Circus movie with the same plot as RING OF FEAR where someone is causing mishaps through sabotage, threatening lives and the entire traveling business, only in THE BIG CIRCUS we don't know who the culprit is, although with so many menacing shots of famously-menacing Vincent Price as the ringleader, we're supposed to think it's him...
Run by bigger-than-life promotion king Henry Jasper 'Hank' Whirling, played by a confident, capable Victor Mature, quickly saddled with a sidekick in Red Buttons as an accountant from a bank about to close down the show...
Buttons plays against type as a straight-laced, uptight penny-pincher, and is sought-after by Mature's gorgeous little sister Kathryn Grant after she sees an impromptu clown act where Red finally plays himself after lead clown (and Mature's secondary sidekick) Peter Lorre gets stinking drunk...
Overall, with all its busy fanfare and colorful animal acts, THE BIG CIRCUS, written and produced by Irwin Allen, is more a contained Mystery film that keeps the viewer guessing more about what will happen next than if newly hired promotional agent Rhonda Fleming will melt Mature's heart, or if trapeze artist Gilbert Roland will survive an overlong tightrope walk across Niagara Falls...
All part of your usual circus movie, which this only resembles from the surface.
Run by bigger-than-life promotion king Henry Jasper 'Hank' Whirling, played by a confident, capable Victor Mature, quickly saddled with a sidekick in Red Buttons as an accountant from a bank about to close down the show...
Buttons plays against type as a straight-laced, uptight penny-pincher, and is sought-after by Mature's gorgeous little sister Kathryn Grant after she sees an impromptu clown act where Red finally plays himself after lead clown (and Mature's secondary sidekick) Peter Lorre gets stinking drunk...
Overall, with all its busy fanfare and colorful animal acts, THE BIG CIRCUS, written and produced by Irwin Allen, is more a contained Mystery film that keeps the viewer guessing more about what will happen next than if newly hired promotional agent Rhonda Fleming will melt Mature's heart, or if trapeze artist Gilbert Roland will survive an overlong tightrope walk across Niagara Falls...
All part of your usual circus movie, which this only resembles from the surface.