After a pair of unconventional epics, EL CID/’61 (a stupendous success) and FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE/’64 (a staggering flop), independent mogul Samuel Bronston went out not with a bang, but with this lumbering, very conventional whimper. Hitting all the usual circus tropes (wreck, fire, daredevil rivalry, performing accidents), the sole twist has Big Top owner John Wayne (plus stunt double to scamper up all those tent poles) hauling his outfit off on a Euro-tour in hopes of finding high-flying ex Rita Hayworth. Fourteen years a fallen woman, she's hiding from life & abandoned daughter Claudia Cardinale after an affair with Duke led to her husband’s mid-act death plunge. Henry Hathaway, Jack Hildyard & Dmitri Tiomkin meg, lens & score with professional blinders on, they’re the grown-ups in the room, ploughing thru script absurdities to make the most of various obstacles & disasters. (Though a felled ship remains a real head-scratcher, keeling over simply from passengers rushing port-side.) Watchable, in a lazy sort of way, it suddenly comes alive near the end in a montage of acts on opening night. Gorgeous stuff here, stunningly executed, staged & edited. Why there’s even a truly funny clown act!
DOUBLE-BILL: Far more circus charm, atmosphere, hoke & nuttiness in Carol Reed’s TRAPEZE/’56 or C. B. De Mille’s super bright/cornball GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH/’52.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Nicholas Ray, just off Bronston’s poorly received, but entertaining 55 DAYS AT PEKING/’63, gets story credit, presumably a planned follow up taken away from him.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Listen as Wayne gives Cardinale some surrogate fatherly advice all about ‘high dives’ & ‘safety nets.’ Sure sounds like a disguised parent-to-child talk on contraception. Yikes!
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