I vividly recall the evening nearly half a century ago when the accident to the knife-throwers' assistant was shown from behind and I observed "that's all we're going to see", only (SPOILER COMING:) to be promptly disabused by a huge closeup of the poor girl with the knife sticking out of her neck and realised we were in the hands of maniacs (it comes as no surprise to learn that Herman Cohan was involved).
Probably the least of Anglo-Amalgated's trio of lurid Eastmancolor shockers (each shot by a top cameraman) 'Circus of Horrors is certainly the goriest and definitely lives up to it's title.
Sharing with it's predecessors a morbid fascination with facial disfigurement and trading on that base instinct that visitors to the circus always secretly harbour that tonight will be the night that a fatal accident will take place, it delivers in spades in pristine colour by old pro Douglas Slocombe and gets more class than it deserves from the score by Franz Reisenstein.
Probably the least of Anglo-Amalgated's trio of lurid Eastmancolor shockers (each shot by a top cameraman) 'Circus of Horrors is certainly the goriest and definitely lives up to it's title.
Sharing with it's predecessors a morbid fascination with facial disfigurement and trading on that base instinct that visitors to the circus always secretly harbour that tonight will be the night that a fatal accident will take place, it delivers in spades in pristine colour by old pro Douglas Slocombe and gets more class than it deserves from the score by Franz Reisenstein.