Le cercle de sang

Joan Crawford's fans will appreciate her foray into yet another horror show, this time as the feisty, hard-edged manager of a traveling circus show suddenly burdened with murders of several circus members. The careful photography cannot hide the fact that Crawford has aged considerably--and consequently, although her figure is still trim, her scenes with hunky Ty Hardin have an unpleasant and unbelievable quality about them.

The plot is strictly standard fare--who is responsible for the series of gruesome murders? For awhile, it looks like Joan herself is probably the wicked one--and there are a few other red herrings to make you think you know who did it. When the ending is revealed, in a climactic thunderstorm, it comes as a distinct letdown although a surprise, the reason being the guilty one is given no substance in the plot. The killer's identity seems highly implausible which makes the ending seem as though it has been merely tacked on to provide a final scene.

As these sort of things go, BERSERK isn't a bad way to pass the time on a low-budget mystery. The technicolor is good, Joan's costumes are fantastic, her shapely legs are on almost constant display and she uses her haughty manner to great effect. The details of circus life are smoothly integrated into the story and some of the animal acts are amusing--but none of the characters have any depth. Ty Hardin makes a handsome and arrogant stud whose daredevil highwire act provides some high moments of suspense as he performs over a row of spikes below. Like Crawford, he's given ample opportunities to show off his handsome physique.

Diana Dors makes the most of her role as an outspoken tart and all of the supporting performances are competent enough--Michael Gough, Judy Geeson and Robert Hardy. Certainly worth a view if you're a Crawford fan. The dialogue is ripe with campy one-liners.

Trivia note: The plot is slightly reminiscent of Barbara Stanwyck's LADY OF BURLESQUE where a series of backstage murders takes place with a slim plot involving a jealous performer.

Old Joan Crawford, dressed in tights and a ringmaster's coat throughout much of the film, plays Monica Rivers, circus owner and apparently heart-breaker to men decades younger than herself. Watch Joan cavort first with Michael Gough with lots of suggestions about their business and personal lives merging(fortunately for Gough this does not last too long as he soon finds himself nailed to another post). So with Gough gone, he-man Ty Hardin, a new high wire act who arrives after the old one hangs himself while performing, comes into the picture, no shirt half the time and all, and makes his moves for the less-than-sexy sixty plus year-old. Watching Crawford and her beaus work with heavily-laden dialog laced with absurd innuendo was the highlight of this film as it was just so preposterous. She looks ancient and yet acts like she is still 25! Anyway, the film itself is one of those films that is so very fun to watch just for those elements already mentioned, the then grisly murders as circus people start to die off, and the lush colour used in the film. The settings of the circus are believably done and Herman Cohen, the producer, always knew how to put on a good show. I even enjoyed some of the circus acts that were intermittently laced in the picture. The rest of the cast is very able with Gough, always good, and George Claydon playing Bruno excelling. Lovely Diana Dors and Judy Geeson also star. Hardin was really quite bad but I really enjoyed his trapeze act at the film's end. While the story can only be classified as silly and absurd, the ending seems way too abrupt even for this film. The film seems to be going along almost effortlessly - Joan prancing about working her guys over(Yuck!) and circus performers dying - then a quick ending that comes out of left field. Despite the many shortcomings, Berserk - why the heck is it named that? - is a whole lot of fun and is very similar, as some other reviewers have noted, to Straight-Jacket, Crawford's film for William Castle.

Berserk is not as dreadful as I had anticipated. It's a straightforward and reasonably entertaining whodunit set in a traveling circus in Britain. Overall I wouldn't call the pacing slow, as others have, but it is odd. At the beginning the story moves along briskly, as the plot quickly thickens. Then periodically it breaks for extended circus acts that have no bearing on the story, though it could be argued that since we are half expecting a new murder to occur at any moment, we have no choice but to be attentive. Certainly this wouldn't be much of a film without the centerpiece, Joan Crawford, who delivers a forceful performance as the hardboiled boss of the circus. Over sixty, her hair is dyed pinkish blonde and worn tightly pulled back to emphasize her still attractive facial features (and possibly to lift the face) and in half her scenes she is wearing a mistress-of-ceremonies outfit with bare legs. She could still pull it off. But one notices several instances of "Joan Crawford lighting" that started in the 50s if not earlier: in these instances the upper part of her face is high lit but there is a convenient shadow under the chin to de-emphasize the sagging jawline. (These days the average actress of 60-plus has had surgical facelifts.) The tone of her acting here is very much like the performance she gave around the same period on the CBS soap opera The Secret Storm in which she subbed for her ailing daughter who was a regular cast member of the show: full throttle whether necessary or not – but you got your money's worth or at least felt you were being generously served by the performer.

Ty Hardin as a high wire performer who sort of has the hots for Joan (we really can't tell because the script coyly dances around the issue) was on a career downturn at the time this was made and doesn't make much of an impression here. Diana Dors as an abrasive member of Crawford's troupe of performers enlivens every scene she's in. Just when you think she is stealing the film, in steps Crawford to show everyone who's the Star.

The production values are cheap but so well presented that they almost look expensive. Shooting actual circus acts lends an air of plausibility to the film as a whole that the script itself lacks, and one can understand the logic of approaching the production from this angle. If you cut out all of the genuinely interesting circus material this would be very thin gruel indeed. The scoring is also peculiar. Usually it's par-for-the-course sinister/suspenseful. But sometimes it veers off into a lush studio orchestra sound of the kind you'd expect to hear as underscoring to a scene of a limo gliding to a stop in front of a Beverly Hills mansion wherein Lana Turner is longing for love. This disconcerting shift occurs right after the dandy opening scene and credits.

Crawford seems in her element here as a tough lady with responsibilities and she is the main reason to see the film.

"We've eaten caviar, and we've eaten sawdust".

Only Joan Crawford could muster the dramatics possible to make the above line actually work, but she does it all with a totally straight face and makes this movie hysterically funny! Her scenes in lingerie with studmuffin Ty Hardin must be seen to be believed. That woman must have had an ego the size of Texas. The movie is worth seeing as a 'bad' movie that you'll enjoy.

A high-wire act is going on as the film opens. The wire snaps, and Gaspar The Great is victim #1. Ringmaster Monica Rivers (Joan Crawford) sends out clowns to distract the audience as the body is carried off. Later that night, Rivers is going over box-office receipts, which upsets her manager Dorando (Michael Gough). He accuses her of not having a heart. The rest of the film is a whodunit, spiced with occasional killings, red herrings, and animal acts (the French poodle act was my favorite).

The Billy Smart Circus of Britain did the animal acts and the most difficult stunts. They also participated in an earlier British horror film, "Circus of Horrors" (1960).

Joan Crawford has a marvelous time chewing the scenery and outacting her costars. Diana Dors is fine as Matilda, the woman whose partner "does nothing in bed but snore". Hardin is the hunk who replaces Gaspar on the wire and in Monica's bed. Geeson is the girl who gets herself expelled from a private school and goes to work as the target in the knife throwing act.

The film does slow down after a fast moving first half hour. The finale is too abrupt, unconvincing, and badly staged. Despite these faults, film is still worth a watch.