The writer, Charles Bennett, and the aging actor, Peter Lorre, connects this film with the Irwin Allen production of the Jules Verne novel, 'Five Weeks in a Balloon'. The novel itself made offensive reading, and the film version was totally pathetic with its disconnected scenes and jump-cutting. This film fell way behind that of the 1952 Cecil B. DeMille circus film, 'The Greatest Show on Earth'. For a start, Victor Mature can't act. The sum total of his acting career is just to raise his dark eyebrows and peer out at you through his full eyes. Looking at his face is like reading blank verse. He is bland to watch, and Peter Lorre was insipid as always.
Review of The Big Circus
