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Review
by
Brian Lindsey
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5
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6 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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The
krimi —
shorthand for "crime thriller" —
has long been popular in Germany, as have the mystery novels
(especially those by Edgar Wallace) that inspired them. The
heyday of the krimi film was the 1960s, when scores were produced,
sometimes in collaboration with non-German companies with an
eye to export. When these films made it to the U.S. (usually
straight to TV), they were often erroneously marketed as horror
movies. Both cases apply to Circus of
Fear, an Anglo-German co-production which was re-titled
Psycho Circus for American release. Though top-billed,
Christopher Lee is part of an ensemble cast and does not figure
prominently in the story until the final half-hour.
The daring daylight robbery of an armored car on London's Tower
Bridge nets a gang of professional crooks a cool £250,000
in bank notes. The plan goes down like clockwork until their
inside man, Mason (Victor Maddern), panics and guns down the
car's driver. Holed up with the loot, the criminals seem ready
to deep-six the unreliable Mason but a call from their boss
stays their hand. The mastermind, whose identity is unknown
to his own henchmen, orders Mason to take his and Mason's share
of the money to an undisclosed location in the country. The
remaining gang members depart the hideout but an anonymous tip
to Scotland Yard's Inspector Elliot (Leo Genn) soon sees them
captured and spilling the beans. A dragnet is launched to bring
in Mason.
Following his boss's instructions, Mason
arrives with the money at a seemingly deserted barn, where he
promptly receives a knife in the back from an unseen assailant.
Here, we're told, the trail goes cold for the cops. Mason and
the loot have disappeared; no new leads are turned up over the
next few weeks. But Elliot gets a break when some of the stolen
money is reported to have been passed by personnel of Barberini's
Circus, now quartered for the winter. The genial, gentlemanly
detective — who has to be just about the nicest, most well-mannered
police inspector I've ever seen in a film — starts an investigation
at the circus compound, introducing us to a host of potential
suspects. Chief among them: Mario (Maurice Kaufmann), the jealous,
hot-tempered knife-thrower; Carl (Heinz Drache), the nosey ringmaster;
a blackmailing dwarf (Skip Martin) known as Mr. Big; and a Russian
lion-tamer, Gregor (Lee), who always wears a black hood to cover
his supposedly badly disfigured face. And just who is that creepy
guy (Klaus Kinski) who always seems to be lurking about? Then
Mario's two-timing girlfriend (Margaret Lee) is found knifed
to death and Mason's body discovered hidden in a circus storage
shed. So who's got the stolen quid?
Thus the film ambles along to its revelatory
denouement. The unmasking of the killer takes place before the
assembled suspects during a knife-throwing demonstration rather
than in the drawing room a la Poirot or Chan. Director John
Moxey (City of the Dead,
The Night Stalker) orchestrates
the proceedings in a competent, workmanlike fashion that's as
stylish as your average '60s TV mystery drama. You can expect
the usual assortment of red herrings; a couple of lame comedy
bits serve only to slow things down. The overly melodramatic
blasts of music during any moment of suspense, or when some
important plot point is revealed, are actually amusing in their
ham-handedness (when not downright irritating, that is). The
Anglo-German cast is fine — Genn is very appealing as the polite,
soft-spoken copper and Christopher Lee suitably sinister and
blustery as the hooded, Slav-accented Gregor — though Kinski's
part is little more than a glorified cameo. (He has maybe six
lines.) The main problem with the film is that its central mystery
just isn't all that interesting. What Circus
of Fear
needed to give it a little oomph was an injection of some good,
old-fashioned sleaze. Though made six years earlier,
Sidney Hayers' Circus of Horrors
is a distinctly more lurid affair, with a higher sex and violence
quotient, and much the better film for it. So if you've a hankering
for murder and mayhem under the big top then I have to recommend
Horrors (exploitation) over Fear
(whodunit). NOTE: If you'd like to learn more about this particular
genre of German cinema, it's worth visiting LATARNIA.COM's krimi
page: http://www.latarnia.com/krimi.htm.
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One
of only a tiny handful of krimis to so far see the light of day
on North American DVD, Circus
of Fear
receives the customary respectful treatment from Blue Underground.
The transfer is letterboxed at 1.66:1, anamorphically enhanced.
While not pristine, I doubt a better looking version of the film
exists. Generally it's quite sharp, with minimal grain, boasting
solid color balance whether a scene is robber hideout-bland or
circus costume-bright. Audio quality isn't quite in the same league,
unfortunately, sounding flat and tinny, but this is often the
case with European films from the '60s and '70s regardless of
who issues them on DVD. At any rate, dialog is clear and any distortion
evident in the brassier passages of music isn't too distracting
or annoying.
The disc isn't exactly jam-packed with extras
but those on hand compliment the film very nicely: four trailers,
an image gallery of promotional materials, talent bios of Lee
and Kinski (the same seen on other Blue Underground releases featuring
the actors), and an audio commentary by director Moxey, moderated
by BU's David Gregory. Expecting the discussion to be on the dull
side, I was pleasantly surprised to find it rather interesting.
Circus of Fear
is sold individually and also as part of BU's 4-disc Christopher
Lee Collection (including three Jess Franco films: The
Blood of Fu Manchu, The Castle
of Fu Manchu, and The Bloody Judge).
11/11/03 |
| UPDATE
Shortly after its release, a small batch (estimated 500-1,000)
of Circus Of Fear DVDs were discovered
to be defective. This is not an authoring or disc deterioration
problem, so if your disc currently works on your player(s) you
have no reason to be concerned. For those with defective copies,
email
info@blue-underground.com
about a replacement. |
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