Why are certain actors fantastic every single time? Thankfully, Fredric March had a great sense of humor, and after a few great movies, he made sure to make a stinky one just to shake things up. That may or may not be true, but it's what I like to think.
Man on a Tightrope is one of the great ones. He gives another excellent performance as the head of a circus troop stuck in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. Different from The Greatest Show on Earth, which glamorized the circus life, you can really smell the stink in this movie. It shows the seedy characters drawn to that way of life, the type of secrets everyone is hiding, and the scandals that occur behind the scenes. After watching this movie, you won't be as entertained seeing glitzy costumes and clown makeup.
Immediately after sitting through an interrogation, Freddie dons his clown makeup and performs a routine in the tent. He has such expressive eyes, you can sense his fear even as he tries to pretend nothing's wrong. The interrogation is my favorite scene in the film. He tries to hard to be casual, but as the title suggests, he's walking on a tightrope with every answer.
Freddie's wife is Gloria Grahame, and through her boredom and dissatisfaction, she cheats on him with the lion tamer. Everyone knows about it, and it's a piece of leverage used against Freddie as his weakness is mocked. Meanwhile, his young daughter Terry Moore has fallen for bad boy Cameron Mitchell. How much does one man have to take? It's a circus onstage and off for poor Freddie. If you liked this one, check out Kirk Douglas in The Juggler, where he also deals with a dichotomy of performance versus mental anguish.
Man on a Tightrope is one of the great ones. He gives another excellent performance as the head of a circus troop stuck in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. Different from The Greatest Show on Earth, which glamorized the circus life, you can really smell the stink in this movie. It shows the seedy characters drawn to that way of life, the type of secrets everyone is hiding, and the scandals that occur behind the scenes. After watching this movie, you won't be as entertained seeing glitzy costumes and clown makeup.
Immediately after sitting through an interrogation, Freddie dons his clown makeup and performs a routine in the tent. He has such expressive eyes, you can sense his fear even as he tries to pretend nothing's wrong. The interrogation is my favorite scene in the film. He tries to hard to be casual, but as the title suggests, he's walking on a tightrope with every answer.
Freddie's wife is Gloria Grahame, and through her boredom and dissatisfaction, she cheats on him with the lion tamer. Everyone knows about it, and it's a piece of leverage used against Freddie as his weakness is mocked. Meanwhile, his young daughter Terry Moore has fallen for bad boy Cameron Mitchell. How much does one man have to take? It's a circus onstage and off for poor Freddie. If you liked this one, check out Kirk Douglas in The Juggler, where he also deals with a dichotomy of performance versus mental anguish.