Circus of Horrors/Circus of Fear (Double Feature) (1960)

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    Unlike previous double-feature discs in this series, this one has two films with something in common: the circus. The setting is better utilised in the earlier feature, Circus of Horrors, which is a fine genre film and quite entertaining. The later film, Circus of Fear, betrays its low-budget origins and does not really capitalise on the setting or the cast, which includes horror-meister Christopher Lee.

    The disc is worth the low price for the earlier film alone, which gets an excellent transfer. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Circus of Fear, which gets a poor transfer in several respects.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Circus of Fear (Universal) (1966)

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General		Extras
Category	Horror	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1966
Running Time	79:02 (Case: 88)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	John Llewellyn Moxey
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Christopher Lee Leo Genn Anthony Newlands Heinz Drache Eddi Arent Klaus Kinski Margaret Lee Suzy Kendall Cecil Parker Victor Maddern Maurice Kaufmann Lawrence James Tom Bowman
Case	?
RPI	$19.95	Music	Johnny Douglas

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.66:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.66:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    A mail van is robbed by a group of thugs, who have an inside man in the person of the van driver Mason (Victor Maddern). But things go horribly wrong when the guard tries to escape and Mason shoots him. The gang leader consults the boss by telephone, whom he has never seen and whose identity remains a mystery. Via his minion, the boss instructs Mason to take his share and the boss' to a distant location. Meanwhile Inspector Elliott (Leo Genn) is hot on the case, tracing Mason to Barberini's circus.

    As is always the case in these things, the circus includes plenty of suspects. Lion tamer Gregor the Great (Christopher Lee) always wears a hood, ostensibly to hide scars from a clawing by one of his animals. The knife-thrower is in love with Gina (Margaret Lee), who seems to looking for affection elsewhere. "Mr Big" is a sinister midget, Carl (Heinz Drache) is the ringmaster who suspects Gregor of not being what he seems, but he also has designs on Gregor's niece Natasha (Suzy Kendall). The accountant (Eddi Arent) wants to become a clown. Circus owner Barberini (Anthony Newlands) seems to be hiding some secrets. Klaus Kinski is also on hand to provide some menace as one of the gang members.

    This film is a strange conflation of genres. At first, it looks like one of those British gangster films of the 1960s, with a mail van robbery taking up the lengthy pre-credits sequence. Then it becomes a murder-mystery set in a circus milieu. There are influences from films like Freaks, The Unknown, even the Dr. Mabuse films, but none is adequately developed. This seems to be a British-German co-production, and like many in the 1960s is based on a story by Edgar Wallace, the popular mystery writer of the early twentieth century. Films based on Wallace's writings seem to have been popular in Germany in the early 1960s, and Christopher Lee appeared in several such films. The screenplay was written by "Peter Wellbeck", a pseudonym for Harry Allan Towers who produced the Fu Manchu series in which Lee also starred.

    The screenplay does not really make up its mind what it wants to be. The story is rather prosaic despite the surroundings, and the actors seem to struggle to generate any interest. Having Christopher Lee's head covered by a hood for almost the entire film does not help, and Leo Genn slurs a lot of his lines, with his overly avuncular Inspector being barely fleshed out. The revelation when it comes is quite underwhelming. Cecil Parker, though, is amusing in his brief appearances as Sir John, Elliott's superior in the force.

    Overall, a fairly low-grade thriller suitable for diehard Lee fans only. It comes on a double-feature disc coupled with Circus of Horrors which, apart from the similarity of names, is linked only by the inclusion in Circus of Fear of performance footage from the earlier film.

Video

    The film is presented in what seems to be the original aspect ratio of 1.66:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    This is a reasonably sharp transfer with an adequate level of detail. Shadow detail is not an issue, and contrast levels are satisfactory, apart from a white sheen at 38:25 and a slight drop in brightness at 11:27. Colour is adequate, though not as vibrant as the companion film on this disc.

    I did not detect any film to video or MPEG artefacts of any note. Film artefacts are quite prevalent. Apart from the seemingly mandatory small white spots and dirt, there are other instances of damage. Being from a projection print, there are reel change markings at 19:03 and 38:45. There seems to be a splice mark at 47:30, and there are several vertical green stripes at around the 48:57 mark. In some scenes there is more grain than I would have liked.

    No subtitles are provided. This is a dual layered disc, with the entire film accommodated on one layer, so there is no layer change during the film.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The sole audio track is Dolby Digital 2.0 mono.

    This transfer is quite disappointing. While the dialogue is audible, there is a lot of distortion and harshness at times. This is especially noticeable on the dialogue at 19:43. There is a lot of crackling, for example at 10:00 and 26:14, plus the occasional pop. Audio sync is poor at times, but this seems to be the result of poor post-dubbing of voices rather than a transfer glitch.

   The jazzy music score is by Johnny Douglas, and is probably better than the film deserves.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Extras? You must be joking!

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

    The US Region 1 release comes from Blue Underground, and features the following extras not included on the Region 4 disc:

• Commentary track with director John (Llewellyn) Moxey and David Gregory
• Four theatrical trailers
• Biographies of Christopher Lee and Klaus Kinski
• Photo and Poster Gallery

    Based on the reviews I have seen of this release, it sounds as though the transfer may be superior. It also features eight minutes of footage restoring the film back to the original running time (see the Censorship section for details). This tips the balance in favour of the Region 1 release.

    A poor excuse for a thriller.

    The video quality is variable.

    The audio quality is poor.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Circus of Horrors (1960)

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General		Extras
Category	Horror	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1960
Running Time	88:02 (Case: 79)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Sidney Hayers
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Anton Diffring Erika Remberg Yvonne Monlaur Donald Pleasence Jane Hylton Kenneth Griffith Conrad Phillips Jack Gwillim Vanda Hudson Yvonne Romain Colette Wilde William Mervyn John Merivale
Case	?
RPI	$19.95	Music	Tony Hatch Muir Mathieson Franz Reizenstein

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    England, 1947. Illegal plastic surgery performed on a socialite goes horribly wrong. Rather than stopping at a police checkpoint, fleeing surgeon Dr. Rossiter (Anton Diffring) drives right through, killing a policeman. After crashing his car, Rossiter staggers into the home of his minions Martin (Kenneth Griffith) and Angela (Jane Hylton). He has them perform some surgery on his own face, which merely seems to involve shaving off his beard. On the run in France, the trio stumble across Nicole, a girl with a scarred face whose father runs a run-down circus.

    Rossiter, now under the name Schüler, performs surgery on the girl and successfully removes the scars. Her grateful father, Vanet (Donald Pleasance), agrees to an arrangement where Schüler will run the circus and make it a success. But then Vanet is killed when dancing with what appears to be a stuffed bear, and Schüler is able to take over the circus completely. Fast-forward ten years. No one bar Nicole (who has grown up into Yvonne Monlaur) has aged a day, but the circus is a major success. Schüler has populated the circus with criminals whose faces he has changed, all of whom seem to pick up circus acts without much trouble. Most of these are beautiful women who naturally all fall in love with Schüler. But when they try to leave, well, the circus is not known as the "jinx circus" for nothing.

    This is not a especially deep or intellectual horror film, but it moves at a fast pace and has a reasonably consistent and convincing plot, even if some elements are scarcely believable. It is very well photographed by Douglas Slocombe and has capable direction by Sidney Hayers, and it looks like a big budget film. Footage of actual circus performances are seamlessly integrated into the film. The female cast all look stunning, with a large degree of flesh on show, playing up to the male fantasy of killing beautiful women once they have served their purpose. Not my fantasy, but this does seem to be a recurring theme in films, even today.

    This film is as good as the better Hammer films of the era, with a high enjoyment factor. It is certainly a lot better than the similarly titled Circus of Fear, which is also included on this double-feature disc.

Video

    The film is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. The original aspect ratio was 1.85:1.

    This is a fine transfer, very sharp and with excellent detail. Contrast is fine, and shadow detail is also good, though there are very few sequences where this could be a potential issue.

    Colour is superb. There are rich and vivid hues of many primary colours, all appearing solid with no evidence of colour bleeding. Blacks are solid, and flesh tones accurate.

    I did not notice any MPEG artefacts whatsoever.

    Film grain is evident throughout, though never to distracting levels. Some of the inserted circus footage looks slightly less clean that the rest of the film, but the difference is very slight. I believe that the circus footage was shot for this film. There did not seem to be many white spots or other damage to the film.

    No subtitles are provided. This is a dual layered disc, with each of the features wholly contained on a single layer, removing the need for a layer change during either film.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The sole audio track is Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, reflecting the film's original audio.

    Dialogue is clear and distinct. Generally the audio transfer is good, with no noticeable hiss. However, I found that the sound was a little strident, with the upper frequencies sounding a bit sharp and piercing. This is not a major defect and the film can still be enjoyed despite this issue.

    The music score is by Muir Matheson and Franz Reizenstein and is very well handled. The music is not intrusive and is used sparingly and effectively. There are some traditional circus themes used during the performance sequences. The aerialist is accompanied by a pop song very much of the era called Look For a Star, which soon outlives its welcome.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    No extras are provided.

    The US Region 1 release is predictably from Anchor Bay, and the transfer sounds as if it is the same as the Region 4. However, the Region 1 also gets

• Theatrical Trailer TV spots (3)
• Anton Diffring biography and filmography
• Stills Gallery (a large one with more than 75 stills)
• Poster and Promotional Material Gallery (more than 50 items)
• Main Menu Audio and Animation

    This barely tips the balance in favour of Region 1, but if you only want the film, the Region 4 is better value.

    An enjoyable and well-made horror film.

    The video quality is excellent.

    The audio quality is good.

    No extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall