Edgar Wallace was a novelist of pulpish crime and murder novels, and one of the most adapted authors in film history, with over a 150 ‘writer’ credits of various sorts on the IMDB. Of course, he is generally ‘adapted’ like Poe is ‘adapted’, but even so. Films based to whatever extent on his plays and novels have been popular in England since the ’20s. However, Wallace’s name got its greatest workout during a huge flood of West German krimis during the ’60s. These were outlandish crime dramas, set unconvincingly in Britain, and reflected the outlandish tastes also catered to by the era’s colorful spy and superhero movies. In all, they were pretty similar to that period’s run of increasingly silly Dr. Mabuse films.
Many krimis were dubbed and played the drive-in theater circuits. They also used to get regular play on the countries’ cheapie local TV stations back when I was a kid. However, just a few of these have hit DVD, generally via the American dubs, and often in editions that are serviceable at best. (Not that I’m knocking companies like Retromedia, since I’m glad this stuff is available at all.)
There are a few quality exceptions, however. Dark Sky put out a smashing disc of The College Girl Murders, one of the most famous such titles. And now Blue Underground has provided a terrifically presented DVD for Circus of Fear. Although the lack of more such discs indicates that sales of such material have been modest at best, Circus of Fear boasts several advantages.
First, there’s the circus setting, which was a fairly popular backdrop for thrillers of the time. (Why? Just look at the poster art above.) And although a West German co-production, this was the rare krimi actually filmed in England. Moreover, it was directed by an Englishman, and boasts a higher than normal budget and a comparatively high profile cast. The most prominent name is that of Christopher Lee (who oddly spends most of his screentime wearing a hood over his face!). Also lurking around is Klaus Kinski, who literally made dozens and dozens of these things.
For his part, Lee made several movies on the continent during this period. However, he often was dubbed in the English language translations. With their more primitive technology, continental filmmakers often didn’t record sound during the shoots, but looped in the entire dialogue track with the actors in post-production. Lee considered this a second performance, however, and refused to attend these looping session unless they paid him more money. They generally didn’t. Needless to say, this is distracting when watching those films, given Lee’s highly distinctive voice. Here, however, because the film was shot in England, his voice is his own.
The film opens with a long and elaborate armor car robbery. The money is secured, but a guard is killed, setting off a huge manhunt. One guy is told to meet the boss with the money, which soon goes awry and becomes the film’s MacGuffin. Meanwhile, the usual parade of murder, revenge, blackmail, and most of all, lurking, commences. This is the sort of film where about every scene ends with someone leaving shot, only for the camera to zoom to a mysterious lurker who had been watching them. Meanwhile, there is generally another lurker watching the first lurker, and maybe another one or two even further in the background watching them. Everyone is watching everyone in these things.
Like most krimis, there’s a suave if generic Scotland Yard detective on the case, who pauses now and again to fill in the blustering, dyspeptic comic relief figure Sir John, the leader of Scotland Yard who was a character in pretty much all of these. Various red herring figures are bumped off at regular intervals, with the inspector seemingly employing the “I’ll just wait until there’s one guy not dead and obviously he’ll be the killer” school of detecting. Needless to say, there’s a mastermind to be unmasked, but really, the script could have made it just about anyone as easily. That said, this element isn’t handled badly.
Again, I think many will be confused by how much of the time Lee spends with a hood over his head, supposedly because of scars from a lion attack. In most cases, this might be a way to use another cheaper actor for the bulk of the movie, but Lee’s tall, imposing figure and stiff posture are unmistakable, mask or no.
The circus background is pretty well exploited. The action is outré and colorful. The cast is professional. This is no classic, but until the far zanier Berserk! finally hits DVD, this is one of your better murder in a circus options.
More on circus suspense movies can be found here.
