Review of Trapeze (1956) by Allan C — 21 Apr 2013

Carol Reed directed this circus story involving a love triangle between former trapeze great, Burt Lancaster, and his portage, Tony Curtis, and love interest Gina Lollobrigida. It's a smart story and is a better than average love triangle that is more complicated than two men vying for the love of the same woman.

Although the story could have been transplanted to just about any setting, the circus always seems like a silly setting to me for film (outside of horror films like "Freaks" or "Funhouse"), but it does seem to work here and I do prefer this film to DeMille's overblown "The Greatest Show on Earth" that was release four years before this one.

And one interesting bit of trivia, in real life, Lancaster performed in the circus before going in to acting and he took the opportunity to do perform all of his own students in this film.