Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

christopher-underwood I've always had a soft spot for this film and am not absolutely sure what it is because it is not the sort of film that I usually have such feelings for. It is just possible I saw it in the cinema in my childhood in the late 50s but whatever it is, seeing it again is always a pleasure. Burt Lancaster, of course, is great and Gina Lollobrigida but there is something about the spectacle. Also whenever there is a circus sequence or some conversation, always in the background there is something else happening. There is a wonderful sense of being in a really busy, exciting place where almost anything might happen and that there is no rigid direction, although ironically there must have been to get it all so right. The actual trapeze sequences are fine and never overlong, these could easily have become boring but there is always just enough drama and conflict mixed in with the endeavour. The exterior scenes of mainly backstreet Paris are also wonderful and if created in the studio they are very well done. I stayed in the Rue Amelot in Paris some years ago and part of the circus building had been retained as a bar. It being August it was closed but always a pleasant reminder.

Petri Pelkonen Mike Ribble is a crippled trapeze aerialist who sees potential in the young Tino Orsini.But between them comes a woman named Lola.A love triangle is ready.Trapeze (1956) is directed by Carol Reed.Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis both do solid work as the leading duo.And I can't find anything wrong in Gina Lollobrigida's performance.The movie has many faults, it doesn't rise to the level it oughta rise.During the end it gets a little better, like what's happening at the hotel.Tino finds out what's going on between Mike and Lola, and it gets all nasty.And when they give it a go for the triple somersault, and the safety net is taken off.This isn't a top-notch pic when it comes to circus movies, but it's OK anyway.

Robert J. Maxwell A stranger came to my door one night to give me mail that had been misdelivered. He was wearing a jacket with a circus logo and when I asked what he did he said he'd been part of a trapeze act. "Catcher or flier?" A flier, he replied, and left without further comment. That isn't what I expected at all. I wanted him to ask how the hell I knew the difference. If he HAD asked I would have said I learned it from this movie.Had he pursued the matter I would have asked him questions like which was more difficult, the "bird's nest" or the simple "pirouette". I was dying to show off but never got the chance. Well, we probably wouldn't have become friends anyway. I hate self-contained people. Most are snooty.I wish some night a geometrician would bring me some misdelivered mail, though, since I can't understand how the word "trapeze" comes from the Latin "trapezium" and "trapezoid" because I learned in high school that a trapezoid was a two dimensional figure with no parallel sides, like a befouled rectangle, whereas a "trapeze", well, it cuts an ordinary rectangle and -- Where was I? Yes, this movie. Thank you.Tony Curtis is an outstanding flier (he's the guy that does all the spinning) who comes to a Paris circus to look up the famous ex-catcher, Burt Lancaster. Curtis wants to learn how to do a triple somersault. Lancaster is a bitter gimp who advises Curtis to go back to Brooklyn, but is finally, reluctantly, won over by Curtis's enthusiasm and youthful talent.The two of them begin working on a circus act at the Cirque d'Hiver in Paris. Then -- cherchez la femme. Gina Lollobrigida dressed in brief spangles and a dazzling smile worms her way into the act. First she seduces Curtis. Then she seduces Lancaster. Conflict ensues. Lancaster winds up with Lollobrigida, Curtis with the triple somersault he craves.I'm not sure who got the better deal. Gina Lollobrigida is stunning in her 1950s way. Her features are so even, so conventionally organized, and so thoroughly covered with make up that her head would look completely comfortable atop a mannequin's body in some high-end boutique. (That doesn't make her ugly.) And the triple somersault is supposed to be so difficult that Lancaster is only one of some three or four people to have ever mastered it. Actually I read somewhere that it's not that tough.This is a better movie than Cecil B. DeMille's "The Greatest Show on Earth." DeMille seemed to assume that no one in his audience had ever seen a circus and everyone longed to see one, so the screen time is filled with parades of Disney characters and other extraneous bombast. "Trapeze" avoids most of that or brushes it off as inconsequential except as it directly affects the plot. In other words the director, Carol Reed ("The Third Man," et al) feels that the audience is more interested in the characters than in seeing half a dozen Indian elephants trundle past us wearing clown hats. Reed gives us credit for having seen a circus and for having the intelligence to buy tickets if we want to see Mickey Mouse strut his stuff on the sawdust. DeMille's movie is full of reaction shots, the audience of nuclear families cheering and clapping orgasmically at the ongoing nonsense. Reed shows us virtually nothing of the audience during the trapeze act except during crises, when we see only the circus cadre staring tensely upwards.In 1956, when this was released, Tony Curtis was still in the heart throb phase of his career, but Reed has subdued him and he turns in a believable and thoughtful performance, the kind he later showed he was capable of in movies like "The Outsider" and "The Boston Strangler." He did some splendid comedies too, and that's nothing to be sneezed at. Lancaster is his reliable self in this serious role. What a physical specimen he was. Lollobrigida is beautiful but, for whatever reason, perhaps the script, she's only bland and beautiful.I'm giving this movie a bonus point for demonstrating what a real circus is like, without the flamboyance and the condescension. For instance, Lancaster begins the film as a rigger. He checks knots and so forth upstairs. Now, is that a glamor occupation or what?

dabigboss302-1 Trapeze is an excellent film. Direction of Carol Reed is superb. I remember as a kid watching the flick on the million dollar movie on WOR-TV and being totally engrossed in the story of a fabulous love triangle between Burt Lancaster, Gina Lollobrigida and Tony Curtis. The film incredibly depicts the dangers of circus acts and what a passionate artist will endure. This little treasure of a film inspires filmmakers and actors today to perfect their craft in the entertainment industry. I learned early that Lancaster was an acrobat which enabled him to create the difficult trapeze act skillfully. But I did not know he was one of the producers until I had the pleasure of interviewing Ms. Gina Lollobrigida at a cover launch of Black Tie International Magazine. Gina candidly told me of her experience on the film and how determined Burt Lancaster wanted the acting scenes perfected while Tony Curtis had a more cavalier attitude and was more interested in the Paris nightlife. Tony would often try to encourage her to have a good time with him off the set. A definite must see for anyone who wants to enjoy a well produced film Author: Cognac Wellerlane