Dr. Rossiter (Anton Diffring) is a noted British plastic surgeon. When he botches the facial surgery of a prominent socialite, Evelyn Morley (Colette Wilde), he flees the country. Rossiter has his associates; Martin (Kenneth Griffith) and Martin’s sister, Angela (Jane Hylton), alter his appearance. He then changes his name to Dr. Bernard Schuler. The three of them leave Britain and wander around France looking for an opportunity.
While traveling in France, the now, Schuler meets a young girl named Nicole Vanet (Carla Challoner). Nichole is the daughter of a man, Vanet (Donald Pleasence), who owns a traveling circus. Schuler convinces Vanet to let him do plastic surgery on Nicole’s face restoring the child’s natural beauty. Vanet is overcome with gratitude and agrees to make Schuler part owner of the circus.
Vanet, a drunkard, is so overcome with glee that he begins dancing with a bear that he uses in the circus. He inadvertently trips and breaks the wine bottle he is drinking from. When the bear falls on the broken glass the pain causes it to crush Vanet to death. At first Schuler looks for something to dislodge the bear but instead he watches as Vanet dies screaming for help. Schuler now owns the circus outright. He adopts Nicole and, with Martin’s and Angela’s help, refurbishes the circus.
As the circus travels through Europe Schuler begins to hire low lives with facial deformities. He fixes their flaws and puts them in the show. Ten years later the circus is performing to sellout crowds. Schuler becomes obsessive of his beautiful performers to the point where they have fatal “accidents” if they want to leave. After a dozen or so accidents the police assign Inspector Arthur Ames (Conrad Philips) to investigate.
“Circus of Horrors” was released in 1960 and was directed by Sidney Hayers. It is a British horror film.
The movie is your standard horror fare with lots of inventive murders. It rolled out at a rather fast pace allowing for some interesting murder scenarios. The ending is even faster and incorporates a wild “Final Destination” type death that can only be appreciated after it unfolds. The movie also sports some good acting by the major players and some nice cinematography and atmosphere.
Some of the film was shot using the actual Billy Smart Circus as the backdrop. The Billy Smart Circus was one of the largest traveling circuses in Europe at the time. The circus was created in 1946 and lasted until 1971. The circus backdrop was also used for the 1967 film “Berserk” which starred Joan Crawford. Some of the circus performers were used as extras in the film.
The song “Look for a Star” was written by Tony Hatch and was created for the film. It ended up being a commercial hit and was sung by Garry Mills. It was then re-released by other artists.
For the film aficionados, this film as well as “Peeping Tom” 1960 and “Horrors of the Black Museum” 1959 are sometimes called the “Sadean or Sadian Trilogy”. They are three loosely grouped films, labeled by film critic David Pirie, that reference the Marquis de Sade’s view of sadism as well as voyeurism and outright cruelty of the murderers. They illustrate brutality for the sake of brutality. These were concepts that, although not as violent as later films, did pave the way for a small sub-genre of similar films and was the prerequisite of the slasher film.