BY LEE PFEIFFER
A specific type of film genre that has all but vanished is that of the circus movie. In decades past circuses provided the backdrop for spectacle (i.e. Demille's The Greatest Show on Earth), horror (Todd Browning's Freaks), uplifting musicals (MGM's Jumbo) and cheesy but fun thrillers (Berserk!). Indeed, there is something very old fashioned and timeless about traditional circuses and that is part of their appeal. For a few thousand years circuses have entertained audiences with their combination of exotic animals and feats of derring do. Yet, while circuses still maintain their popular appeal they have been designated by studio executives as being too quaint for modern movie audiences. Thus we have to look into the past to relish them on film. One of the more prominent circus-related production was The Big Show, which was released in 1961 and for which Esther Williams stepped out of a swimming pool briefly in order to play a mature character in a mature drama. Despite receiving first billing, however, Williams is primarily relegated to serving as window dressing in this compelling, well-acted story that served as a career boost for Cliff Robertson and Robert Vaughn. The film was loosely based on a novel by Jerome Weidman titled I'll Never Go There Anymore that had been previously adapted into two other films, Broken Lance and House of Cards.
Nehemiah Persoff plays Bruno Everard, the widowed head of a traveling German circus that he and his late wife built from humble beginnings. The circus now has a loyal following and is financially successful but Bruno wants it to expand even further. He runs the business with his eldest son Josef (Cliff Robertson) and his two other sons Hans (Kurt Pecher) and Fredrik (Franco Andrei). Their 18 year-old sister Garda (Carol Christensen) joins her brothers in their responsibility to perform in the circus as trapeze artists but suffers from her father's patronizing and overly-protective oversight of every aspect of her life. Bruno's fourth son, Klaus (Robert Vaughn) is the black sheep of the family. Due to a fear of heights, he cannot serve as a trapeze artist. Consequently, Bruno regards him as emasculated and weak. Klaus tries to contribute by performing a knife-throwing act and also acting as a bookkeeper behind the scenes yet he constantly receives humiliating insults from his father, who says the knife throwing act is too amateurish to be part of a major circus.Bruno is less a family patriarch than a tyrant. He exercise dictatorial control over the circus and only occasionally listens to Josef's advice and suggestions. He also has demanded that none of his children may ever date or marry anyone he has not approved of because he doesn't want an outsider to share in the fortunes of the circus that he has so painstakingly built. Bruno feels the best way to expand the circus is by forging a partnership with a competitor, Pietro Vizzini (Peter Capell), an elderly man in frail health. Like Bruno, he is widowed and has a daughter, Teresa (Renate Mannhardt), a rather homely young woman who is primarily known for her dangerous circus act of taming and interacting with polar bears. The calculating Bruno feels that the business merger will only happen if one of his sons marries Teresa and he basically orders Josef to propose to her. Josef refuses. Turns out he's dating Hillary Allen (Esther Williams), a playgirl socialite who has been visiting the circus and making eyes at him while he performs his trapeze act. The handsome Klaus, in an attempt to please his father, courts Teresa and convinces her to marry him, which does cement the joint the venture between Bruno and her father. However, much to his distress, Bruno still can't say a kind word to Klaus and continues to publicly humiliate him, thus setting in motion events that will inevitably tragedy to both families. Meanwhile, Bruno- like the character of Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof- finds that his children are resisting his dictatorial demands. Once Josef disobeys him to court Hillary, Garda does the same by dating a young American G.I., Eric Solden (David Nelson). When Bruno insists that they break up their relationship, Eric and Garda inform him that they intend to marry and move to America. Suddenly, Bruno's world begins to fall apart. A suicide and a tragic accident put the circus in jeopardy. When it appears that Bruno will be found guilty of negligence and jailed due to the accident that killed several of his people, Josef bravely accepts the blame and serves a five year jail sentence. When he returns to the circus from prison he finds Klaus has now manipulated his weak brothers into allowing him to take control, thus leading to a one-on-one deadly confrontation with Josef.
The Big Show was filmed in Germany and utilized the performers from an actual circus. The film is essentially a soap opera centering of the challenges encountered by lovers and would-be lovers. There's a bit of tension in the relationship between Hillary and Josef after he proposes to her when she begins to speak of their lavish life on Park Avenue. Josef is dedicated to a life in the circus and this causes them to temporarily break up. Similarly, when Klaus informs his new bride Teresa that he only married her for business reasons, his cruel remarks lead to a predictable but dramatic outcome. Most of the drama, however, is related to Bruno's relationship with virtually everyone around him. He has the ability to turn on the charm when it's for his own gain but for the most part he is a humorless, dour man whose inability to compromise leads to his downfall. Nehemiah Persoff is outstanding in the role and dominates every scene he's in. His nuanced performance makes the character of Bruno less a villain than a well-intentioned but misguided man who simply wants to ensure the future of the business that he built from scratch. Persoff gets strong support from Robertson, who is handsome, dignified and understated in the manner in which he deals maturely with his father's bombastic demands. Josef respects and admires his father but has also earned his respect by standing up to him, whereas his weak brothers are used by Bruno as human door mats. All of the other actors are adequate enough in their roles with the exception of David Nelson, who was then starring in the popular Ozzie and Harriet TV series. He comes across as impossibly polite and is more virginal than the innocent girl he wants to marry. Esther Williams goes against type by playing a woman who is, initially at least, self-centered and irresponsible. She does a fair enough job but the producers couldn't resist inserting a superfluous sequence in which she enters a swimming pool. Because Williams' character is the least interesting it's no surprise that the actress is routinely overshadowed by other cast members. The most complex character is Klaus and he is exceptionally well-played by Vaughn. Although he turns into an outright villain, we can see the reasons why. When he tries to do the right thing he is constantly rejected by his father. Thus, it's no surprise he develops serious "daddy issues". Interestingly, Vaughn made his mark with three major films in succession in which he played emotionally fragile young men. In his Oscar-nominated turn in "The Young Philadelphians" he was a young aristocrat who falls into alcoholism and finds himself framed for murder. In "The Magnificent Seven" he was the member of the macho group who had to cope with inherent cowardice and in "The Big Show" he plays a man driven to extremes by his failure to live up to his father's expectations. Ironically once he reached stardom a few years later he would generally known for playing self-assured men of action and confidence.
"The Big Show", ably directed by James B. Clark, is certainly not an underrated classic. However, it is consistently engrossing and highly entertaining with some wonderful footage of trapeze artists and tightrope walkers achieving feats that still seem impossible. The good news is that the film has finally been released as a region-free DVD by Fox Cinema Archives , the studio's "Made-On-Demand" service. The print utilized is adequate but not much more due to certain sequences that display a good deal of grain and/or artifacts but we won't gripe about that, given how long we waited for the DVD release. The biggest complaint we have is that this is yet another Fox MOD title that was shot in widescreen and released in a matted format that approximates "pan-and-scan". What were they thinking? Whoever makes such decisions is living in a time warp from the 1990s when audiences were unfamiliar with widescreen video presentations. (Remember when TCM had to recruit world famous directors to explain to viewers that, despite the black bars on the screen, the audience was getting the full picture as opposed to a cropped version?) If Fox's MOD division thinks audiences are still reluctant to accept widescreen movies they are wrong. Years ago Wal-mart thought the same thing and demanded that widescreen DVD releases also have a pan-and-scan version released simultaneously. However, they soon learned that consumers overwhelmingly preferred the original widescreen version and the pan-and-scan option quickly vanished. Fox should understand that any consumer who has gone on-line to track down a movie such as "The Big Show" is a purist and would want to see the film its original format. The decision to bypass the widescreen process on "The Big Show" was not an error on someone's part. The video opens with a notice that the movie has been intentionally "modified" from its original format. The opening titles are presented in their original glory but once the film proper starts, the pan-and-scan version kicks in and you feel your aggravation level rise. Perhaps the film should be re-titled "The Semi-Big Show". The studio has done a service to retro movie lovers by making so many obscure titles available. However it is ironic that Fox, which pioneered the widescreen process in the 1950s, is the last major studio to utilize its benefits when it comes to home video. Cinema Retro has long been championing the quality of MOD titles and trying to dispense with the unfounded notion that they are somehow inferior in quality to regular DVDs. However, we can't condone altering a film's original format. Fox should realize that consumers who purchase MOD product are extremely sophisticated when it comes to reverence for film history. C'mon guys, get on the ball and we'll sing your praises- and while you're at it, please consider including at least a trailer or stills gallery on your bare-bones releases. These type of bonus features are readily available to you and add to the commercial appeal of the releases not to mention the enjoyment of the viewing experience.
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