Customer Reviews

Big Circus

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is an entertaining film that will remind the viewer of the more famous, The Greatest Show On Earth. Good performances by Victor Mature, Red Buttons and Peter Lorre. Especially good is the job done by beautiful Rhonda Fleming. Rhonda alone makes this a film worth owning.

Such a great circus picture! I can't understand why it hasn't been released, or at least easily located. Great performances, including 2 great stars cast against type: Peter Lorre as a clown, and David Nelson as a circus flyer with a dark secret. Even a cameo of Steve Allen, hosting a televised performance by the circus. A great mystery, much suspense, some clever humor, this movie has it all. For the ladies--that Victor Mature was quite a hunk! If you can possibly see this film in any format, don't miss it!

i always liked this movie and its good like most of the circus movies are but this
movie only costs $19.95 on warners movie web site

It's great to see this movie finally released in its original wide screen format. I always remember seeing this film on channel 9 in the New York area growing up in the Sixties in pan and scan format sometimes in black & white. Colors fluctuate from beautifully clear to soft fades but the sound is great. I really never appreciated the music score before and it really shines . Highly recommended for fans of circus movies, classic b movies and how can you object when you have both Vincent Price and Peter Lorre in their post-Poe film days. A gem from beginning to end.

I remember seeing this film in the theater with my Mom, Dad and brothers. It was exciting and entertaining, with some suspense. So, it was with some trepidation that I viewed it with my wife and kids during one of its rare TV showings, fearing that it wouldn't hold up all these many years later. How pleasantly surprised I was to discover that not only did I enjoy it all over again, but so did my family. I am mystified why this film has not been released on DVD? Is there some dispute as to clear title, ownership or other entanglement that held up the release of so many other gems in the past? If so, please, please resolve those issues and let the public enjoy this little gem of a movie.

First of all, Truth Seeker has been watching way too many movies, that is NOT why The Big Circus was never released, it's a thing called Licensing and getting the owner of the rights to the movie to release it, it's all about THAT......not about being afraid of people mimicking Zach Coleno's walk across the falls on a Tightrope, second of all, anyone with a scrap of common sense wouldn't even attempt such a thing unless they were a professional wire walker and I don't even think a professional would want a job like that since, in my lifetime (54 years), no one has ever tried it, third of all, you need permission of the US Government (Good luck with that) and the Canadian Government (Well good luck on both)...Anyway, I'm getting ahead ....WAY AHEAD of myself....The Big Circus was one of the greatest Circus movies I've ever seen and it just isn't right that this movie isn't out on DVD. The cast is superb, the plot was good, the acting was good. IT WILL INSTANTLY BECOME PART OF MY COLLECTION THE DAY IT IS RELEASED, IF EVER!

the product arrived in good condition but whoever manufactured it did a ver poor job. The sound taping was so low that you have to raise the sound of your set just to about hear it and if you lower the sound you get a hum on the set. I am very disappointed. I have never recieved any product from Amazon that I have not been happy with. And I tried to follow the return policy and either I missing something but I keep clinking back and forth from one screen to another w/o really understanding what or how to do it. I just gave up and will buy another from some other dealer

I ordered "Big Circus" and "Ring of Fear" DVD's on Saturday, September 24, 2011, and they both arrived on Thursday, September 29th. The packaging was flawless and the DVD's were originals in the original cases--appearing to be brand new and sealed. I was pleased with the prices that I paid and wouldn't hesitate to buy from "ImportCDs" through "Amazon" in the future. Chase)

I bought this title when the W.B. Archives first released this Irwin Allen motion picture. The picture is fine, however the audio is severely messed up & should have prevented the film's release onto DVD (DVD-R). After turning the volume on my television I could barely hear the audio portion of the movie. I was given "NO" clue to this problem until tring to watch the program. I've heard of "NO" improved edition of this title yet (as of 07-19-2011). I was given the oportunity to send the product back for a full refund, the "WB" claimed that the audio couldn't be fixed and wasn't a "manufacturing" defect. I asked them to send me an e-mail, if a "corrected" edition became available for purchase, and they chose to not respond.
I placed a review of this title, on their web site, and they chose not to publish it. I wonder why ? So, be prepared to watch a great and very entertaining movie with many "stars" (such as Vincent Price)and almost hear nothing sadly :(
Disrespectful and Shameful W.B. ...a customer !

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

It took a long time for The Big Circus to make it to home video, and even at that is is almost a specialty item. I've fond memories of it, and the remastered DVD is worth watching because it's all good clean fun.

The plot:

Hank Whirling (Victor Mature) has a falling-out with his partners the Borman Brothers and their big railroad circus is split in two. The performers mostly side with Whirling, pooling their money to launch the show as both performers and stockholders; and thus the undercapitalized Whirling Circus, "The Biggest Show in the World," comes into existence. Whirling, a born showman, uses this asset and a calliope to impress a New York City bank into extending him a line of credit. The bank is not totally dazzled, though; they install one of their own executives, Randy Sherman (Red Buttons), as Whirling's CFO in control of the purse strings with orders to reduce costs without sacrificing quality. They also, offending Whirling further, put a flack, Helen Harrison (Rhonda Fleming), in to handle all his publicity, something Whirling is actually very good at. Both are good at their jobs, but neither is circus; no sawdust is in their veins, at least not at first.

The show leaves its winter quarters and takes to the road. There are problems. At a PR party arranged by Harrison, a lion somehow escapes from its cage and wanders into the Big Top where the party is being held. The combined efforts of Whirling and his star aerialist, Zach Colino (Gilbert Roland, in a powerful performance), recapture it. The resultant publicity thanks to Harrison's astute positioning of the averted disaster, is wonderful; but examination of the cage shows it was deliberately opened.

To Whirling's displeasure, Sherman brings in a stake-driving machine. (Parenthetically, I don't know why Whirling was so outraged; Ringling, Cole Bros., and Hannaford among others in America alone had been using them for more than 20 years when the movie was made.)This device replaces 40 roustabouts and saves substantial money, but sparks coving from a faulty exhaust stack set a huge pile of hay bales afire. Only prompt action by Whirling keeps the Big Top from going up in flames. Verbal reports from local kids on the pump gang and examination of the machine show it had been tampered with, and Whirling apologizes to Sherman for his intemperate language and actions.

Later, a train wreck of the first section of the circus train kills Maria Colino, aka "Mama," who is Zach's wife and den mother to everyone on the show, Harrison included. Colino is devastated. Is a saboteur traveling with the Whirling Circus? Whirling, Sherman and Harrison wonder.

The show is not doing well financially; they have been fighting weeks of foul weather while the Borman Circus, the other half of the divided show, enjoys sunshine and great ticket sales in another part of the country. Only glib talk and adept bookwork by Sherman hold the bank at bay. Whirling conceives a bold plan. The show's next stop is Buffalo. The Borman show is scheduled to play New York City, always a money-maker for circuses, in three weeks. He proposes to land a one-two punch. Pull off a spectacular stunt in Buffalo, then scrap his planned route and slip into the Big Apple ahead of Borman to play a two-week stand. This will put the show back in the black, secure their loan, and coincidentally give Borman a black eye, because the Whirling Circus will have cut the circus crowd out from under them.

The problem is with Zach Colino. The stunt Hank Whirling has in mind is a repeat of one last done in the 19th Century by the great wire-walker Blondin: walk across Niagara Falls. Colino is in a fragile state since the death of his wife Maria and seems to have lost his nerve. Whirling taunts him, calling him a coward. Enraged, Colino promises that he will first walk the Falls, and then he will kill Whirling.

Televised by the local TV station, Colino's walk of the Falls is a great success and still scary today, even though on a high definition TV it's obvious that it's blue-screened. Like Betty Hutton before him, Gilbert Roland had to learn a little bit about a uniquely circus art; he actually is walking on a cable in the close-ups in the blue-screen sequence (and yes, there are full length shots). After completing the stunt, Colino realizes that Whirling was attempting to help his old friend and they reconcile. But more trouble lies ahead.

Goaded by a board member who does not like circuses (it is unclear whether or not this board member is working with Borman), the bank decides to foreclose on Whirling. However, the foreclosure is not official until the papers are served on Hank personally. When Mr. Lomax from the bank arrives on the Whirling lot, Hank is nowhere to be found. Sherman, who by now has gotten sawdust in his veins to the point he filled in successfully with a clown routine when Skeeter, the Boss Clown (Peter Lorre) could not go on, works in cooperation with Skeeter and the Ringmaster (Vincent Price, in a small but marvelous performance) and locks Lomax in a cage with a very laid-back lion. Why would they do that?

They'd do it because Whirling made a deal with a New York City TV station to televise that evening's show, hosted by Steve Allen (playing himself). The money from the broadcast is more than enough to pay off the line of credit, put the show back in the black, and let them move ahead on sound financial footing.

At this point, two things happen at once. Jeannie Whirling, Whirling's sister in her early 20s, reveals to big brother Hank and her boyfriend Randy Sherman that she is going to fill in for the late Maria with the Flying Colinos; she has been training in secret with them for a year. At the same time, the NYPD shows up looking for the catcher of the Flying Colinos, Tommy Gordon (David Nelson), an escaped lunatic and homicidal maniac. Tommy deliberately misses a catch, but fortunately Jeannie is able to latch onto one of the climbing tapes and saves herself. A chase ensues in mid-performance, climaxing with Gordon, the saboteur in the pay of Borman, taking a fatal fall when Zach Colino drives him aloft and goes up after him.

The show climaxes with a grand spectacle, with Helen Harrison and Hank Whirling finally admitting what to everyone else on the show is plain to see, that they are in love with each other. As the camera pulls away they are kissing passionately on a couch on one of the spec floats. And they all lived happily ever after.

Even compared to DeMille's epic The Greatest Show on Earth, there's a whole lot of soap opera in The Big Circus. I find that detracting. There is also the fact the viewer does not see the Whirling Circus as a CIRCUS. I know that Irwin Allen hired a small circus to double as the Whirling Circus; but apart from the Great Zacchini performing his human cannonball act, there are no world-class acts on the show as there are with TGSOE. From a pure performance point, it's nowhere near as good, though Red Buttons' turn as a clown in the old Burning House Gag is funny and Vincent Price's air of quiet, amiable menace does heighten the mystery of the saboteur's identity substantially; right up to the reveal you wonder if he is the saboteur. To be honest, I was frankly more impressed with the secondary characters than the leads, which says something about Mature and Fleming's performances.

Still, if you like circuses and don't mind a big cup of soap opera with your popcorn, The Big Circus is a pleasant way to pass a couple of hours on a quiet afternoon. It deserves a place in the collection of every circus buff.

Big Circus