VeteranLight
I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.
Baseshment
I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.
Bergorks
If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.
Alex da Silva
Mysterious Herbert Lom (Torg) wanders into circus life and starts to take over from circus owner Ben Lyon (Phil). Lyon has a brother David Farrar (Tom) who is top-billed with his girlfriend Anne Crawford (Mary) as the trapeze and high-wire act. However, once Lom arrives he takes over the top bill and also takes Crawford to be his partner in his hypnosis stage act. Just how far is Lom going to take the hypnosis act? He's pretty handy at revenge.Herbert Lom is what this film is all about. From his first entrance, dressed all in black, you just know he's evil. He can control a lion and he can control people. What I didn't get about this film was why everyone was so nasty to him. I ended up taking his side but I feel that was not the point of things. Anyway, he alienates himself, nicks Farrar's girlfriend and starts to have a power over her in everything that she does. The rest of the cast aren't very interesting and the two top-billed male actors aren't very likable. This is Lom's film.I don't like circuses so the film's setting just doesn't do it for me. I find clowns scary and not at all funny. And how about that laughing sailor dummy? That is pure nightmare material. Not funny. I'm not too bothered about this film either way – it sits firmly mid-scale."Look into my eyes" "Look into my eyes" – "Go and mow the lawn" "Go and mow the lawn"
whpratt1
Enjoyed this British film which is about a Circus called the Danton Empire Circus which is having some financial problems and has to create some new acts in order to keep in business. A drifter, Stephen Torg, (Herbert Lom) appears one day and is able to calm a lion which has broken loose and out of control around the circus grounds. Stephen is looking for work and is hired by the circus manager and meets up with Mary, (Ann Crawford) who is a high wire artist and her partner Phil Danton. Stephen Torg uses hypnosis on Mary and permits her to take some very daring tricks on the high wire act and it becomes an instant success. Stephen becomes very popular with the audiences and is very resented by the circus company, however, Mary is in his complete control and he steals her from her boyfriend Phil Danton. Great entertaining film, don't miss this one. Enjoy.
tannochbrae-1
Nothing else on TV so found myself watching The Dark Tower on TCM. I found myself drawn into this, despite what seems to be clichés (but really weren't when the film was made). Well worth watching.As a Doctor Who fan from way back when, what a thrill to have the original Doctor, William Hartnell (billed as Bill Hartnell) playing Jim.I won't recount the story, but I really liked the peripheral characters especially the "naysayer" Annie Oakley woman. Most of the circus stuff was faked but there were some real gems worth watching. There is a wonderful sequence with a "clown" tightrope walker which I defy you to find better -- I was riveted to his performance. Put it on your list of things to watch.
theowinthrop
Last night three Warner Brother - Teddington Studios (U.K.) films were shown for the first time in decades and the first time on American television. All three were good productions, but this one is worth talking about first - it was the first big role that that fine character actor Herbert Lom ever got in British film.Born in Czechoslavakia, Lom came to England in the 1930s, and began acting in bit parts. But he has a face which is photogenically handsome but sinister, and soon began getting better and better roles - not all of them villains (his ruthless gang boss in NIGHT IN THE CITY has a legitimate, deadly gripe against Richard Widmark). He would also do well in comedies, playing with his villainy in THE LADYKILLERS and as "Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus" in the "Pink Panther" films.Here, he is Torg, later Mr. Torg, and later (for publicity) renamed Dr. Stephen Torg. He is a tramp who stumbles into a dying circus run by Ben Lyon (Phil Danton) and his brother (and trapeze star) David Farrar (Tom Danton). Tom's wife Mary (Ann Crawford) is his trapeze partner. The circus is collapsing for want of customers, and the players not paid. But Phil explains things to them, and they agree to keep going on for awhile. But the lion escapes from it's cage, and after the lion tamer collapses nobody knows what to do. Except Torg. He has a powerful command in relaxing the lion slowly, and getting it into the cage again. Everyone is impressed, particularly Phil and his publicity man Jim (William - here Bill - Hartnett, of later "Dr. Who" fame). They allow Torg to work for the circus. An idea is suggested concerning one of Mary's delicate high wire acts - what if Torg hypnotized her so she did not need her parasol for balance. Tom, of course, is against it, but Mary is willing to do it. And it works.Soon, due to Jim's publicity, the crowds start showing up. This is fine, but the circus people (except for Mary) don't like Torg. He is arrogant, and won't do his share of the work moving objects about when setting up and tearing down the campsites. He also does not care for any of their feelings. When the ringmaster Willy (Frederick Burtwell, in a nice comic performance) starts telling him off, Torg quietly informs him that with his usefulness to the circus he is irreplaceable, whereas ringmasters are easily replaceable.Tom is definitely angry with Torg - he sees Mary slowly falling more and more under Torg's influence. She even misses helping take down the camp at one point. Torg, who has forced Phil to make him a partner, takes her for a drive in his new MG. Here Lom has his best moment in the film - he's allowed to tell Mary what is behind his flawed character. He had a wretched youth in a children's home, and was bullied because he was small. It's actually quite touching as Lom demonstrates Torg wasn't made like he was by nature, but by the human race itself. It explains how he gained his arrogance by his powers of hypnosis, and how he really was potentially a better person than he became.Mary at this point rejects Torg's offer to marry her. She still loves Tom. Shortly after Tom knocks down Torg after an argument. And soon after that - there is an accident in an aerial act leaving Tom badly injured. It seems Mary claims as her hold fails she is too tired. Later she can't remember this. And Torg is smiling.Ever since George Du Maurier created "Svengali" in Trilby, hypnosis was seen as a potentially sinister force. John Barrymore played Svengali in the film of that name in the 1930s, and there were other similar films (both dramas and comedies) since then. This film treats the subject with some dignity, even having a psychiatrist examine Mary at one point. The entire cast is quite good (even Lyon's American accent is tolerable after awhile), but it's Lom's sinister Torg that holds it together best, and which opened his future career so well.
