Trouble under the big top... Circus of Fear (1966)

Suzy Kendall

This film opens with an audacious six-minute sequence showing an armed robbery on a van trying to ferry money across Tower Bridge in the early hours. It’s fast-moving, almost completely dialogue free and gives some great views of the working docksides on both sides of the Thames in the sixties… twenty years later they’d all be either turned into flats or knocked down but here, between the City and Bermondsey the capital was still taking a lot of sea-bound freight.

Director John Llewellyn Moxey clearly had a plan for this dynamic opening and in this new Blu-ray edition Ernest Steward’s cinematography is crystal clear and the background depth of field is almost more interesting than the action in focus. The robbery itself involves a group of well-drilled mobsters who close off the Bridge early in the morning as one of their number, Manfred (Klaus Kinski  - always out of place in these British B movies), takes out the controller so that he can raise the bridge preventing escape for a van taking money across the river.

Dirty old town...

The gang force the security officers to open the van and, as they steal the contents one of the drivers makes a break for it only to be gunned down by his co-driver Mason (Victor Maddern – who, as usual, has cracked under pressure). The men look grim knowing that this increases the severity of their crime and, as they make their escape via rope down to a waiting boat, things look very short-term for Mason…

There are recriminations back at the gang’s lair but the mysterious mastermind seems to offer Mason a second chance as he asks him to bring his share of the money to a remote village… well, what do you thinks going to happen? Just as he waits to meet the mastermind, Mason gets a knife in the back… no ordinary weapon but a circus knife thrower’s blade

Victor Maddern cracking under pressure

Cue a shift of scene to a big top… Pursuing his original criminals, Chief Inspector Elliott of Scotland Yard (Leo Genn) goes looking for the kind of place you’d find such a knife and arrives at Barberini’s Circus (they used Billy Smart's Circus). Here the film changes pace completely and a whodunnit evolves among a cast of intriguing if a tad cliched characters. Let’s see, we have Mr Barberini (Anthony Newlands) who, despite his opulent cigars, is struggling to make the business work. Then there’s a barely married couple, hot-blooded *knife*-thrower Mario (Maurice Kaufmann) and his curvaceous wife Gina (Margaret Lee, who is the epitome of mid-sixties Brit-bombshell), who row continually over her fidelity… what can she have expected marrying an Italian who throws sharp objects for a living?!

No suspicious characters here, oh my, no.

There’s a dwarf called Mr. Big (Skip Martin) who seems to know everyone’s business and is ever open to being paid to keep their secrets and ring master, Carl (Heinz Drache) who watches all very intently. As for the lion tamer Gregor (Christopher Lee), he keeps a mask on to supposedly hide scarring from a lion too far, surely, he’s got much to hide and the nervousness of his daughter Natasha (sixties icon Suzy Kendall) confirms as much.

As the characters snipe at each other Gina is almost killed after being trapped amongst the lions, Gregor comes to her rescue but is that only for appearances? It’s only a temporary reprieve though as Gina is despatched by the same kind of knife as Mason, a sad departure from a film she does much to enliven! It’s got to be her jealous husband but not, it’s far too early for that resolution surely?

Besides, what about Gregor and his mask? What is Carl really there for and surely it can’t be Mr Big given the angle of the knives in peoples’ backs?

Daggers drawn: Maurice Kaufmann and Margaret Lee

Dusty Verdict: The story is based on an Edgar Wallace detective novel and it shows, not in a bad way but it’s a classic police procedural that is full of detailed red herrings and actually quite light on action. There’s also little in the way of “fear” and so this is not the Christopher Lee horror circus you may have been looking for. The Anglo-German cast do well though and it is an enjoyable if not especially gripping, tale even though it fails to follow up on the excellent opening action sequence.

The performers try their best and Skip Martin is excellent, Klaus Kinski is magnetic, as is Margaret Lee who gives it her all as the blonde bombshell trapped at the sharp end of her knife thrower’s jealousy. It’s always a pleasure to watch Suzy Kendall and Christopher Lee even if the latter does much of his work underneath a cloth mask…

But London, the dirty old port, is the star of those opening moments.

Who’s in it? Ten Little Indians (1965)

Shirley Eaton and Hugh O'Brien

This is a sixties update on the classic Christie “whodunit” moving the action in place as well as time from a remote Scottish island to a mountain-locked hotel high in the alps. It’s hard to beat Rene Clair’s atmospheric 1946 version but this take has enough stars and style to engage with only the odd moment of period-cringe (take a bow Fabian!).

Directed by George Pollock, the film’s a roll-call of established and rising stars, in an attempt to appeal to as many demographics as possible but, whilst that may suggest artifice there’s an enthusiasm and wit which counter-balances the commerciality.

Who did it?

Every box is still dutifully ticked, American lead, pop-star, Bond sex kitten, music hall vet… grumpy German butler but they’re all well played and good company for an hour or so. The Christie format was already a well-honed one by 1965 and the following half century has meant we can all pretty much write them as they go… all except the endings: that still takes professional guile.

And to act these convoluted and semi-predictable tales still takes some work and it’s no surprise that only the best and most experienced tend to succeed.

High on a hill...

Here we have the great Dennis Price as the dipsomaniacal Doctor Armstrong who may or may not have killed a patient while under the influence. He is joined by the great (OK I’ll stop that…),
Wilfrid Hyde-White as Judge Cannon who may or may not (and that too…) have sent an innocent man to be hanged.

Master craftsmen...

The traditional suspects of jaded military man, General Mandrake (Leo Genn) and old, possibly bent copper William Blore (Stanley Holloway) are balanced against the new breed, glam-dram-queen Ilona Bergen (Daliah Lavi) and pop star Mike Raven (real-life poster Fabian… the only one who really grates… but then he’s probably meant to).

As the actress said to the General...

The guests are completed by the heroic Hugh Lombard (Hugh O’Brian) and the gamine Ann Clyde (Shirley Eaton) – these are the ones we most readily identify with.

Fabian meets the man who had a hit with Albert and the Lion

Arriving by cable car they are greeted by Herr und Frau Grohmann (Mario Adorf and Marianne Hoppe) who it quickly transpires have been hired just for this occasion.

The Happy Couple

None of the guests know each other (although the general alludes to previous knowledge of Miss Bergen long ago in Berlin. They eventually sit down for dinner and are stunned by a recorded message from their host, one UN Owen (an un-credited voice-role from Christopher Lee).

He accuses all of them of murder or deliberately causing the death of innocents… if you’ve not been here before, an effective scene that sets up the drama from now on. Each guest has the poem of Ten Little Indians in their room and on the table is a model of ten Indians… it’s soon as clear to the guests as it is to the audience that Mr Owen is intent on a live re-enactment of the poem as first Mike Raven sings himself to death…sorry, drinks poison and then the general gets knifed in the basement…

And then there were...

There’s no escape not by cable car nor by climb – the mountain is too steep for that – and the guests have no option but to try and stay alive and hope for help.

I won’t spoil the story – if you don’t already know it it’s still a compelling yarn with twists and turns to confound even the most jaded of modern observers.

Pollock directs well if a little flatly… and there’s not quite the atmospheric tension of Clair’s version. The old stagers deliver as you’d expect, especially Dennis Price who does moral compromise so well. Hyde-White is Hyde-White and Holloway is Holloway and that what they got paid for.

Did someone turn the Eaton... (sorry)

Daliah Lavi does well as the Hollywood actress brought back to confront her past but the real sexual selling point is Shirley Eaton who Pollock doesn’t forget to highlight at every possible occasion in a variety of stylish costumes (or, indeed, without…) – Ann must have brought a very big suitcase.

American second-streamer, O’Brien is similarly highlighted and makes for a believable hero.

"Professor Plum?"

On the DVD there’s a precious extra – "The Whodunit Break" - an “insert” for the film, to be played at a crucial point in order to allow the audience to discuss who they think “done it”. An interesting idea which would need little encouragement for some of today’s chattering cinematic classes… Maybe we’ve lost some of the art of patience and the ability to give the benefit of the doubt to film makers who try to engage with just a black and white mystery.

Hanging around etc...

Dusty verdict: worth keeping to show your children how easily we were once amused. And if you like Shirley Eaton… who is still every inch a superstar. This has long been hard to find in the UK but there's a new-ish DVD available here.