Trapeze (film)


Trapeze is a 1956 American circus film directed by Carol Reed and starring Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis and Gina Lollobrigida, making her debut in American films. The film is based on Max Catto's novel The Killing Frost, with the adapted screenplay written by Liam O'Brien.
The film did well at the box office placing in the top three among the year's top earners in the United States and Canada.

Plot

Crippled trapeze aerialist and former star Mike Ribble sees great promise in young, brash Tino Orsini. Ribble—only the sixth man to have completed the dangerous triple somersault—thinks his protégé is capable of matching the same feat, but only if he gives him rigorous training. However, Orsini is distracted by the new third member of their circus act, the manipulative Lola. Tensions rise as a love triangle forms.

Cast

Lancaster, a former circus acrobat, performed many of his own stunts, though the most dangerous were done by technical consultant Eddie Ward from the Ringling Brothers Circus.
Trapeze was filmed entirely in Paris, including at the Cirque d'Hiver, and at the nearby Billancourt studios.

Reception

Burt Lancaster won the Silver Bear for Best Actor award at the 6th Berlin International Film Festival. Reed was nominated for best director by the Directors Guild of America.
Pauline Kael of The New Yorker wrote: "There's vitality in Carol Reed's direction, and an exuberant sweep in Robert Krasker's camera work. Burt Lancaster and Gina Lollobrigida function as stars--they're magnetic."
However, Bosley Crowther panned the film in his review for The New York Times. He wrote that the story was "dismally obvious and monotonous", the direction no better, and the dialogue "dull and hackneyed". He also criticized the leads in the film, writing that Lollobrigida had only her looks to show and that Curtis and Lancaster were both uninteresting. The film was the fourth most popular movie at the British box office in 1956.