I didn't know what to expect from this late 50s Irwin Allen circus flick - the quality of his work varies so widely, from the good fun of Towering Inferno and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea to the incompetence of The Swarm and The Story of Mankind. But this is a lively, colourful, unpretentious movie which I enjoyed.
It benefits from Charles Bennett having worked on the script - Bennett could always be relied upon to deliver something with a decent story structure and this does: Victor Mature's circus is in financial trouble, so the banks send in an accountant (Red Buttons) and a PR person (Rhonda Fleming). Someone in the show is causing trouble and trying to kill people. That's decent conflict and mystery right there. Thrown in mysterious acrobat Gilbert Roland and Mature's sister Kathryn Crosby who falls for Buttons, plus Vincent Price as the MC and Peter Lorre as a clown.
I wish more had been done with Price - he's really just a red herring and that's it. The denouement involving David Nelson is strangely unexciting. And the film seems unable to make up its mind if Mature or Roland is the hero. I think Mature should have come to the rescue at the end. And when all's said and done this isn't a very good circus - acrobats are always falling from the wire, lions keep escaping, etc.
But its colourful. Circus tales have the advantage of instant production value - there's lions, and acrobats, and clowns and big tops. The stars are second tier but they are pros and help tell who is who. And there is irresistible romance in the journey of Buttons' character - a numbers man who falls for the circus and becomes a clown. Who doesn't like a character like that?
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