By Lee Pfeiffer
Warner Brothers continues to mine its seemingly exhaustive catalog of Humphrey Bogart titles with the release of The Wagons Roll at Night through the Warner Archive. The 1941 melodrama is compelling throughout and has an unusual setting for the story: a traveling circus. Bogart is cast as Nick Coster, the owner of the circus. He's a tough man of dubious morals who will do just about anything to increase audiences, as the show's box-office receipts dwindle. Through a bizarre happenstance, an escaped lion from the circus enters a small town store where grocery clerk Matt Varney (Eddie Albert) manages to keep it at bay. He becomes a local hero and the ever-opportunistic Nick hires him to take over as lion tamer from the show's drunken and unreliable current star. Matt proves to be a quick learner and soon becomes the star attraction of the circus. However, troubles arises when Matt falls for Nick's younger sister Mary (Joan Leslie), a girl Nick has been almost obsessive in keeping in a perpetual state of virginity. He opposes the relationship and this sets the climax of the story that finds him knowingly sending Matt into a cage with a particularly dangerous lion in the hope he will be killed. Adding to the complications is the presence of the circus fortune teller Flo (Sylvia Sidney), who has an unrequited crush on both Nick and Matt.