Buckles Blog: Elephant Actors #13

Sunday, October 25, 2015

"The Big Circus"

Unknown said...: Vincent Price, Gilbert Roland, Rhonda Fleming, Victor Mature, Red Buttons, Kathryn Grant, David Nelson & Peter Lorre.; 25 October, 2015 18:32
Roger Smith said...: L to R, Vincent Price, Gilbert Roland, ultra-glamorous Rhonda Fleming, Victor Mature, Red Buttons, Kathy (Mrs. Bing) Crosby, David Nelson, and Peter Lorre.; 25 October, 2015 18:40
Roger Smith said...: Once again, Irwin Allen followed the time-worn Hollywood angle for circus pictures--the very tired jinx plot. Price, as Ringmaster, had us thinking "he did it". Gilbert Roland, as Zach, was the aerial star, did the flying act, and saved the show with big publicity by walking the wire over Niagara Falls. Rhonda and Victor did little more than reminds us they're movie stars. Red Buttons was the nuisance factor, the accountant who was protecting the lender's investment. Mrs. Bing Crosby had very little to do but look cute. Poor Peter Lorre, a superb actor for decades, is lost behind a Hollywood clown face, while the very bland David Nelson proves to be the villain behind all the disasters, including Allen's all-too-predictable train wreck. We enjoy finding some of our friends in this film, and some of the exteriors suggest circus--but the script copies too many others for the story to count.; 26 October, 2015 17:40

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