Monica Rivers (Joan Crawford) is the owner of a traveling circus. One night the tightrope walker's rope breaks. He falls and (somewhat impossibly) is hung by his own rope. The next day Frank Hawkins (Ty Hardin) shows up looking for a job--and he just happens to be a tightrope walker. Rivers hires him...and almost immediately begins romancing him! But then a bunch of gory murders begin happening. Michael Gough gets a spike through the head--Diana Dors is cut in half and there's a real surprising killing at the end.
This is pretty awful. The murders themselves are pretty well-done but that's about it. By today's standards they're not that violent but were really pretty strong for 1968. Most of the film is padding--endless circus acts and pointless, uninteresting material detailing the personal lives of the performers. Also seeing 64 year old Crawford romancing 38 year old Hardin is kind of scary. And Crawford (looking pretty good considering) has many needless dramatic scenes and she overacts all the way. Hardin is very handsome but can't act. Diana Dors does what she can with the miserable sex pot role she was given. Even Michael Gough was bad. Only Judy Geeson gives a halfway interesting performance. And the revelation of the killer at the end is ludicrous. If you think about it, it was impossible for the killer to even perform two of the killings!
Boring, stupid with only a few nice bloody killings to liven it up--but they're few and far between. A real come down for Crawford. Skip it.
This is pretty awful. The murders themselves are pretty well-done but that's about it. By today's standards they're not that violent but were really pretty strong for 1968. Most of the film is padding--endless circus acts and pointless, uninteresting material detailing the personal lives of the performers. Also seeing 64 year old Crawford romancing 38 year old Hardin is kind of scary. And Crawford (looking pretty good considering) has many needless dramatic scenes and she overacts all the way. Hardin is very handsome but can't act. Diana Dors does what she can with the miserable sex pot role she was given. Even Michael Gough was bad. Only Judy Geeson gives a halfway interesting performance. And the revelation of the killer at the end is ludicrous. If you think about it, it was impossible for the killer to even perform two of the killings!
Boring, stupid with only a few nice bloody killings to liven it up--but they're few and far between. A real come down for Crawford. Skip it.