Spangles

Bareback rider Marian Nixon is engaged to circus owner Hobart Bosworth, even though, as lion tamer Gladys Brockwell notes jealously, she doesn't love him. But one evening, the police stop the circus train, looking for Pat O'Malley. He's wanted for murder. When he enters Miss Nixon's car and explains he didn't do it, she believes him. She gives him her wedding ring to pawn for getaway money. Of course, he shows up the next day, looking for a job.

There's quite a lot of circus atmosphere, with human skeletons, elephants, llamas and the obligatory big cats and hey rube! Attitude among the circus folks. Miss Nixon looks as cute as a button, but her character is a feckless moron. That's supposed to be Walter Brennan at the lunch counter, but the distance from the camera and the quality of the image prevented me from certainty. Chimpanzee Joe Martin is also credited, and I don't believe it, since he died in 1923.

Happy to report this movie is out on DVD. Definitely not restored, but overall in pretty good condition. It has one of the strangest musical accompaniments I've heard, but is certainly worth seeing. It appears to have the original title cards. Many interesting scenes involving the circus - particular one "rebel" elephant. Numerous location shots with a sizable number of extras. The plot: three men want to possess Spangles - a bareback horse rider - but only one succeeds. I've heard of the star, Marian Nixon, but had never seen one of her movies. Note, the movie runs 77 minutes, which is longer than the 58 minutes shown on IMDb.