Laurence Harvey is a tank fighter for Leslie Dwyer in a traveling carnival; Maxwell Reed is his pal, and a daredevil motorcycle rider in the same show. Susan Shaw is a chorus line dancer who falls in with them. Harvey is the man she has set her cap at, but Reed has some less-than-legal plans that keep drawing Harvey into danger, especially when policeman Meredith Edwards comes by, knowing more than he can prove; but of course all the carny folk close ranks against him.
There's a good deal of atmosphere in ths tale of carny life, and a sense of depression hangs over the production, especially when the audience can hear the cheery music of the calliope. There's a sense of alienation from the happy crowds that come in for a show, hoping that Harvey will have his brains spattered in a fight, or Reed killed in a stunt gone wrong. Can the men get out of this movie alive, and out of prison? With Hermione Baddeley, Earl Cameron, Eric Pohlmann, and Laurence Naismith.
