Circus World (1964) John Wayne Claudia Cardinale Rita Hayworth

The two veteran Americans are haggard.

And Claudia has 2 diagonal wrinkles above and below each eye; she looks like Grumpy Cat.

Bronson's real name was Bronstein. But he should be congratulated for attracting stars like Heston, Loren and Bette Davis for his on-location, big-screen Spanish films between 1959 and 1964.

The best one was The Fall of the Roman Empire in1964 with Guinness, Mason and Plummer.

[quote] Any eldergays see this bomb on initial release in Cinerama?

I didn't. But I remember all Cinerama films I saw were awkward and unsatisfying.

[quote] I never heard of it...

Everyone agrees it was bad. Look at the Wiki article describing 4 directors and 4 script writers. Sexy Rod Taylor was going to co-star but he dropped out.

[quote] one of Rita's final efforts.

She looks comatose in everything she did in the 60s.

John Wayne is such a turn-off.

He can't be bothered to speak his lines. He's like a deflating gas bag,

At least Gary Cooper was handsome but John Wayne lost his looks back in the 20s.

Circus movies are so tacky.

I remember those Don Ameche's circuses on TV were tacky.

That Cecil B de Mille 'Greatest Show on Earth' with squeaky-voiced Betty Hutton and squeaky-voiced Jimmy Stewart was dire.

I only watched Doris Day's 'Jumbo' to enjoy Stephen Boyd.

There's also "The Big Circus" from 1959 with Victor Mature, Rhonda Fleming, Kathryn Grant, Red Buttons, Vincent Price, Gilbert Roland, Peter Lorre and ... David Nelson.

Gilbert Roland crosses Niagara Falls on a tight rope.

This shown to be shown a lot on local TV stations in the early 80s if a local station bought a syndicated package of Paramount releases from the late 50s/early 60s. The movie is alright just bloated. I think Rita was the best part of the film as she's playing a downtrodden woman who sunk into alcoholism and is now decides to put herself back together again. She's quite touching. However on the set she was showing first signs of Alzhemier's as she had trouble remembering her lines and she drank to cope. Director Henry Hathaway, not known for liking women performers, was rough on her. Years later when she was diagnosed, Hathaway expressed regret for how he treated her.

The opening theme is nice if a bit kitschy.

Here's the trailer

Hayworth was nominated for a Golden Globe for this.

And Wayne got his Oscar 5 years later in another Henry Hathaway movie, "True Grit".

Nothing but disasters all the way through......

And all of the "stars" did their circus routines using back projection.

AND worst of all - as usual I couldn't understand a fucking work Claudia Cardinale said!

Work = word......

I wonder if the first script had Rita (a1940s sex object) playing mother to Claudia (a1960s sex object)?

[quote]… she drank to cope

I said she looks comatose in 'everything she did in the 60s' but I should clarify that because she did so little in the 60s.

She appeared comatose in Separate Tables in 1958, The Happy Thieves in 1961 and Danger Grows Wild in 1965.

This was John Smith's project after LARAMIE was cancelled. John Wayne supposedly hand picked him after having worked with him years before in The High and The Mighty. For unknown reasons, director Henry Hathaway reportedly had it out for John, even going so far as to threaten to end John's career. Though he did continue to work for years after, his career never took off the way that it should have after four years on LARAMIE and this lead film role.

^ I'm sorry Mr Smith doesn't have the same sexiness as the original man for the role, Rod Taylor.

Rod never had this kind of VPL

Hey! What am I? Chopped Liver?

R18 Joan just stares into the middle distance, shouts out her lines, no matter the scene or who she's acting opposite in Berserk. She's out acted by a funny, slutty Diana Dors.

As for circus genre movies, I loved TRAPEZE with the homo-erotic pairing of Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis. Poor Gina Lollobrigida didn't stand a chance.

Is it anything like The Greatest Show on Earth ?

Actually, it's Greater.

What’s greater than Cecil B DeMille ?

Saw this at the drive-in when it came out.

I looked up Circus World and apparently it wasn't a true Cinerama movie but some kind of super panavision movie that was blown up to fit a Cinerama screen. There is also a very high quality trailer of it on youtube and I came away from it thinking this was a very bad and hokey big budget movie with no discernable plot. Not surprised it lost a bundle.

R18 Joan's headgear likes like Jagmeat Singh.