Sawdust Spectacular

Circus World. Still doggedly reproducing the collected epics of Cecil B. DeMille, Producer Samuel Bronston has launched a three-ring Circus. Though likable enough, this least pretentious of Bronston spectaculars cannot compare with The Greatest Show on Earth. It is just a minor romantic tearjerker, a Stella Dallas with sawdust.

When Big Top Impresario Matt Masters (John Wayne) takes his show to Spain, he has never told his ward (Claudia Cardinale) that her mother (Rita Hay worth) was the woman he once loved. No need to, really, because Rita has been missing for 14 years--guilt-ridden since the suicide of her aerialist husband after he discovered that her heart had been doing triple somersaults with the wrong man. Of course Rita reappears in Europe, and poignant revelations spring up faster than acrobatic midgets. Claudia ultimately overcomes her bitterness toward the older folk, which leaves her free to concentrate on a Wild West rider (John Smith).

While both love affairs develop innocuously, the gaps in the story line are filled by some delightful European circus acts and other diversions. A 4,000-ton ship keels over at the pier in Barcelona, and one exciting scene has Hayworth, Cardinale and Wayne all dangling from the rigging of a burning tent. The only serious mishap to befall Circus World is Cinerama, which magnifies a meager tale beyond all reasonable proportions. To sit through the film is something like holding an elephant on your lap for two hours and 15 minutes. You can hardly measure what you have there, but it leaves a definite impression: it's big, it's warmhearted, and tons of fun for the kids.

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