One of the best films of the late 1940s was "House of Strangers"...starring Edward G. Robinson and Richard Conte. It's a tense and exceptionally well written and well acted movie...one you'll long remember. In light of just how good it is, you wonder why the studio decided to remake the film....and change the setting from a family business in the States to a family-owned circus in Germany. My only guess is that the 1950s and early 60s saw a butt-load of circus films, including the Oscar-winning "The Greatest Show on Earth", "Trapeze", "Circus World". For the most part, I actually thought these circus films were pretty dull....and moving the setting to a circus made the movie a hard sell for me.
The story begins with the oldest son, Josef (Cliff Robertson), arriving at his family-run circus after spending some time in jail. Why he was in jail is unknown and the film then consists of a long flashback. In the flashback, you see that the family patriarch, Bruno Everard (Nehemiah Persoff) is a controlling man who treats his grown children more like employees or children than adults. He tells them what to do and, aside from a bit of grumbling, they all knuckle under and do what he demands. Whether for right or wrong, he never allows them to live their lives or make important decisions...including who they can or cannot marry. Obviously something has to give....as this arrangement cannot go on forever.
There is nothing wrong with "The Big Show". Persoff in particular is a great actor (and the father in this story is still alive and kicking at 101 years of age) and Robertson is just fine. But the problems are that only one of the sons is actually German and none seem to have German accents...which is odd for a family of Germans!! They sound American. In addition, while a good film, it offers no improvements over the original and is actually a bit disappointing because of this and a lack of originality. My advice is to just watch the original film and "The Big Show" only if you insist on comparing the two.
The story begins with the oldest son, Josef (Cliff Robertson), arriving at his family-run circus after spending some time in jail. Why he was in jail is unknown and the film then consists of a long flashback. In the flashback, you see that the family patriarch, Bruno Everard (Nehemiah Persoff) is a controlling man who treats his grown children more like employees or children than adults. He tells them what to do and, aside from a bit of grumbling, they all knuckle under and do what he demands. Whether for right or wrong, he never allows them to live their lives or make important decisions...including who they can or cannot marry. Obviously something has to give....as this arrangement cannot go on forever.
There is nothing wrong with "The Big Show". Persoff in particular is a great actor (and the father in this story is still alive and kicking at 101 years of age) and Robertson is just fine. But the problems are that only one of the sons is actually German and none seem to have German accents...which is odd for a family of Germans!! They sound American. In addition, while a good film, it offers no improvements over the original and is actually a bit disappointing because of this and a lack of originality. My advice is to just watch the original film and "The Big Show" only if you insist on comparing the two.