Ring of Fear (1954)

Brilliant and touching

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

With the success of Cecil B. DeMille's "The Greatest Show on Earth" in 1952, it was inevitable that another circus themed movie would be made. John Wayne's Batjac company did just that. They produced "Ring of Fear" in the newly introduced CimemaScope and glorious color.The Clyde Beatty Circus is at the forefront of the film showcasing not only Beatty's prowess in the lion cage but many of the acts in his show as well. The story is about a homicidal maniac Dublin O'Malley (Sean McClory) who escapes from a mental hospital. He murders a guard and then a railway worker whose clothes he takes before pushing the man's body in front of a train with the hope that he will be identified as O'Malley thus diverting attention away from himself.O'Malley heads for the Clyde Beatty Circus where he had been before "going away". He had been in love with aerialist Valerie St. Denis (Marian Carr) who has since married Armand St. Louis (John Bromfield) a fellow trapeze artist. O'Malley enlists the help of a drunken clown with a past, Twichy (Emmett Lynn) whom he blackmails into staging "accidents" within the circus.Beatty brings in crime novelist Mickey Spillane to find the source of the circus' problems. He in turn brings in Jack Stang a detective posing as a magazine writer to assist him. Circus manager Frank Wallace (Pat O'Brien) keeps the show running while coordinating the detective work (and acting).O'Malley has gotten back into the good graces of Beatty who hires him as the Ringmaster. All the while O'Malley is plotting his revenge on both Valerie and Beatty. When Twichy threatens to go to the police, O'Malley murders him. When Spillane and Wallace suspect O'Malley, the mad man is forced into the open. He unlooses a tiger and...............................................................................The circus sequences are entertaining and Beaaty's lion taming show is quite good. As actors, Beatty makes an excellent lion tamer and Spillane a great mystery writer. Acting cudos go to the veteran O'Brien ion one of his signature wise guy roles and "B" western sidekick Lynn as the boozy Twichy. McClory is also good but tends to go over the top at times. He was, by the way, a member of Ireland's Abby players and can be seen in John Ford's "The Quiet Man". Pedro Gonzoles-Gonzolez is along for comedy relief and watch for Ken Tobey as a circus worker.Long time John Wayne associates James Earl Grant directed and actor Paul Fix co-wrote the screenplay.And incidently, did anyone else see the resemblance between Clyde Beatty and TV star Don Adams (Get Smart)?

In some ways this is s standard "formula" mystery. Yet it's a very interesting and off beat film in other respects. A young Mickey Spillane; looking like a near clone of Sean Penn; plays himself as a rather inept detective. The action takes place in the real Clyde Beatty Circus, where a homicidal maniac is on the loose. Clyde Beatty, who also plays himself, was perhaps the most skilled animal trainer of all time and in the 40s and 50s ran his own circus, a serious competitor to Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey. The best parts of the film (at least from my perspective) were closeups of him performing with lions and tigers, often several at a time. You can actually see the highly specific and technical body poses and behaviors he uses to control multiple animals that would love to tear him to pieces. A fascinating peek into the psyches of large carnivores.Entertaining and quite out of the ordinary.

In the history of bad Academy Award recipients, one that has stood out for me is "The Greatest Show on Earth" (directed by Cecil B. DeMille) winning the Best Picture award. While the film, like any other DeMille film, is BIG, the story itself (which, inexplicably won an Oscar as well) was dreadfully dull and clichéd. According to the wonderful review by bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York, "Ring of Fear" was an attempt by John Wayne's production company to cash in on the success of this 1952 film. However, while "Ring of Fear" is indeed derivative, it is, to me, a bit more entertaining than "The Greatest Show on Earth" for one major reason--the story is entertaining and gritty. Instead of a story about an innocent man hiding from the law dressed up as a clown (Jimmy Stewart), "Ring of Fear" has an escaped murderous schizophrenic hiding within the circus---and killing! Now THAT is gritty and doesn't rely one bit on the pathos of the DeMille film...thank goodness. Now this isn't saying that I loved "Ring of Fear'--just that it was fun to watch.While I usually hate circus films, I decided to watch this film because of its very unusual job of casting. Clyde Beatty (practically an unknown man today--but quite famous in the 1940s and 50s) is a start in the film and was a rival to the Ringling Brothers circus and made his fame as a lion tamer. Additionally, Mickey Spillane (yes, THE Mickey Spillane) is on hand to play himself just like Beatty did--though why a guy who wrote the Mike Hammer books is in the film is anyone's guess. He certainly wasn't trained to investigate crimes, so he does what any writer in this situation would do--hire a professional to do this! In addition to these two, the film also stars Pat O'Brien who'd been through some pretty lean years following WWII--with fewer and fewer chances to act. While O'Brien was never a very subtle actor, he was enjoyable and lent some class to the film. While "The Greatest Show on Earth" sported more big-name actors like Jimmy Stewart, Charlton Heston, Betty Hutton and Cornell Wilde, it featured lots of actors--not the real life acts like you see in this film--another plus in "Ring of Fear".Overall, while this film is not a great film, the murderer is cool to watch (this psycho has style!) and the film never reaches the heights of extreme boredom I felt in the DeMille epic. It's worth seeing, but for my money if you must see a film about circuses, try Chaplin's "The Circus" first!

I am not crazy about "Circus" Movies - As a child I was taken to Barnum and Bailey's "Three Ring Circus" and the seats were so high up and far away that I did not understand any of the activities going on. All I remember is a guy riding a bicycle that happened to be about 200 feet in the air. Maybe I am wrong about the hight, I was only 3 feet high myself: To me he was very high in the air. Unfortunately I was not excited about the experience, and shortly after, circuses changed radically from this image we are presented with in this films and other films like "Trapeze," "The Greatest Show on Earth," "The Flying Fontaine's" etc.Maybe if I had been taken to a Clyde Beatty circus I would have felt differently. I did not see Barnum under any "Big Top" or any other kind of tent... The circus I was taken to was given in a large outside stadium: So as a child I never experienced that intimacy of the center ring, and after that I just never had the interest in the circus that most kids had at that time.The actual star of this film is of course Clyde Beatty's circus: Do not be mistaken, all of the other things in this film are an excuse for this film to exist. And so, we have things like Pat O'Brien as the Manager of the Circus, "Twitchy" the drunk, O'Malley the obsessed murderer, and a thin plot of insanity, obsession, revenge, and detection: Enter Mike Hammer/Mickey Spillane.Now as far as the performance of the main star of the film: I really do wish I had been brought to this circus instead of Barnum. I was entirely captivated by the acts that are shown. Clyde Beatty, who I remember from several films made in Africa, was a master, and I never knew that the iconic image of the Lion-Tamer, seen in cartoons and parodies and pictures and just about everywhere: That man with the chair in one hand and the whip in the other is based on Beatty. Someone mentioned that he had to shake himself to get an expression into the camera: I think that makes his character, which is himself, more believable.Spillane is playing himself and not Hammer: Which is interesting because in one short scene where Spillane confronts O'Malley, O'Maley is calling Spillane "Mike" - I think perhaps the Mike Hammer character was going to be used, but had to be changed to Spillane himself for some reason. I think he is better in this flick than in "The Girl Hunters" - It says here that Jack Stang who appears also as himself is the detective on which Spillane based Hammer. When the two are together in a scene, the conversation flows like good 12 year old Scotch, it just seems natural. Most of Spillane lines and scenes are poses and one-liners, so there is not much for him to do: The main acting is left to the O'Malley character and the St. Dennis characters and O'Brien, who is great in this, even at his age.This film follows the form: An introduction shows O'Malley's escape from the looney bin and threat to Beatty is set up. Then "The Circus Rolls Into Town" and they actually roll into town on a train, like circuses used to do until the late 50's.Much of the first half hour of this film is establishing The Circus, and as I stated twice now, Beatty had a great circus: I wish I could have seen it. If anything, this film is an important documentary of the Clyde Beatty Circus.As the detective story works it's way into the film, there are less and less "cuts" into regular circus life- There are about 15 minutes of Vignettes establishing the different people in the circus, what they are doing, and inserted into the vignettes are short flashes of the oncoming detective story, as if to say "Yes, this is a detective flick, here: Chew on this until we get to it" I have to say that this film comes together rather well. It's swell! Circus buffs will appreciate the circus aspect of this film, and Hammer buffs might like Spillane's bumbling about. Surprisingly, Paul Fix had a hand in the script: People might recognize him as the second doctor of the USS Enterprise, as seen in the Star Trek episode "Where No Man has None Before" (The first doctor was John Hoyt in "The Cage"). The final significant item is that this is one of John Wayne's "BatJac" films. Well, "The Dukes" Signature on this, just goes to show: Circus + Clyde Beatty + Mickey Spillane = Almost comical story in the unusualness of it's elements. Which is why I liked it... A lot.