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The
smell of the greasepaint, the roar of the crowd… Ah, there's
nothing quite like a circus movie. From the epic (The Greatest
Show on Earth, 1952) to the strange (Freaks, 1932) and
from the musical (Carousel, 1956) to the melodramatic (Trapeze,
1956) carnivals and circuses have long served as popular backdrops
for the cinema. But if you take your average big top setting, toss
in a little murder and mayhem, and add Joan Crawford at her domineering
best, well then you have yourself a three-ring smorgasbord tailor-made
for devotees of cool cinema trash.
Berserk
(1967) begins innocently enough with a tightrope walker performing
for an appreciative audience. Things quickly go… well, Berserk,
when the tightrope snaps and implausibly wraps around the neck of
Gaspar the Great, leaving him to swing from the proverbial gallows.
"How
can you be so cold-blooded?" a skittish Durango (Michael Gough)
asks after the body has been removed.
While
tallying the evenings box-office receipts, Monica Rivers (Joan Crawford)
reminds him that, "We're running a circus, not a charm school."
He wants out of show business, but she can't afford to buy out his
share of The Great Rivers Circus.
A
replacement for Gaspar is needed. "I want something fresh.
A new face with an exciting act." Monica decides that Frank
Hawkins (Ty Hardin) is indeed quite fresh, new and exciting.
He'll audition his high wire act at the next performance.
Monica
not only runs and operates her own circus, but she serves as ringmistress
as well. That evening she introduces The Magnificent Hawkins. "He
defies death with every step," by performing without a net
high above a bed of steel spikes. Coincidentally, he also does the
act blindfolded, making it easy to substitute a real circus tightrope
walker for actor Ty Hardin.
Frank
passes muster, signs on with the show and continues with them to
the next town. Billy Smart's Circus, an actual three-ring circus
based in the U.K., was used as the backdrop for Berserk.
Several acts from the Billy Smart show are featured in the film.
Your personal perceptions about circuses will dictate how you feel
when the real acts take center stage. Since the story takes place
in a circus, it makes sense that we'd see clowns and elephants simply
for the sake of verisimilitude. But there can be too much of a good
thing. At certain points, like when we're shown the entirety of
the Billy Smart elephant act, it begins to feel like the running
time is being padded with superfluous circus "stuff".
Over
a candlelit dinner in her trailer, Monica and Frank discuss their
relationship. Judging from their suggestive dialog and the fact
that Monica is in a nightgown, it's safe to assume that the pair
have already "done the deed." Frank is ready to plan their
future together, but Monica is a modern gal who wants to keep things
casual. "Long ago I lost the capacity to love. Let's enjoy
what we have, it makes this crazy circus life more bearable."
"I'll
make you change your mind," he asserts.
"You'll
try and you'll fail."
When
Frank shows his possessive side, Monica scolds him as if her were
a child. When he storms off into the night, Durango follows him
into the big top. Once inside, he loses sight of the temperamental
hunk. Durango leans against a tent pole, deciding to relax with
a cigarette, completely unaware that an unseen menace prepares to
drive a spike through the pole and into his skull.
Word
of Durango's demise quickly spreads among the circus folk. Matilda
the circus tramp (Diana Dors) pins the blame on her boss, citing
the morbid publicity the show has recently received, "We all
know that Miss Rivers has lost no sleep over these murders. When
did we ever play to such capacity crowds?! I tell you, she's behind
the whole thing!"
Monica
is none to pleased to hear her wild hypothesizing. She deals with
Matilda first, "You slut! You miserable ingrate!" and
then cracks the proverbial whip with the rest, "If it weren't
for me you'd all starve to death!" If there were ever any questions
about who's in charge, Monica soon puts them to rest.
That
doesn't stop Matilda from making a play for Monica's man. She pays
Frank a late night visit. "You're peddling your merchandise
at the wrong booth," he tells her.
"The
next time she puts her arms around you," Matilda warns, "Make
sure those loving hands aren't carrying a knife."
Frank
throws her out for trash-talking his meal ticket and Monica witnesses
the ensuing scene. In a startlingly green ensemble, she asks the
obvious, "You're certainly no saint and she's attractive, in
a common sort of way, why did you throw her out?" Before
he can really answer, the scene fades to black, suggesting that
Frank knows the perfect way to make her forget all about Matilda.
A
detective from Scotland Yard (Robert Hardy) arrives the next day
and questions Monica and Frank about the murders, insinuating that
they both had something to gain from the deaths of Gaspar and Durango.
All the performers are eventually questioned, but not before we're
shown some (seemingly endless) footage of the trick pony act and
a group of performing poodles.
Monica
has conveniently forgotten to mention to Frank that she has a daughter
named Angela (Judy Geeson). The staunch headmistress of Angela's
boarding school has personally escorted the troublesome teen back
to the circus. Amusingly, a nearly identical scene appears in Mommie
Dearest (1980) in which poor Joan suffers the indignity of daughter
Christina's expulsion from boarding school. "You've always
had a knack for causing trouble," Joan… oops, Monica insists,
eventually agreeing to Angela's pleas to stay with the circus.
In
the mess tent, everyone greets Angela warmly, except for Matilda,
who overstates the obvious, "What a shame you had to return
at a time like this when we have a homicidal killer amongst us."
After Monica and Angela eat together, Monica insists on a kiss goodnight
from her daughter. You half expect her to toss in a "Yes, Mommie
dearest," before heading off to bed.
On
the way back to her caravan, an unknown assailant stalks Monica.
Joan switches into classic "diva in distress" mode as
she flees and then evades her presumed attacker. A classic "hand
on the shoulder" gag reveals that it is only Bruno (George
Claydon) the circus dwarf.
We're
treated to more sights and sounds of the big top, this time it's
a trapeze act and a lion tamer. As the big cats roar in the center
ring, another type of catfight takes place backstage. Monica is
fed up with Matilda's murderous accusations and reads her the riot
act just before the curvaceous blonde goes onstage. Lazlo the magician,
with Matilda as his assistant, prepares the "saw the lady in
half" routine. Give you one guess at how this classic trick
ends. Inspector Brooks later finds that the magician's props were
tampered with. After witnessing the earlier backstage argument,
he considers Monica his prime suspect.
Monica
confides to Frank that she's got the jitters, "This circus
is jinxed." The show moves on to London where Angela earns
her keep by becoming part of the knife-throwing act. Monica gives
a party in anticipation of the London opening, "When people
are troubled, give them a celebration. You know, the French revolution
could have been avoided if Louis the XVI had done that." Ever
the hostess, she introduces the sideshow folk who perform the novelty
song "It Might Be Me". It's an incredibly odd moment (they
sing while looking directly into the camera) and, pardon the pun,
it stops the movie dead. As Monica and Frank dance the night away,
Angela overhears their plans for the future.
"You'll
have twenty-five percent of the circus," Monica tells her young
paramour, "and one hundred percent of me."
In
a sour mood, Angela notes that her mother is far too old for Frank,
which prompts and extra to dutifully comment on how timelessly beautiful
Crawford is, "She has the gift of eternal youth."
Thunder
and lightning herald the arrival of opening night. Everyone watches
tensely as Angela makes her debut on the receiving end of Gustavo's
knives. The knives are tossed and the act goes off without a hitch.
Frank
takes his place atop the high wire. On his first trip across the
wire he stumbles, but quickly recovers. He then rides a bike across
and performs various tricks high above the steel bayonets. As he
completes his last feat of derring-do, a mysterious gloved hand
appears and throws a knife. With a blade lodged in his back, Frank
tumbles onto the spikes below.
Did
Gustavo have a grievance with Frank? No, the killer turns out to
be Angela! Actress Judy Geeson momentarily distracts us from the
implausibility this revelation by grandly chewing the scenery as
her character becomes positively unhinged and admits to plotting
against her neglectful mother. "I had to kill him!" she
wildly confesses to Monica, "I had to kill them all! I had
to destroy your circus! KILL, KILL, KILL! That's all I feel inside
me! Mother, I gave you one last chance, but now you've turned against
me. I've got to kill you!"
Inspector
Brooks stops Angela's attempt at matricide and takes chase as she
flees outside. What follows may be one of the weirdest (and frustratingly
brief) climaxes in movie history. A lightning bolt strikes a lamppost
and the charge travels down a wire to the ground, electrifying Angela
as she runs past. The scene is so dark, so poorly shot and happens
so abruptly that it's difficult to tell what just happened. Adding
insult to injury, it's difficult to tell if Angela is even supposed
to be dead. Geeson holds herself up at an awkward angle so that
she doesn't have to lie facedown in a puddle. It's soon clear that
Angela is indeed dead as Monica cradles the fallen child in her
arms.
A
saintly, beleaguered mother.
A
psychotically murderous (and worse, ungrateful) child.
Would
a Joan Crawford movie end any other way?
Two
things are inevitably brought up whenever Berserk is discussed.
First, Crawford looks exceptional for a woman in her sixties, especially
in the Edith Head designed leotard that serves as Monica's master
of ceremonies costume. But almost always in the same breath, the
Hollywood double standard rears its ugly head and the seemingly
inappropriate age difference between Crawford and Hardin is brought
up. While it's perfectly acceptable for a wizened Hollywood star
to bed a twenty-something actress, its crime against humanity for
a female star of a certain age to romance a hot young hunk. In the
case of Berserk, the audience's skittishness about older
woman/younger man romance is exacerbated not only by the age difference
of the two stars (twenty-two years separated Crawford and Hardin)
but by the utter indifference everyone in the film shows regarding
the situation. The physical relationship between Monica and Frank
is really only alluded to, leaving the audience to fill in the blanks.
The only affection the couple shares onscreen is a rather chaste
peck on the cheek.
Crawford
herself doesn't seem to be under any allusions about her age. Though
she is given the glamour treatment here (at least as glamorous as
the meager budget would allow) she isn't trying to fool anyone into
thinking she's a wide-eyed ingénue. The lighting is kept
as flattering as possible (high key light with a discreet shadow
just below the chin) without resorting to soft-focus camera tricks.
Though an unflattering hairstyle and a series of ill-fitting candy
colored suits doesn't do Crawford any favors. Which is odd, since
Crawford provided her own stylist and wardrobe for the film.
Despite
the low-budget and nonsensical script, Crawford, ever the professional,
gives Berserk everything she's got. In scenes where Monica
is barking orders and taking charge, Crawford herself seems to be
challenging anyone to belittle this circus of horrors. Woe be to
those who might question her power as a star for appearing in a
B-movie like Berserk.
Berserk
is
not yet available on DVD.
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