Carnival Story (1954)

Why so much hype?

Highly Overrated But Still Good

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Anne Baxter is channeling her 'inner Joan Crawford' at every key scene of this lively B-Movie time waster. Carnival Girl Joan was a natural for this - a shame she was too old. Those looks of blazing hatred and the words Baxter spits out at Steve Cochran (when she's not grinding all over him) need some serious eyebrows and shoulder pads. To be honest I watched this from start to finish and never felt the urge to turn it off. Many a 'great' movie I've left half finished. This is pure B movie and certainly not great but the story hooks keep it moving from scene to scene. I should have seen the ending a mile away but didn't bother to look for it.That male high diving husband wore the CREEPIEST bathing suit I have ever seen on a man. I never saw the actor before but he was oddly sexless, effeminate and unsettling. There is one scene when he is having his blond locks lovingly styled by a midget that belongs in a Bunuel movie.

Well, the story is not exactly unique. Beauty and the beast but maybe with a twist.The womanizer "business-man" gets his justice in the end and it is served by the idiot as far as mainstream intelligence goes. This idiot does however know what is right and what is wrong and why you have to act upon it. That is another kind of intelligence - moral intelligence and today very few possess it. But through pain their number may increase, maybe reaching the point of no return and then there will be changes. But if they don't hold on to it and teach it to their children, the passion will die again and we will have rich and poor again.If we want a society, in which the giant idiot will have his place of respect, we can have it. But then all material inequality has to go forever and are we up for it? Are we up for treating our fellow human beings as goals in themselves and not means for our goals? Are we up for justice? You don't need main-stream intelligence to know what is right. In fact, that kind of intelligence may fool you. It has its place and could be a tool for justice but without the intelligence of love, which is always the love for justice, main-stream intelligence is good for nothing.A simple story but somehow handled so that I could see the association that made out this review.

Unpretentious describes this film production fairly well. But that's consistent with the setting: a small, insular world, wherein a variety of atypical and colorful people move in and out of scenes, as the plot dictates. These people, for the most part, are tricksters and hangers-on whose only claim to fame relates to some physical trait, or some bizarre gift or craft.More talented than most is Frank (Lyle Bettger) who high dives into a burning tank of water. Then there's Joe (Steve Cochran), an announcer who tries to convince attendees to part with a few cents, to see the magic of the headless wonder, or some such. But one of Joe's attendees, a young, attractive woman named Willie (Anne Baxter), follows Joe to a snack stand, whereupon she proceeds to swipe Joe's wallet from his back pocket. With his money, she buys some food. But he catches her. And in so doing, he takes a liking to her. She's destitute, you see, and shapely. And she'll do anything to make some money, even if it's just wash dishes in the carnival's kitchen.That's the setup for this modest melodrama, wherein Willie learns about life in the circus and, in the process, finds that love can be confusing with so many guys attracted to her. At one point, she concedes hopelessly: "I don't know what love is". Will things work out for Willie? Will she find true, lasting love?"Carnival Story" is largely a cinematic vehicle for Anne Baxter. I've always liked her. But in this film she overacts a lot. Steve Cochran gives a more relaxed, naturalistic performance, as does Lyle Bettger. Tension derives from Frank's high-dive act, and the rivalry among the various guys drawn to Willie. The film's visuals are acceptable, if unremarkable. Sets seem realistic. Toward the end, the plot trends melodramatically hokey.A prospective viewer needs to keep expectations reasonably low for this film. It's got melodrama and tension. It's got several fine actors. It's got an unusual setting. And that may be enough, for this small, low-concept story.

A movie equivalent of one of those 1950s gaudy crime paperbacks, this low budget effort starts down a familiar path but is still able to provide its share of suspense and surprises.The lovely Anne Baxter, though a long way from ALL ABOUT EVE is an attractive heroine albeit with an accent that has a tendency to disappear at times. She obtains work in the carnival through Joe (Steve Cochran)whose pocket she has picked out of desperation and then becomes a partner of Lyle Bettger in a high-dive act. This is an intriguing start as Bettger often played sneering villains and Joe seems decent enough at first, though we soon learn that this is not the case. Steve Cochran was ideal in this sort of role.There is an incredibly similar sequence featuring a high-diver who jumps into a blazing tank in a section of the British film ENCORE, released two or three years before, which may have given the makers of this film some ideas.