A Maior Atração

The official story is this was an attempt to allow Pat Boone to portray a grittier side in order to prepare him for meatier roles. However, watching it, I got the impression this was intended for Elvis Presley, but he, or rather Col. Parker, turned it down. This feeling was reinforced by the fact that the opening scene was practically duplicated, with minor variations, a few years later in Elvis' Roustabout. The film's failure is due to the fact that Boone doesn't have the acting talent to portray a less than savory character. This also affects the performances of the rest of the cast, all who have proved themselves elsewhere, because they have nothing, and no one, to play against. Only Kieron Moore, playing leading lady Nancy Kwan's brother-in-law, manages to accomplish a fully fleshed-out performance.

This is just one of those movies that makes a totally pointless impression and makes you wonder why it was ever made in the first place. Not that it's an horrible movie of course but it's too lacking on basically every front to consider this a good movie as well.

The movie has a very simple story that only slowly takes more shape in the second halve of the movie. But even then, the story just never really knows to intrigue. Oh well, maybe it's just because I never really liked the circus that this movie just couldn't interest me much.

But even so, this movie is lacking on more fronts than just the story. It's also a quite cheap and simple looking movie. You know, the movie with painted backgrounds, which makes it all painfully obvious most of it was shot inside a studio. It says something I think about the overall production values of this movie. Again, it's nothing too bad but not anything impressive either.

The actors are all quite good but the characters they portray remain mostly flat and uninteresting. Also their relations just never know to interest you and the movie just mostly muddles on as it progresses. There are some good ideas but just movie just never really exploit them fully or in the best way possible,

No, just not really a movie that will stay with you.

5/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

I don't know why this one has such a low score. For starters you have a horse kick its legs to jazz rhythms. And Pat Boone is actually pretty good. He has a sort of presence, he's attractive, he looks like he's having fun. They all look like they're having fun. The film is kind of campy in its own way. With this cast it can't be helped. There's lots of sex, implied of course. Neither Mai Zetterling nor Nancy Kwan are shy about pouring it on and it's fun to watch. Especially Mai although Nancy Kwan can be sensuous as well. It's hard to imagine Pat Boone as a hard-nosed vagabond but he gets a lot of help from his costars and eventually we accept it. Both he and Nancy Kwan are athletic. It looks like it's really him some of the time on the trapeze. It's obvious that's her somersaulting and jumping on and off the horse, not a double. And there's real chemistry between them. It's too bad Yvonne Mitchell doesn't have much more to do but what she does have she does well. She's the icing on the cake. Kieron Moore is very good as her husband. This is an actor who can be really passionate and his character has real pathos. Granted, the story is not the greatest but it's good enough, there's plenty of good lines and enough action to move it along and keep us entertained. So, overall, it's much better than its score would have you believe. In fact I'd say it's good enough for a second or third look. It's just plain fun.

Pat Boone attempts a serious performance in this otherwise insipid circus melodrama with romantic underpinnings, its story culminating in a silly avalanche sequence which adds not excitement but only melodrama to the mix. Surly American troubadour, traveling the world with his guitar after getting fired from every job he's ever had, winds up singing in Italy where he's discovered by a female ventriloquist employed by the circus. Big Top nonsense (with a scenario oddly similar to Elvis Presley's later "Roustabout" from 1964) quickly gives way to a heightened ridiculousness as Boone thinks he's killed a man and hightails into the Italian Alps with smitten Nancy Kwan in tow. British production has good color photography but no discernible style, not to mention some of the laziest circus acts of all time. Kwan, struggling to mount a running horse, gets one of many unintentional laughs; Boone is in fine, clear voice and lends the movie any vitality it possesses. *1/2 from ****

TMA is stupid film about stupid people living stupid lives for stupid sake.