"Circus Of Fear" or
"Psycho-Circus" as it's known in one of it's other incarnations, is based on a novel by Dungeon Hero Edgar Wallace, entitled "The Three Just Men," and is a crazy story with enough twists and turns to keep Chubby Checker or Mario Andretti happy!! The theme music is quite MOR, but that might have something to do with the fact that composer Johnny Douglas was the music director on a boatload of those "Living Strings" records that RCA cranked out in the 60's and 70's!! Want to check out more of Johnny's work, go to any thrift store, and you'll find them right next to all those TJB records!! Here's the real surprise, Johnny also provided music for a number of TV shows in the 80's like "Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends", "The Incredible Hulk", "Dungeons & Dragons", "G.I. Joe", AND 98 episodes of "Transformers!" Put that in your "Living Strings" and smoke it!!
Because it's an Edgar Wallace tale, there's going be a lot of rationalizing, so you get a whole lot of scenes like these with Leo Genn as Elliott putting the pieces together!!
This German poster gave the viewer a good idea of what's going on, and because he was so popular in Europe, Edgar's credit is right at the top!
Nothing says lovin' like smokin' in the wagon, yeah, Circus Monkey Love!!
This is another one of Mr Wallace's trippy twisted tales, so who do you think is up to all the mischief in this here psycho circus??
Is it Klaus Kinski as Manfred Hart? Klaus always has to be a contender for suspect, just because he's so nuts, no matter what character he's playing or what film he's in!!
Was it little guy blackmailer Skip Martin as Mr. Big causing all the fuss??
Maybe it's Mario, the knife thrower played by Maurice Kaufmann! People are getting stabbed with a throwing knife, so he's a really fine suspect!!
Could it possibly have been the stupid comedian Eddie, portrayed by Eddi Arent? He's way too innocent!!
Christopher Lee as Gregor looks anything but innocent, but is it possible, is he really horribly misunderstood & disfigured underneath that hood?
I have too much respect for the writing of Edgar Wallace to give away the ending, so you'll just have it rent it yourself!!
On this poster in English, they don't even mention Edgar Wallace!! It's just all so weird some times!!
4 comments:
i guess i'll have to check out Edgar Wallace, he's got such a rep!
That cat has a huge body of work, and I have yet to be disappointed!!! It's finding the stuff that's difficult!!
Saw this one not long ago on a cheap dollar dvd, quite good, yes !
My fave Klaus Kinski story is that he would rent these huge auditoriums, proclaim that he was Jesus Christ to the audience, and then end the show with a fistfight!
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