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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
There's no horror in sight, just crime; still, we get Christopher Lee, Leo Genn and Cecil Parker,
By C. O. DeRiemer (San Antonio, Texas, USA) - See all my reviews (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (TOP 100 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Circus of Fear [DVD] (DVD)
With a title like Circus of Fear and a star named Christopher Lee, I think it's fair to assume that the movie probably features psychopathic clowns, murderous midgets, trapezes made of razor wire and a safety net filled with glass shards. Wrong. The film is really about a heist...and about the unleashed passions within a community of circus performers...and about family revenge...and about the sins of the past...and about...well, you see the problem. The movie goes after a lot of plot lines, and horror isn't one of them.
After an armored car is held up on London's Tower Bridge and one of the guards killed, the gang is captured but the money disappears. The only place it could have wound up is somewhere in the Barberini Worldwide Circus at its winter quarters. We know there was a Mr. Big behind the heist, but then we find out there might be two Mr. Bigs, the second being the circus midget who dabbles in blackmail. There's the Great Gregor, the lion trainer (Christopher Lee), who always wears a mask, ostensibly to cover gruesome scars when he was attacked by one of his big cats. There's his niece, or is it his daughter? Is he a murderer, or just guilty of manslaughter? Did he escape from prison, or is he just presumed dead? There is a fierce knife thrower and his sluttish target and fiancee. There's the vengeful ringmaster, the innocent equestrienne, the bookkeeper who wants to be a clown, and that midget who is always listening in to conversations. There's Barberini himself, with fat lips, a cane, a cigar and a fur-trimmed coat. And somewhere in the circus is a quarter-of-a-million British pounds in bank-notes. Murder brings Inspector Elliot (Leo Genn) to the circus, and more murders keep him there until the killer is betrayed by special throwing knives from the killer's past. And that was not a spoiler. The movie, however, does feature an odd collection of proven, well-known actors. Christopher Lee, of course, was not just a horror specialist; he was an accomplished actor. I'm not sure how he could have wound up in this film. Leo Genn was an established star by the late Forties and early Fifties who gradually faded into movies like this. He had a great speaking voice as well that well-bred British manner that so easily moves from courtesy to careless condescension. Cecil Parker shows up now and then as Genn's harried boss. Parker had a distinctive voice, a long career, and was at his best in sophisticated comedies. Even a young Klaus Kinski is here, playing a deeply-troubled gang member you'd have problems being friendly with. This is a movie to watch with low expectations; then you won't be disappointed.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pleasing Hammer,
By
This review is from: Circus of Fear [DVD] (DVD)
This is a delight. Not a horror movie but a suspenseful crime-mystery, it commences with a robbery on Tower Bridge and proceeds quickly, following the loot, to rural England where murder and black-mail are set in motion at a resting out-of-season circus. Klaus Kinski's robber lurks scowling in the shadows, Christopher Lee's lion-tamer sports a black bag on his head for most of the film, and Skip Martin mooches about smoking, spying and black-mailing. For its low budget this Hammer fare is tightly plotted, well-scripted and -acted and very entertaining. I bought it to complete my set of Skip Martin DVDs (I understand he appeared in only four films - this, Masque of the Red Death, Vampire Circus and Horror Hospital - and I would recommend them all.) Hammer turned out some unusual and worthwhile films outside of the horror genre. This would be a good place to start exploring them.
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