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| Rita Hayworth and John Wayne |
CIRCUS WORLD (1964). Director: Henry Hathaway.
Matt Masters (John Wayne) decides to pack up his tents and take his circus on a European tour. His associate and buddy Cap (Lloyd Nolan) suspects that Matt's real reason for going is to find Lily (Rita Hayworth), who ran off fourteen years ago and hasn't been seen since. Lily left behind a daughter, Toni (Claudia Cardinale), who was taken in by Matt, who has become her surrogate father. Matt is a bit disturbed by Toni's feelings for Steve (John Smith), who hopes to become Matt's partner and Toni's husband. But just as the troupe arrives in Paris, there's a disaster when their ship capsizes.
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| Wayne with John Smith |
Circus World may not be a great movie, but it's quite colorful and entertaining. Hayworth and Wayne, two very different kinds of actors, actually play quite well together, with Hayworth being handled the more difficult role and running with it. Cardinale of the whiskey voice also acquits herself nicely, although one could argue that she's more decorative than anything else. John Smith makes a decidedly positive impression as Steve, but he did much more work on television shows such as
Laramie. Lloyd Nolan arguably comes off the best in his peppery and engaging performance as Cap. Richard Conte is also good in an underwritten role as Hayworth's former brother-in-law, a clown. Miles Malleson and Katherine Kath are also notable in smaller roles.
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| Claudia Cardinale with Wayne |
Despite some terrific circus and animal acts involving horses, highwire acts, lions and tigers, the most outstanding sequence is when the boat capsizes at the dock in France. This scene is remarkably well-handled and wakes up anyone who might have been sleeping beforehand. An elaborate sequence when a tent catches fire is also notable, if not quite as impressive. Dimtri Tiomkin's theme song is pretty awful. Other major circus movies include
Trapeze,
Jumbo,
The Big Circus,
Carnival Story, and
The Greatest Show on Earth, not to mention numerous films of varying genres that use the circus as a backdrop.
Verdict: Even when Hayworth is down and out and deglamorized she is still beautiful. ***.
I need to see this one; have read about it for years. Great cast. Very true, Hayworth was always a beauty and a very good, underrated actress. Her mature performances are among her very best--Separate Tables, They Came to Cordura, Story on Page One, Money Trap...she became a very skilled character actor after her Love Goddess heyday was over.
ReplyDelete-C
I completely agree. I'm sure she had learned a lot of life's lessons over the years and absorbed it into her performances.
ReplyDeleteThere was a beautiful print of this on youtube. Hope it is still there.
This one sounds like it's for me! I'm a big Rita Hayworth fan (and am always interested in new-to-me films) and I'm also always on the lookout for westerns I haven't seen. This sounds like a good one -- I hope I can find it. Thank you for introducing me to it!
ReplyDeleteAlso, on a completely different subject, if you're interested, I'd love to invite you to consider membership in the Classic Movie Blog Association -- it's a great group of old movie lovers like you! http://clamba.blogspot.com/p/a.html
-- Karen
Thanks for your comments, Karen. I found a very nice print of CIRCUS WORLD on youtube. Hopefully it's still there. Hayworth gives a lovely performance in this.
ReplyDeleteI applied for membership in the CMBA some years ago but was blackballed. The other members voted over 4th of July weekend (!!!), but it's unlikely they spent time going through my archives instead of going to the beach, LOL. Anyway, the president's argument was that I didn't review enough classic movies! I do belong to LAMB (Large Association of Movie Blogs).