Tag: Victor Mature

The Big Circus (1959) – A Movie Review

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I’m doing this review on a whim.  I just saw this movie for the first time since I saw it on Million Dollar Movie probably about fifty years ago and what I could remember of it even as a kid was that it seemed slightly hammy.  In retrospect it’s a lot hammy.  Instead of the Ringling Brothers’ Barnum and Bailey Circus; “The Greatest Show Earth,” we’re watching the Whirling and Borman Brothers Circus; “The Biggest Show on Earth.”  Remarkable creativity there.

But Hank Whirling (played by Victor Mature) has split up with the Borman brothers and taken his own circus on the road.  But he needs money so he goes to the local bank and gets a loan but in exchange for the money he has to take along two bank employees; Randy Sherman (played by Red Buttons) and Helen Harrison (played by Rhonda Fleming).  Helen is a publicist who is supposed to help make the circus’s tour successful (and end up as the love interest for Hank).  Red Buttons is there to be Red Buttons and annoy everyone.  Vincent Price is the circus master Hans Hagenfeld.  Gilbert Roland is the high wire star Zach Colino.  Peter Lorre is an obese decrepit version of himself as an alcoholic clown named Skeeter.  David Nelson is Tommy Gordon, the aerialist and saboteur.  And Howard McNear is Mr. Lomax, the bank employee sent to foreclose on the circus when Red Buttons refuses.

Forget the plot.  It has to do with the Borman Brothers sabotaging the circus.  But it’s too dumb to care about.  What you have here is a collection of B-movie actors strung together to make a cinemascope spectacle involving elephants and lions.  And you know this from the get-go.  Anything with Red Buttons in it will be nothing else.  And Victor Mature and Vincent Price are exhibits B and C.  Look, they didn’t even get Ricky Nelson, the popular Nelson son.  Instead, they got his brother David, the one who couldn’t sing.  And the only thing Howard McNear is remembered for is playing the oddly disturbing Floyd the Barber character from the Andy Griffith Show.

So, I’m watching this clunker.  Everything about it is hackneyed and telegraphed.  But there’s a lion act in it and it’s really fun to watch.  And there’s a clown sequence and it’s mildly amusing.  And there are some scenes with the elephants and suddenly I’m remembering how I used to like seeing the elephants at the circus.  And there are some girls dancing around in harem outfits and that’s not so bad.  And even Victor Mature and Vincent Price hamming it up isn’t so bad.

And before you know it, I find myself enjoying this awful movie.  By the end when they introduce Steve Allen as himself providing network tv as a lifeline to save the circus during a NYC subway strike, I find myself completely forgiving all the schmaltz.  I even forgive the scene where the tightrope walker manages to cross over Niagara Falls to restore his lost courage and honor.

And of course, by the end of the movie there are at least two incipient marriages.  Victor Mature will marry Rhonda Fleming and Red Buttons will marry the sister of Mature’s character (whoever the hell she was).  All they left out was bloated Peter Lorre marrying one of the elephants.

So, I can’t recommend this movie on its merits.  It has none.  But if you’re nostalgic for the circus, watch this and pretend the Ringling Bros. circus still exists.  The lion scene is really fun.

One Million B.C. – A Science Fiction Movie Review

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Turner Classic Movies is a mixed bag. They do play a lot of good old movies.  But then you have to endure Alec Baldwin or Tina Fey talking to the insufferable host, Ben Mankiewicz about movies or anything else.  Well anyway, they’ve been playing a lot of old bad sci-fi movies lately.  It’s been great.  I’ll give my thoughts on them.  This is usually a combination of nostalgia and shock.  I’ve seen most of these movies before but in some cases I haven’t seen them in over fifty years.  Neither they nor I have aged well and so the re-acquaintance is sometimes off-putting to say the least.  Both these movies and my younger self have lost a lot of respect in my current eyes.  But today’s movie is a treat because I actually never saw this epic before.  And first off do not mistake this masterpiece for the sound alike “One Million Years BC” re-make with Raquel Welch.

This is the 1940 masterpiece with those two towering thespians Lon Chaney Jr. and Victor Mature. Honestly this movie should get a special award for unbelievably bad special effects.  But special effects is just the tip of the iceberg.  The cheesiness of the sets, the really bad acting and the silliness of the plot combine to create a feast of cinematic awfulness.  I loved it.

One of my favorite scenes has Victor Mature as caveman Tumak poking a seven foot tall miniature Tyrannosaurus rex in the stomach with his poorly made spear.  The monster is so obviously a man in a cloth suit that it’s hard not to burst out laughing, and actually I did.  Only slightly less silly are the real animals like dogs, goats, cows and even elephants covered in fake hair to make them “prehistoric-looking.”  Especially funny is the armadillo with horns glued onto its head.  It has been magnified to be the size of an elephant.  But it doesn’t seem to be doing anything particularly dangerous.  But the cavemen do look really scared of it.  Equally frightening to the cavemen are magnified images of modern day reptiles.  There are tegus and rhinoceros iguanas and even a baby alligator with a fake sailfish sail glued to its back.  One interesting historical circumstance is the fact that several of the reptiles are noticeably harmed by each other in some fight scenes including one tegu that is obviously killed in a fight with the fake sailfish alligator.  Nowadays the Humane Society would have the film-makers drawn and quartered for so much as stressing out a mosquito on set.  Progress!

But where the movie really shines is the portrayal of caveman tribal dynamics. Tumak is the son of the clan leader Akhoba (played by  Lon Chaney Jr).  When Tumak accidentally attacks Akhoba for trying to steal a chunk of dino-burger.  Akhoba throws him off a cliff.  After this he wanders away and ends up being adopted by a more enlightened clan.  They’re probably from Scandinavia because they have blondes, good table manners and neutered males.  After he gets ejected from the new tribe for beating a spear maker who objected to being robbed Tumak ends up back at the old clan cave with his blonde girlfriend in tow.  Apparently she likes the bad boy type and thinks she can fix him.  While Tumak was gone Akhoba has been demoted from chief to crippled loser after being severely injured in a fight with a giant goat.  Breaking with caveman etiquette Blondie institutes women and children and crippled losers first at food distribution time.  Surprisingly, Tumak is supportive of the new arrangement.  Progress!

Well anyway there soon ensues a crisis involving a volcanic eruption and a giant iguana that ends up with both clans coming together with Tumak as the new chief. The End.

Wow. This movie must be seen by all science fiction fans.  Afterwards you’ll have a new found respect for stop action animation or even well-made monster suits.  Only recommended if you really enjoy very bad sci-fi.