The Big Circus (1959)

Big-budget disaster movie expert Irwin Allen produced this Allied Artists The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) knockoff in which Whirling Circus, The Biggest Show in Town (clever, eh?) is in financial trouble and requires to get a loan to complete their national tour.

To secure the loan, they are forced into taking a bank-assigned financial adviser and a press agent with them.

Things seem to be doing generally fine except for inclement weather and a series of mishaps:

One lion is let loose from its cage during a press conference; a fire is started by faulty machinery; and a train ‘accident’ results in two performers dying.

What with resulting bad blood, and still ongoing competition between Wrangling (Victor Mature) and former partners the Borman Brothers, you don’t suspect there might be murderous saboteurs around, do you?

While a suitably menacing ring master (Vincent Price) might insist you are being ridiculous, I still wouldn’t take any drinks or cigarettes from him; especially just before performing a dangerous act!

Peter Lorre is around being charming, chummy, and providing a bit of humor, but still mostly wasted; and the double romance is taken care of by Victor Mature, Rhonda Fleming, Red Buttons and Kathryn Grant.

Some nice aerial work; a lion taming sequence; and an exciting (but still SPFX based) tightrope walk over Niagara Falls.

Obviously graded lower than Cecil B. DeMille’s award-winning movie (which I’ll have to revisit to best reappraise,) but of the two, probably the more fun choice.

With Gilbert Roland, Adele Mara, Steve Allen as himself and Floyd the Barber.

Can the killers be stopped and the circus saved?