Fluentiama Perfect cast and a good story

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Kodie Bird True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Leofwine_draca A fun, campy murder mystery, from exploitation king Herman Cohen (he made I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF ten years previously. Due to the relaxed censorship laws (brought on, no doubt, by public demand for the bloodthirsty horrors of Hammer), Cohen delighted in pushing the boundaries of taste and inserting quite a few bloody sequences into this morbid little exercise in fear. While the murder mystery plot is relatively simple, interest is added by having a great ensemble cast of actors and actresses who go through all the motions. We also get all the old tried and trusted circus clichés, from the dwarf (not evil this time) to the dangerous stunts. I think circuses are a great place to set suspenseful films, seeing as many of the situations rely on danger and excitement as their ingredients anyway...Joan Crawford (STRAIT-JACKET) plays her typical character - hard, ruthless and ambitious. She's totally unlikable in this film and her ego must have been huge, seeing as she walks around in revealing clothes for much of the film. And how old was she? 60? It's just not natural. The American import, Ty Hardin, is pretty bland and unlikeable...I definitely could have done without his presence as he added nothing to the movie for me.But I'll forgive Cohen, as he brings Michael Gough (KONGA) out of the wardrobe for another outing, Gough being another ruthless and cold character - a perfect match for Crawford, come to think of it. My only complaint is that he's given far too little screen time. Judy Geeson (FEAR IN THE NIGHT) is the pretty girl caught up in the horrific acts, Geoffrey Keen (HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM) cameos as a policeman (seriously, what else?), and Diana Dors (THEATRE OF BLOOD) adds some glamour to the proceedings. Robert Hardy, familiar to British audiences from his turn in ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL, makes a suitably charismatic policeman and bears an uncanny resemblance to Leslie Phillips.Most of the fun comes from the deaths, and they are staged with appropriate relish by exploitation king Cohen. The opening scene where the body is hanged and swings across the screen, revealing the title, is sheer brilliance. A cheesy moment from a fun packed film, BERSERK is the kind of movie they just don't make anymore!

utgard14 Campy horror-thriller starring that grand diva of melodrama Joan Crawford. The plot's about a series of gruesome murders at a circus run by Joan. The opening scene of a tightrope walker being impossibly hung by his own high-wire sets the stage for a schlocky horror film. All of the death scenes are great. Perhaps the funniest was Michael Gough's death. The true horror, though, comes not from the grisly death scenes. It comes from seeing Joan Crawford, over sixty years old at this time, romancing half-her-age Ty Hardin. Sexy Diana Dors is fun to watch. She has a hilarious catfight with another circus performer. In all honesty it's not a bad movie of its type. I think because Hollywood legend Joan Crawford is the star, some people go into this in a state of mourning for her career rather than enjoying this for the cheesy horror movie that it is.

MARIO GAUCI The circus tent had been the stage for violence and melodrama ever since the Lon Chaney vehicle THE UNKNOWN (1927); as late as 1966, there had been the average Edgar Wallace yarn starring Christopher Lee CIRCUS OF FEAR – most notoriously, however, was CIRCUS OF HORRORS (1960), whose grisliness matches that of HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM (1959)…with which the film under review shares its producer (Herman Cohen) and male lead (the late Michael Gough). Still, the latter's appearance here is rather brief – being merely a victim of the killer-on-the-loose this time around: his demise (the back of his head is perforated by a large nail hammered through the hole in a block of wood against which he was resting!), however, is almost as outrageous as the spiked binoculars from BLACK MUSEUM! Anyway, the true star here is Joan Crawford (61 years old but still showing off her legs!) – going through her horror (and final) phase: in fact, she would bow out in 1970 with TROG i.e. yet another (and even more preposterous) Cohen/Gough offering! She is the owner of a traveling circus (eventually joined by rebellious daughter Judy Geeson, who would soon flourish within the genre herself) whose star attractions and associates begin to die on her. Their non-accidental nature obviously draws the Police to the tent (represented by Robert Hardy, later of Hammer's DEMONS OF THE MIND [1972])…but Crawford herself is unperturbed, as she relishes the mass of crowds coming in every night in the hope of capturing another sensational 'accident' live! Needless to say, her callousness makes her the No. 1 suspect, especially after her rival for new performer Ty Hardin's attentions, Diana Dors (in one of the last roles where she would retain her last shapely figure), is literally sawed in half! As often happens with this type of fare, a dwarf virtually acts as Chorus throughout the proceedings; still, the identity of the killer was not hard to guess – especially since this particular character's grudge against Crawford (however honest it may have been) is spelt out some time before the actual denouement!

edwagreen The circus. Bodies are beginning to pile up and Joan Crawford owns the joint! Crawford must have thought that it's about 20 years earlier and she is back on "Flamingo Road." Unfortunately, for her she wasn't.Crawford leads a very much unknown cast with the exception of Judy Geeson, who became popular thanks to To Sir, With Love vehicle around the same time.The film does start off intriguing enough with horrendous deaths at the circus. These accidents are an absolute horror. Perhaps, it would have been better if the British police had thrown their hands up and called in Jessica Fletcher to solve the mystery.The ending is abrupt and very quickly done. It did not tie all loose ends together. How could the murderer have been in two places at one time?