mlraymond Review of Circus of Horrors

Circus of Horrors (1960)

Lurid, over the top story of mad doctor's circus in enjoyably bad taste

[7/10 · 27 October 2006]

I'm not sure to this day whether I've ever seen a complete print of this movie. I have a couple of VHS tapes which are both much stronger than the version I saw on television in 1970, but questions remain. There are plenty of plot holes, unanswered questions and general loopiness, but if you can sit back and be entertained by this rather sadomasochistic story, you'll find it perverse fun. Without a doubt, this movie would be nothing without Anton Diffring in the role of the kinky surgeon. This may well be his best known and most effective role, in a long career playing assorted Nazis and mad scientists. Diffring is a good enough actor to make the Rossiter character believable and reasonably well motivated. He seems more of a colossal egotist, who is vain and glory-seeking, rather than truly mad in the usual sense. His two assistants, Angela, and her brother Martin, are less well developed as to their reasons for staying with him and helping him in his evil actions. Character development throughout the movie is pretty sketchy, including the police detective investigating the " Jinx Circus" , and the tragic Evelyn Morley. One question I've always had is whether Evelyn Morley and Rossiter were supposed to have been lovers, as well as doctor and patient? It almost seems implied, but perhaps not really. The ghoulish atmosphere surrounding the various surgeries and fatal accidents at the circus is well caught, and certainly there is an intriguing quality to the way traditional mad scientist horror clichés are combined with the circus big top motif. The use of actual footage of circus performances and audience reactions is cleverly edited to go with the storyline. The aspect of the movie that must have made it fairly controversial in its day was the very strong sexual undertones. SPOILERS AHEAD: We have the unhappy Angela sticking with Rossiter in a loveless relationship, and his casual elimination through " accidents" of circus women who are no longer willing to be his mistresses. There is an uneasy theme of voyeurism that runs through the whole movie, from the first sight of Evelyn Morley's ruined face, to the beautiful prostitute Rossiter plans to exhibit as Helen of Troy. The sideshow barker lures a crowd of male gawkers at one point with an offer to "come see the Temple of Beauty", in which half naked women are displayed in pseudo-historical settings. Buried beneath all the lurid story developments is a not so hidden theme of women as objects to be manipulated and displayed for men's gratification. Evelyn Morley takes a terrible risk of outlawed plastic surgery in an attempt to be more attractive, and ends up disfigured, due to Rossiter's overconfidence in his own abilities. When the woman who is to be displayed as Helen of Troy complains that she will have to stand for hours and be stared at, Rossiter practically purrs, "Not stared at, my dear, worshiped." The movie is certainly far from dull and Diffring raises it from an indifferent script to something astonishingly perverse in its implications. Worth checking out at least once by fans of late Fifties English horror flicks.