Circus World (1964)

In the early 1900s, an American circus travels to Europe but a ship disaster leaves it stranded in Spain without funds or equipment. The owner (John Wayne) attempts to rebuild the circus. Meanwhile, the young girl (Claudia Cardinale) he raised as his own will soon be confronted with the mother (Rita Hayworth) who abandoned her as a child. I'm so not a fan of circus movies but this Samuel Bronston (EL CID) produced spectacular keeps the circus acts to a minimum and the ones he shows are, well ..... tolerable. In its attempt to be an Epic witn a capital E, the Henry Hathaway directed film carries a lot of bloat. Indeed, the film continues some 15 minutes longer than it should. Curiously, the film's major set piece occurs too early in the film and nothing else quite lives up to it: a spectacular capsizing of the circus ship in the days before CGI effects that wouldn't be equaled until the Poseidon set sail eight years later. It's the kind of film in which you can say, "they don't make them like that anymore" and not necessarily mean it as a compliment. That being said, I enjoyed it for the most part. The drab score is by Dimitri Tiomkin who clearly had little interest in the film. With Richard Conte, Lloyd Nolan, John Smith, Kay Walsh and Miles Malleson.