***SPOILERS*** Just released from the "clink"-prison-for good behavior after spending 3 years of a 5 year sentence Josef Everard, Cliff Robertson, has a score to settle with his older brother Klaus, Robert Vaughn, who in fact if you check both his and Robertson's birth-dates is actually 9 years younger then him. Klaus had taken over his and Josef's late father the great acrobatic catch-man Bruno Everard's ,Nehemiah Persoff, circus and just about ran it into the ground while Josef spent time behind bars. It's then that we go into flashback mode were we get to see the circumstances that lead to this showdown between the Everard brothers.
Bruno never had any use for his son Klaus who was on his payroll at the circus just to give him a job, as the accountant, to make him feel useful. It's when Bruno wanted his favorite son Josef to get friendly and marry famed polar bear animal trainer Teresa Vizzini, Renate Mannhardt, that Klaus saw his big chance to get in good with his old man. Josef who was having an on and off affair with American businesswoman Hllary Allen,Esther Williams, had no interest in Teresa who's pop Piestro Vizzini, Peter Capell, was Europe's top wild animal exporter. A marriage between one of his sons,preferably Josef, would cement and straighten Bruno's grip on the circus business and make him top dog in the German as well as European entertainment world!
The tyrannical Bruno taking over all control of the circus and doing things his way or no way at all leads to a number of disasters that culminate with the famed bicycle high flier act that crashes killing three of it's members. It's the surviving member of that act Carlotta Martinez, Margia Dean, who was Klaus' lover whom he dropped for Teresa, when Papa Bruno strongly objected to their relationship, who ends up suing Bruno in her becoming a cripple and not able to make a living to support herself as well as paying her hospital and doctor bills.
In fact it's Josef who willingly takes the rap for the high wire accident to keep his dad who used faulty rigging,in order to skimp on money, that caused it from going to prison for criminal neglect! It's later that Klaus lets his shocked wife Teresa have it in what a dog she is, I found her to be quite pretty, and how he was forced to marry her by his father Bruno. That has a heart-broken and suicidal Teresa go into the polar bear cage not to do her world famous act of teaming the ferocious bruins, all 12 of them, but get viciously mauled and killed by one of them to the shock and horror of everyone, on screen and off, watching!
Voted out of controlling interest of the circus by Klaus and his two brother brothers Hans & Fredrick,Kurt Pecher & Franco Andrei,Bruno then plans to start from the bottom up by doing his famed acrobat act in public and draw a whole new generation of fans. This big plan on Bruno's part sadly ends up with him suffering a fatal heart attack, during practice, for all the trouble he went through in putting his future plans into action.
***SPOILERS*** Now back to the present both Josef & Klaus begin to square off and settle differences with a knife throwing Klaus unloading on his unarmed brother Josef who just wanted to duke it out. That's until Klaus got a bit too close to the polar bear cage when the 1,500 pound bear "Teddy" who killed his wife Teresa earlier in the movie grabs him by the head and proceeds to make hamburger meat out of the conniving and back stabbing creep.
P.S We also have in the movie 1950's and 1960's teenage heartthrob, who in fact was 24 years old at the time, David Nelson from the Ozzie & Harriet TV show as the love sick US serviceman Sgt. Eric Solden. Eric who despite Bruno's strong objections, in Eric not being a circus person, married his teenage daughter Grada, Carol Christensen, even if it meant her being disinherited from the family business.
Bruno never had any use for his son Klaus who was on his payroll at the circus just to give him a job, as the accountant, to make him feel useful. It's when Bruno wanted his favorite son Josef to get friendly and marry famed polar bear animal trainer Teresa Vizzini, Renate Mannhardt, that Klaus saw his big chance to get in good with his old man. Josef who was having an on and off affair with American businesswoman Hllary Allen,Esther Williams, had no interest in Teresa who's pop Piestro Vizzini, Peter Capell, was Europe's top wild animal exporter. A marriage between one of his sons,preferably Josef, would cement and straighten Bruno's grip on the circus business and make him top dog in the German as well as European entertainment world!
The tyrannical Bruno taking over all control of the circus and doing things his way or no way at all leads to a number of disasters that culminate with the famed bicycle high flier act that crashes killing three of it's members. It's the surviving member of that act Carlotta Martinez, Margia Dean, who was Klaus' lover whom he dropped for Teresa, when Papa Bruno strongly objected to their relationship, who ends up suing Bruno in her becoming a cripple and not able to make a living to support herself as well as paying her hospital and doctor bills.
In fact it's Josef who willingly takes the rap for the high wire accident to keep his dad who used faulty rigging,in order to skimp on money, that caused it from going to prison for criminal neglect! It's later that Klaus lets his shocked wife Teresa have it in what a dog she is, I found her to be quite pretty, and how he was forced to marry her by his father Bruno. That has a heart-broken and suicidal Teresa go into the polar bear cage not to do her world famous act of teaming the ferocious bruins, all 12 of them, but get viciously mauled and killed by one of them to the shock and horror of everyone, on screen and off, watching!
Voted out of controlling interest of the circus by Klaus and his two brother brothers Hans & Fredrick,Kurt Pecher & Franco Andrei,Bruno then plans to start from the bottom up by doing his famed acrobat act in public and draw a whole new generation of fans. This big plan on Bruno's part sadly ends up with him suffering a fatal heart attack, during practice, for all the trouble he went through in putting his future plans into action.
***SPOILERS*** Now back to the present both Josef & Klaus begin to square off and settle differences with a knife throwing Klaus unloading on his unarmed brother Josef who just wanted to duke it out. That's until Klaus got a bit too close to the polar bear cage when the 1,500 pound bear "Teddy" who killed his wife Teresa earlier in the movie grabs him by the head and proceeds to make hamburger meat out of the conniving and back stabbing creep.
P.S We also have in the movie 1950's and 1960's teenage heartthrob, who in fact was 24 years old at the time, David Nelson from the Ozzie & Harriet TV show as the love sick US serviceman Sgt. Eric Solden. Eric who despite Bruno's strong objections, in Eric not being a circus person, married his teenage daughter Grada, Carol Christensen, even if it meant her being disinherited from the family business.