Circus World Reviews

This big, sprawling film, beautifully filmed in Cinerama, has Wayne as the owner/manager of a small-time circus. He is also the foster father of Claudia Cardinale, her mother (an aerialist) having left both of them years before. The circus, one of the Wild West variety so prominent in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, is in grave financial trouble. Wayne decides that a European tour would give it the boost it needs, since the Wild West acts always go over well there. He also knows that Cardinale's mother is somewhere in Germany. Disaster hits the circus as its ship capsizes in a European port. Wayne manages to save the tent, performers, and animals, but loses everything else. However, the show must go on. They head for Paris, where Wayne performs a stagecoach runaway down the Champs Elysees to the delight of the Parisians who thrill to the glimpse of the American west. The circus is a hit in Europe, and does big business wherever it goes. Meanwhile, Cardinale has been training to become an aerialist, though Wayne discourages her. She persists and gets her way. No sooner does this happen than Hayworth starts showing up, watching Cardinale practice. Wayne discovers Hayworth, and all is forgiven. She decides to stay with the circus, and she and Cardinale do a mother/daughter aerial act, with Hayworth astounding the crowd by doing one hundred over-the-shoulder one-arm somersaults.