Milton!

Milton Jones sings for his no doubt quite considerable supper as 'the strong man' in 'Beserk!'. Please don't look for this record in the shops, you'll only embarrass yourself.

Nerves Of Steel

We like circus films on ‘The Island’, all the fun and drama of the greatest show on earth but without the uncomfortable seats and the smell of shit.

‘Beserk’ is a classic of the genre, starring an out there Joan Crawford as a circus owner troubled by a series of gory and inventive murders (Michael Gough has a tent peg hammered into the back of his head; Diana Dors gets cut in half with a circular saw; Ty Hardin is stabbed and then falls on even more knives). Naturally, with shouty Robert Hardy investigating the crimes it remains a mystery until the very end, when a fortuitous flash of lightning provides instant justice to the crazed killer.

Like most Herman Cohen produced  films, ‘Beserk!’ is stupidly good fun and gleefully over the top. Yes, it’s slightly bizarre that tired looking 63 year old Joan is presented as an irresistible sex symbol, but it has a lot going for it, not least some documentary footage of some actual circus acts, including a quite extraordinary and slightly unnerving turn with trained poodles (see below). As well as Crawford, we also get Diana Dors at her fulsome, feisty best and Milton Jones gets a plum part and, I kid you not, a song! Although I'm pretty sure he's dubbed.

POSTSCRIPT: In the early years of ‘Eastenders’, it was a running motif that the Fowler family always seemed to be watching the knife throwing sequence from ‘Beserk’. I don’t know why, some sort of twisted BBC joke, no doubt, but I noticed as, I’m sure, did at least five or six other viewers.

Beserk!

Roll Up

'Circus Of Fear' is basically quite a slow crime film, where the proceeeds of a daring wage snatch (on Tower Bridge) are hidden at the headquarters of a travelling circus resting up for the winter. The mysterious man who hid it there is quite precious about his ill-gotten gains, and tends to chuck great big knives at anyone who gets close to it.

Rather dull and meandering, there are, however, some intriguing sub-plots, including a masked Christopher Lee as a lion tamer posing as his own horribly scarred brother, although these mostly come to nothing and the film ends quite abruptly and dishonestly. Most disappointingly, the killings are fairly prosaic and rarely exploit the myriad of murderous possibilities provided by the circus environ (see 'Circus of Horrors' or 'Beserk' for tips).

Klaus Kinski pops up in this, as he did in several British B pictures before he established himself as a sort of star. He isn't given much to do, but his extraordinary face is a welcome extra in a professional but not particularly exciting film.

Circus of Fear

Towering Terror

'Circus of Horrors' is one of those fantastically over the top Anglo-Amalgated horror films that so disgusted the Establishment and titillated audiences in the late fifties and early sixties with their relentless sex, perversity and sadism. This one is about an insane plastic surgeon who uses the anonymity and mobility of a big top show to continue his (actually pretty successful) experiments, pausing now and again to knock off people who might blow his cover. 

Fifty years on, it's more circus than horrors, more schlock than shock, although the acts (supplied, of course, by Billy Smart) are excellent, there are some very attractive ladies, an enjoyably manic performance from Anton Diffring and an interesting shared subtext with 'Peeping Tom' (another Anglo release in the same year) - that hideous disfigurement can be a bit of a turn on.

Here's the trailer. Sadly it doesn't really feature the stuffed bear that sees off Donald Pleasence, or indeed the man in a gorilla suit who causes a lot of problems for Anton Diffring, but don't let that put you off - it's very informative in all other respects. 

Circus of Horrors

Smart

Here's a great clip of Jon Pertwee's appearance on a 1974 edition of 'Billy Smarts Circus'.

There's a lot to like about it, but I particularly enjoyed: Gabriella Smart mouthing her brother's lines to him and then giving him stage directions (to be fair to David, he's under a lot of pressure for a seven year old); the audience's sudden delight when they realise that it really is Dr. Who; Jon Pertwee's charm and obvious enjoyment at being there and, finally, the Whomobile jerking around as the Doctor tries to drive off. Lovely.