If you assemble a cast consisting of Victor Mature, Red Buttons, Rhonda Fleming, Vincent Price and David Nelson, I will not expect much. Between them, they created few quality roles. Unfortunately, they lived up to my lack of expectation.
But blame this debacle on Irwin Allen, whose "vision" created this lackluster production. As has been mentioned, Allen's plot is very derivative of The Greatest Show on Earth (the worst winner of the Best Film Oscar) . Someone suggested that Big Circus be viewed as camp. I guess you could try that with all bad movies.
Try as it might, the horrible script could not dim all the talents of Gilbert Roland as the aerialist. And Kathryn Grant (not long married to Bing Crosby) shines on screen, despite the ridiculous story lines. (lucky her, she wins the affections of Red Buttons even though she thought Rhonda Fleming had dibs on him).
The only portion of the plot I enjoyed was Red's surprise clown performance as a substitute for the morose Peter Lorre.
What else is wrong with this film? The incidental music is intrusive, the staging is rigid and unnatural (notice how the director manages to routinely display up to 9 characters in a tableau), and the dialogue is trite and uninspired (there are some really insipid lines).
The big cat act is fine (as cats cannot act), though uninspiring. The trapeze act is realistic, because it's real. But these minor aspects lend little to the overall story.
This big top is a big flop.
SPOILER: One more thing. There is an unknown saboteur among the circus performers. The director goes way out of his way to force Vincent Price (renowned movie villain) upon us as a suspect. It's so obviously a red herring. In the end, the villain is revealed to be David Nelson (America's good boy heart throb, playing against type--get it?). As Bugs Bunny would say, "what a maroon!"
But blame this debacle on Irwin Allen, whose "vision" created this lackluster production. As has been mentioned, Allen's plot is very derivative of The Greatest Show on Earth (the worst winner of the Best Film Oscar) . Someone suggested that Big Circus be viewed as camp. I guess you could try that with all bad movies.
Try as it might, the horrible script could not dim all the talents of Gilbert Roland as the aerialist. And Kathryn Grant (not long married to Bing Crosby) shines on screen, despite the ridiculous story lines. (lucky her, she wins the affections of Red Buttons even though she thought Rhonda Fleming had dibs on him).
The only portion of the plot I enjoyed was Red's surprise clown performance as a substitute for the morose Peter Lorre.
What else is wrong with this film? The incidental music is intrusive, the staging is rigid and unnatural (notice how the director manages to routinely display up to 9 characters in a tableau), and the dialogue is trite and uninspired (there are some really insipid lines).
The big cat act is fine (as cats cannot act), though uninspiring. The trapeze act is realistic, because it's real. But these minor aspects lend little to the overall story.
This big top is a big flop.
SPOILER: One more thing. There is an unknown saboteur among the circus performers. The director goes way out of his way to force Vincent Price (renowned movie villain) upon us as a suspect. It's so obviously a red herring. In the end, the villain is revealed to be David Nelson (America's good boy heart throb, playing against type--get it?). As Bugs Bunny would say, "what a maroon!"