Diabos do Circo

A good cast struggles with a silly, mawkish script about how the children of tyrannical circus owner Nehemiah Persoff struggle for control of the circus -- a remake of HOUSE OF STRANGERS -- and the result is boring, but some pretty shots of mountains and great animal acts -- including trained polar bears and hippopotomi -- make this worth seeing at least once.

The casting is interesting. Esther Williams is present for star power, even though, as others have noted, wet she's a star, dry she's nothing. The rest of the cast is excellent, including Robert Vaughn and Cliff Robertson before they hit it big, but they aren't given much help in direction. Still the animal acts may make this worth your time.

That's my second James B Clark's favourite films after his delicious and surprising ONE FOOT IN HELL, a western that was unusual at the most. All that before Jim Clark lost his soul in stupid Disney like - or not - movies, as Robert Stevenson or James Neilson. This film is totally underrated, forgotten now. It is a good and effective drama where Cliff Robertson and Robert Vaughn face off in a brilliant way for my taste. I don't even mention the glamorous presence of Esther Williams which brings some spice to this story. We can consider it as a circus film but not the greatest though. I was lucky enough to see it in LBX frame.

Boring melodrama about a family of circus performers. I only watched it for Esther Williams and I was sorely disappointed she has little to do but play the rich lady slumming with Cliff Robertson. If these were the kinds of roles she was being offered, it's no surprise Esther would retire from the screen a couple of years later. The story is uninteresting. Good son (Robertson), bad son (Robert Vaughn), hard-to-please father (Nehemiah Persoff). It's a variation on "House of Strangers" and not the least bit exciting. All in all, a mediocre film that's instantly forgettable. I can't recommend it as anything other than a sleep aid.

Reworking of "House of Strangers" has Nehemiah Persoff in the Edward G. Robinson role of a widower patriarch, this time a demanding, domineering circus owner who keeps his sons and one daughter tightly under this thumb. Cliff Robertson, who keeps calling Persoff "Pup-puh", takes the rap for Dad once a tragedy strikes; shady sibling Robert Vaughn assumes control of the business after Robertson is sent to prison (what Vaughn plans to do with the circus isn't really clear, except that is sounds like a sell-out). Two sideline romances are much more interesting than the family conflicts, and Persoff is grueling and merciless while criticizing his children (this Daddy Dearest is hardly a sympathetic character, though I'm pretty sure we're meant to feel something for him in the final reel). The circus asides are given surprisingly short shrift in favor of the melodramatics, which are both over-the-top and stilted. Good cinematography helps quite a bit, as does a fine, non-showy performance by Esther Williams as a wealthy woman in love with Robertson. ** from ****

The best performance in the movie is by Nehemiah Persoff's as Everard father. The main problem is that any of the characters is kind or sympathetic nor well written (Carol Christensen does not have much to do with her sister's role) and this, added to a poor script burdens the film. Esther Williams' appearance is little more than anechdotic and she appears in a swimming pool in a glimpse of what could have been the best part of the movie. Best performances run on the animals' account, which I am not very fond of as a form of slavery. Even a hippo appears (I had no idea they could be tamed). The end is totally absurd and preposterous, adding a silly final curtain.