I must admit I had never heard of "Man on a Tightrope" until I read Elia Kazan's autobiography, "Elia Kazan: A Life".
The story is based on a true event; the escape of the entire Circus Brumbach in 1950 from East Germany to West Germany. Renamed Cirkus Cernik in the film; they escape from Czechoslovakia.
Kazan tells how he agreed to make it only after he found that the story was true. He travelled to Bavaria and met the people of the circus and developed a great rapport with them.
Kazan had just named names at the HUAC hearings, and was receiving hate mail and hostility from former friends and associates. Although he had once been in the communist party, he claimed he had long ago become anti-communist, and he felt right at home with these circus people who had fled a repressive communist regime; they didn't feel he had done anything wrong at all. It was a healing process for Kazan.
Kazan respected the cast and crew in this film: the real circus people who played small parts or worked as extras, but also his American performers. Most weren't major stars, but he admired the honesty with which they approached their roles. They had to rough it; Germany eight years after the war didn't provide the comforts of Hollywood.
Fredric March whose career was winding down, warned him that he sometimes overacted, but he gave an affecting performance as circus owner Karel Cernik. Gloria Grahame as his cheating wife was never photographed to better advantage; she seemed naturally beautiful without her usual heavy makeup. Terry Moore as Cernik's daughter insisted on doing her own stunts including the scene in the fast flowing river.
Despite being based on fact, some rather predictable dramatic elements were added and the film was hacked by the studio; ultimately it failed at the box office. However the film has a brilliantly authentic look and when you know a little of how it was made and the circumstances surrounding it, it gains a dimension far beyond what we see on the screen.
The story is based on a true event; the escape of the entire Circus Brumbach in 1950 from East Germany to West Germany. Renamed Cirkus Cernik in the film; they escape from Czechoslovakia.
Kazan tells how he agreed to make it only after he found that the story was true. He travelled to Bavaria and met the people of the circus and developed a great rapport with them.
Kazan had just named names at the HUAC hearings, and was receiving hate mail and hostility from former friends and associates. Although he had once been in the communist party, he claimed he had long ago become anti-communist, and he felt right at home with these circus people who had fled a repressive communist regime; they didn't feel he had done anything wrong at all. It was a healing process for Kazan.
Kazan respected the cast and crew in this film: the real circus people who played small parts or worked as extras, but also his American performers. Most weren't major stars, but he admired the honesty with which they approached their roles. They had to rough it; Germany eight years after the war didn't provide the comforts of Hollywood.
Fredric March whose career was winding down, warned him that he sometimes overacted, but he gave an affecting performance as circus owner Karel Cernik. Gloria Grahame as his cheating wife was never photographed to better advantage; she seemed naturally beautiful without her usual heavy makeup. Terry Moore as Cernik's daughter insisted on doing her own stunts including the scene in the fast flowing river.
Despite being based on fact, some rather predictable dramatic elements were added and the film was hacked by the studio; ultimately it failed at the box office. However the film has a brilliantly authentic look and when you know a little of how it was made and the circumstances surrounding it, it gains a dimension far beyond what we see on the screen.