Carnival Story

A young girl (Anne Baxter) runs away and joins a traveling carnival troupe in Colonia (Germany), an American-owned circus in all its beautiful and sadness in the setting . She falls in love with her employer (Steve Cochran) and is hired by the ringmaster (J.C. Flippen). Later on , she is contracted by a somersault artist (Lyle Bettger), who teaches her the leap routine and soon becomes the main attraction but he has a fatal accident . Anne Baxter as an aerial acrobat dropping to swimming pool is interested in both men.

The film is a melodramatic and romantic tale with the classic triangular love story through an European tour and meshing drama with events offstage . It deals with an U.S. carnival in Colonia sets the scene for sin , sex , passion and melodrama . The movie is wrought with romance and glamour but is a simple and tragic story about a scheming young girl and the men of whom she takes advantage . This dramatic flick packs an exciting final adding the beauty-beast myth . Extraordinary cast and good performances , especially from Anne Baxter and George Nader as a journalist , both of whom are top-notch under Kurt Neumann's correct direction . Furthermore , some scenes the actors perform their own stunts . After that , George Nader stayed in Germany where had success playing Jerry Cotton , a solid entry in German crime series . Fine camera work with exquisite images in Agfacolor and superb European location by cameraman Ernest Haller . The motion picture was well directed by Kurt Neumann , known director of classic Sci-Fi (The fly , Rocketship X-M , Kronos) , besides he realized at the same time the German version titled ¨Circus of love¨ with Curt Jurgens and Eva Bartok in similar roles .

Made a couple of years after Cecil B. Demille's circus tribute movie almost epic "Greatest Show on Earth," this movie is a wayward daughter of that film. The great circus acts are pretty well limited to a single high diving act. It is set in Germany because a carnival can't make any money any more in the United States. The television series, "Flash Gordon" was also made in Germany in 1954, so I guess, producers heard they could get a lot for their production buck in Germany at that time.

The movie works better than it should. Being filmed in Germany, it allows Ann Baxter to show a bit more sexuality than she could have gotten away with in Hollywood under the moral code at that time. She shows a lot of leg and showers while taking a shower.

She really turns in a strong performance. The script is cliché ridden and the lines are as deep as a pulp detective novel, but she managers to really make us believe her when she strips to her underwear and tells a man that she's not afraid of anything. This is about as far from "All About Eve" or "Magnificent Ambersons" material, but she carries it off somehow, and keeps your eyes glued to the screen.

Altogether, the script is mediocre melodrama, but good direction and good acting keep it on track and make it fun. While it never reaches the grandeur of "Greatest Show on Earth" it doesn't have the dull stretches that GSOE has either.

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.

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.

Mrs. Shullivan and I both worked for the biggest and longest running Carnival the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) so we know a thing or two about the Carnival life. The people employed in the Carnival come from all walks of life and all have a past life. In Carnival Story an attractive lady named simply Willi (Anne Baxter) is desperate for employment when she encounters a suave talker named Joe Hammond (Steve Cochran) who helps her get her start in the carnival as a short order cook and waitress.

It doesn't take long before the other carnival workers take notice of Willi and are talking about this new girl in the kitchen named and the men's heads start turning none more than the high wire diver Frank Colloni (Lyle Bettger) who suggests that Willi join him in his high wire diving act and he will not only mentor her but make her his wife.

So a love triangle quickly unfolds with Willi in the middle between the rugged and handsome fast talker Joe Hammond and the high wire diver Frank Colloni. All three main characters cause problems for each other and the carnival's most famous line "the show must go on" is ever so appropriate at the climax of this genuinely interesting film for all carny workers and carny lovers.

I give the film a redeeming 7 out of 10 IMDB Rating.