Jumbo was her last true musical.

Jumbo was directed by Charles Walters an old hand at musicals, his best known probably being High Society. But Walters had an even older hand working with him in Busby Berkeley. His touch is obvious as the second unit director in some of the musical numbers. Jumbo marked Berkeley farewell screen credit.

The plot is little changed from the 1935 show. Jimmy Durante who was repeating his role from the original Broadway cast is Pop Wonder a kindly circus owner who owes everyone in a 20 mile radius because of his gambling problem. He's the despair of his daughter Doris Day and Martha Raye who does a crystal ball act on the sideshow who Durante's been carrying a long term courtship of.

His show is in desperate straights with acts quitting him left and right, Doris is fulfilling several acts and jobs on the show, from high wire work to clown. One day handsome and muscular Stephen Boyd comes looking for a job. He seems like the answer to a prayer, but it turns out he's the son of rival circus owner Dean Jagger and doing a little espionage for the old man.

Durante's show has one real asset, the legendary circus elephant Jumbo whom as we know was the real life main attraction of Barnum&Bailey's real life circus in the 19th century. It's that which Jagger means to have.

Of course the boy/girl thing as usual gets in the way with Day and Boyd. Their romance is played out under the big top to the strains of one of Rodgers&Hart's best scores. Made even better by the addition of This Can't Be Love from The Boys From Syracuse.

So many good songs by Rodgers and Hart you hardly know where to begin. Doris gets to sing My Romance, This Can't Be Love, and one of the most plaintive ballads of heartbreak ever written, Little Girl Blue. Stephen Boyd if he wasn't dubbed, had a nice singing voice and does a good job on The Most Beautiful Girl In The World, with an obbligato done by Jimmy Durante.

I've seen stills of the technically off Broadway production of the original cast in 1935. With all the circus acts, no conventional Broadway Theater could have possibly housed this show. The Hippodrome which was located on Sixth Avenue and 43rd Street has been gone since before World War II, Jumbo was the last show of any kind done there. I wish I could have seen it live.

My guess is that producer Billy Rose drove a hard bargain in getting just compensation for the screen rights. It's why Jumbo took so long to come to the screen. Fortunately it made it there just as musicals were being phased out. I'm sure Rose's name in the title was another bit of vanity for him to get the show to the screen.

Despite what I consider an almost surreal ending, Jumbo still delights musical and circus fans of all ages and will continue to do so. You can never go wrong with a musical by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.

In the beginning of the Twentieth Century, the traveling The Wonder Circus has the greatest attraction the elephant Jumbo and is full of debts. The owner, Anthony 'Pop' Wonder (Jimmy Durante), works as a clown but is a gambler addicted in dice games and usually loses the box office gambling. He has been deceiving the clairvoyant Lulu (Martha Raye) for many years promising to marry her. His daughter, Kitty Wonder (Doris Day), is the trick rider and tries to negotiate with creditors and the circus performers to keep the business going on. John Noble (Dean Jagger), who owns a famous Noble Circus, wants to buy Jumbo and The Wonder Circus, but Pop refuses his offers.

When the mysterious Sam Rawlins (Stephen Boyd) asks for a job in the Wonder Circus, Kitty refuses and tells that they do not want adventurer working in their circus. But he proves to be an excellent aerialist and handy man and Pop hires him since they lost many performers due to the lack of payment. Soon Kitty falls in love with Sam, but he has a secret agenda and she does not know.

"Billy Rose's Jumbo" is a forgettable and cute musical based on a 1935 Broadway show. The silly plot is a predictable romance entwined with many songs and performances by circus performers and entertains. The work of the stunts and the edition is wonderful. Unfortunately the songs in the DVD released by Warner in Brazil do not have subtitles in a absolute lack of respect from Warner to the Brazilian costumers. Shame on you Warner! My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "A Mais Querida do Mundo" ("The Dearest in the World")