Le cirque fantastique

"The Big Circus" is going to be a hard film for me to like. After all, the other three big circus spectaculars I've seen ("The Greatest Show on Earth", "Billy Rose's Jumbo" and "Circus World") were incredibly dull films. The only circus-themed films I can recall enjoying were comedies and so I am questioning now why I bothered to watch "The Big Circus"...perhaps I am just a glutton for punishment.

When the film begins, Hank Whirling (Victor Mature) is trying to arrange for a loan to keep his circus afloat. However, the bank is hesitant to make the loan and come up with an idea. Instead of just loaning the money, they'll send one of their people, Randy (Red Buttons), to go hang out with the circus for a few weeks to see if it really is worth the money. In addition, they assign a press agent, Helen (Rhonda Fleming) to go along as well and see if she can do anything to increase business and make the circus more profitable. Not surprisingly, Whirling is not the least bit thrilled by this but since he really has no other choice he accepts the proposition. Through the course of the film, lots of problems pop up but as the saying goes "The Show Must Go On!". But some of these problems might not be accidents...someone might just be deliberately sabotaging the circus!

"The Big Circus" is a bit different from the other three circus films I already mentioned. It seems a tiny bit smaller in scope and the actors tend to be more second-tier in stature. This is NOT necessarily a bad thing as the film seems to rest less on big names and concentrates a little more on entertaining the audience with a script that is at least modesty interesting and entertaining. I didn't love the film but found it kept my interest much more than the other circus epics and is actually worth seeing. I especially liked learning the identity of the saboteur...a really, really interesting choice!

C'mon, where else are you going to find a cast like this - at these prices, at least? It may not have the benefit of a DeMille budget, but this little gem succeeds where that director's "The Greatest Show On Earth" fails.

In place of DeMille's overblown hokum (which took itself too seriously to the point of campiness), THE BIG CIRCUS is earnest, lean and tightly paced, with no illusions that it's anything other than what it is: a collection of all the admittedly cliché elements that belong in a big-top thriller: sabotage by a rival, a lion on the loose, a killer in their midst, a fire, a train wreck and even a walk across Niagara Falls on a tightrope!

Seasoned pros Victor Mature, Gilbert Roland, Red Buttons and Rhonda Fleming give it their all without going overboard, Vincent Price and Peter Lorre appear appropriately suspicious for those wondering if type-casting will reveal one of them as the villain, David Nelson is on hand doing some of his own trapeze work and even Steve Allen gets into the act!

Don't look for import, just sit back and enjoy the ride (and forgive the cheesy matte work on the Niagara sequence; at least they sprang for CinemaScope).

The Big Circus was produced ten years after Cecil B. DeMille's Oscar winning "The Greatest Show On Earth" as brought to a close a decade of circus genre films. In this film, Victor Mature plays Hank Whirling, half owners of the Whirling-Borman Brothers Circus - The Biggest Show on the Face of the Earth.

The film begins with Whirling breaking off from the Borman Brothers with his half of the circus. He seeks financial backing from one of the oldest establishments on Wall Street - they will back the project, but aren't sure of the man. They force him to accept straight-laced Red Buttons as his financial adviser.

Buttons hires the beautiful Rhonda Fleming as the shows press agent and soon to be love interest for Mature. Things begin to go wrong for the show at the first Press Party when an escaped lion slinks ferociously into the tent while the party is going on.

There are so many possible villains to choose from. Is it the aloof ringmaster played with understated style by Vincent Price? Could it be the daring aerialist, played by film heavy Gilbert Roland? The lovable, but scary clown played by Peter Lorre? Or even the head man himself, Henry Jasper Whirling played by Mature - can you REALLY trust someone with the middle name of JASPER?

The escaped lion is followed by a freak fire that almost kills off all the circus animals and a train wreck that kills Roland's wife. Meanwhile the natural disasters are taking their tolls on the shows success - harsh and brutal rains diminish audiences while the Bormans' bask in the sunshine.

The show is going to go under if something BIG doesn't bring back the crowds. Mature influences, forces and shames Roland's wire walker to "Walk The Falls" for the good of the show. Cross Niagra Falls walking a tight rope!

We still do not know who the real villain is, but we know he has one last chance to bring the show to it's knees.

Buttons does a great turn as a foil to Mature's anger and bumbles his way through a classic clown routine doubling for an incapacitated Lorre. Kathryn Grant is great as Whirling's sister.

The Big Circus I found a decent movie. It is a worthy attempt, but it isn't quite the masterpiece it yearned to be. No matter how many flaws there are, it is an entertaining and undervalued movie. While it is hindered by the fact that it is rather low budget, so the sets and technical aspects(ie. sound) weren't as up to scratch as they could have been, however, the costumes and photography are very nice and extraordinarily colourful. The plot, like a whodunit at a circus, while slow to start with, is clever and reaches to a tense ending where I admit I was surprised at the identity of the culprit. The trapeze scenes were very well choreographed, and the highlight was the tightrope walking scene with Zach, I really felt the desperation and anguish in his face. The music is wonderful too,the script is acceptable and the performances are above decent. Victor Mature, who I think can act, is a little world-weary and is disappointingly one note at times but wonderfully over the top in other parts of the film. Rhonda Fleming is lovely as the female lead. However they are both overshadowed by a brilliant supporting cast including Red Buttons, Gilbert Roland, Kathryn Grant, Vincent Price and Peter Lorre. All in all, not a masterpiece, but I do think despite its flaws that the Big Circus is undervalued. 8/10 Bethany Cox

After previously doing The Story of Mankind, producer Irwin Allen decided to do another all-star production with this: his version of The Greatest Show on Earth. Among the players are Victor Mature and Vincent Price who both previously were in Allen's Dangerous Mission as well as Peter Lorre who along with Price was also in Irwin's movie that I just mentioned at the beginning of this review. There's also Rhonda Fleming, Red Buttons, David Nelson from "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet", Gilbert Roland, Steve Allen as himself, and Kathryn Grant-the same one who I saw in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad last week and who by the time this movie was released was the second Mrs. Bing Crosby. Oh, and for fans of "The Andy Griffith Show", yes, that's Howard McNear near the end of the movie with a funny scene involving a lion! I'll just now say this was a very entertaining movie so that's my recommendation of The Big Circus. P.S. This review is dedicated in memory of Ms. Fleming who passed away on Oct. 14.