La Caravane rouge

"Red Wagon" is an interesting film to finally see. A great new transfer on DVD in the UK and thanks to the people at Network and StudioCanal we have a rare possibility to see a film that has merits worth a look. This British quota film made for the British and American market have a good mix of actors with both a long history in Hollywood and newcomers from the British film industry. Director Paul Stern makes an effort, mixed result. Most films set in the old circus has the same story line: jealousy, murder, love, suspense in the animal cage and under the tent roof, competition between circus owners, small glimpses from the side- show as comic relief...and so on. The beginning of the film is perhaps a bit too fast, makes you feel the characters appears from nowhere, it does not establish the characters with a good foundation, but it picks up later. Both Greta Nissen and Raquel Torres are exotic and befitting for the life of the Circus. Charles Bickford plays the brute, the Circus owner in love,with the wrong woman. Jimmy Hanley makes a good start in a film that has a good story, if not that original, but it is entertaining and fun to watch. "Red Wagon" looks like it was made on a big Budget and made success with cinema-goers in Europe, mostly thanks to the acting merits of the cast. Good to finally see the talents of Greta Nissen as an actress most famous for being replaced by Jean Harlow in Howard Hughs "Hells Angels" (1930). In many of her roles she played a cold gold-digger, but here a warm and intelligent woman, nice to see a wider range of her acting talents. There are still many hidden gems from the British film industry and watching this film I have hopes to see more to come.

An adventurous large-scale attempt to rival Hollywood, this is based on the novel of the same name by Lady Eleanor Smith, the source of the Gainsborough melodramas 'The Man in Grey' and 'Caravan' both of which share some basic elements with this, including a reflection of her lifelong interest in Gypsies - whom she romanticised in her work - not to mention romance and the odd whipping too. She was also an expert on the circus world, of which she was a great advocate. Austrian émigré Paul L. Stein, BIP's most prestigious director along with Hitchcock at the time, though later forgotten, generally does an impressive job including making use of the English countryside.

At the centre of a sprawling story is Joe Prince and his life, from losing both parents as a young boy during a riot at a circus in America, running away as a teenager in England to join another circus, becoming a renowned horse rider, then circus owner, falling for feisty 'big cat' tamer Greta Nissen, prior to an unhappy marriage to a temperamental gypsy, Raquel Torres, finally finding happiness when all seems lost. You have to accept that embodiment of the English bloke Jimmy Hanley morphing into all American Charles Bickford, but Joe has spent a considerable part of his life in the States and it seems to work. There are the usual rivalries, jealousies and intrigues, including an attempt at sabotage by a rival owner, played by the young Francis L. Sullivan. A memorable scene sees this usually urbane figure swapping punches in an all-out scrap with Bickford. Even more eye-opening is the adroitly edited episode with the whip-wielding Greta Nissen doing her stuff in a cage with a group of ferocious tigers. Even as someone whom has always disliked the use of animals in circuses, I can't really agree with the comment that the scenes were excessive, and don't think many would find them too upsetting.

Firstly can I correct the first reviewer.This was not a British quota film.Such films would be roughly 76 minutes or less.This was originally 107 minutes long.I have to confess that I don't like circuses and even less circus films.This is a rather leisurely affair.27 minutes elapse before Jimmy Hanley becomes Charles Bickford!Therefore it is only really in the last hour that the film gets going.All the usual type of characters and plot lines.Rockford marries Raquel Torres because he can't get Greta Neissen,the cat tamer.There are lots of scenes with tigers being badly mistreated.I was siding with them against the trainer.More interesting for the cast than the film itself.