Circus World (Paramount Pictures) (1964)

PUBLICITY SYNOPSIS of “CIRCUS WORLD” It is the golden age of excitement, half a century ago, when American impresario, Matt Masters (SOHN WAYNE), decides to take his rambling Wild West Show to Europe. His decision is swayed by the haunting desire to find Lili Alfredo (RITA HAYWORTH), who disappeared fourteen years earlier following the death of her husband, The Flying Alfredo. Lili had been in love with Matt, and it was believed at the time that Alfredo deliberately dove to his death when he realized his wife did not love him. Toni (CLAUDIA CARDINALE), the beautiful young performer raised by Matt, is actually Lili’s daughter. She is infatuated with Steve McCabe (JOHN SMITH), one of the stars of Matt’s Wild West Show. Giving their first performance on a ship while docked in Barcelona, a mishap hurls a trapeze performer into the water. The huge crowd surges to one side to see the performer in the water and causes the ship to keel over. In the chaotic pandemonium that follows, no lives are lost, but the disaster causes the untimely closing of the show. Matt, now broke, leaves for Paris with Toni, Steve, and his longtime friend, Cap (LLOYD NOLAN), to seek a job with Colonel Purdy’s Wild West Show. After being hired, Matt secretly plans to put together his own show and signs up acts for his dreamed-of European tour slated for the following year. First to be signed is a remarkable wire-walking act by Giovana (KATHARYNA), a 12-year-old girl, and her guardian, Tojo, the Clown. Tojo is Aldo Alfredo (RICHARD CONTE), formerly of the Flying Alfredos. Now with his own show, Matt searches for Lili in Brussels, Vienna, Prague, Copenhagen, Rome, Milan, and finally, Madrid. At one of the final performances, Lili is in the audience. Tears blur her vision as she watches Steve and her lovely daughter, whom she has not seen since childhood. Cap notices Lili and tells Matt. At a reunion between Lili and Matt, after fourteen years, Lili insists on leaving until she is worthy of being Toni’s mother. At the winter quarters in Toledo, Spain, the romance between Toni and Steve blooms, but Matt accuses Steve of trying to use Toni as a leverage to become his partner. Lili returns and gets a job with Matt’s Show without Toni knowing her identity. Neither Lili nor Matt realize that Tojo, the Clown, who knows her real identity, is a menace. In Vienna’s Prater Gardens, Lili’s identity and her husband's suicide is revealed to Toni by Tojo. Matt then forces Toni, heartbroken and hysterical, to listen to the truth . . . that Lili did not love her father and had begged him for a divorce. Suddenly, there are screams, ‘‘Fire! Fire!’’ Matt and the performers fight to save the Big Top. Toni and Lili climb dangling ropes together and, after helping to save part of the canvas, Toni turns to Lili and embraces her. Steve comes up, puts his arms around both of them, and Matt’s blackened face breaks into a smile. The next night, Matt’s show opens despite the fire. The packed house hears Matt Masters announce the new name of the Wild West Show—the Masters and McCabe Combined International Circus— and calls attention to ‘‘the two beautiful and brilliant ladies of the trapeze—Lili Masters and her daughter, Toni McCabe.”’ CAST et Wiaeinte ek. oA Re Re eo es JOHN WAYNE ee PN eG a ee CLAUDIA CARDINALE PN ee 3s i ee ee eed RITA HAYWORTH SONS, ea os Spee RN ee eaten LLOYD NOLAN TS oe re Lea RICHARD CONTE 2 Gy or Cie ener Wins mm ee JOHN SMITH INNS oes bes cde bw Sd ae we ow HENRI DANTES GE Oe OR a a hae Paar ee WANDA ROTHA 0 RR et arene gener carr meme ea et Ree a KATHARYNA RUNNING TIME: 131 MINUTES CREDITS Producer, Samuel Bronston; Director, Henry Hathaway; Executive Associate Producer, Michael Waszynski; Music by Dimitri Tiomkin; Screenplay by Ben Hecht, Julian Halevy and James Edward Grant; Original story by Philip Yordan and Nicholas Ray; Costumes by Renie; Edited by Dorothy Spencer. PARAMOUNT PRESS BOOK AND MERCHANDISING MANUAL John Wayne Blazes A Trail Across Europe In “Circus World” A Wild West Show Loaded With Action And Excitement From “The Big Trail,” to a western saga across half of Europe; that’s the star blazed trail of John Wayne, whose first real break was playing a rugged pioneer hero in a tale about the early American West. Although Wayne has taken time out for a change of pace from gunslinging roles to play a variety of parts, including a jet pilot, a seaman in O’Neill’s “The Long Voyage Home,” as well as a two-fisted fighting Marine, he’s portraying a different type of character in the new Samuel Bronston production, ‘Circus World,” a Paramount release which opens ...... Ente at the ..sk.cs-t. su peetre. As a wild western impressario, he’ll be seen riding hell-bent-forleather, since besides running a troubled circus through Europe, Wayne participates in bold and daring life-death clinches. Although the exotic European atmosphere is a departure from his more familiar characterization, Wayne nevertheless was not only enthusiastic about the Ben HechtJulian Halevy script, but also the fact that Henry Hathaway was set as director. Wayne and Hathaway had made two pictures together previously. “When an actor and a director have worked together, it makes things a lot easier,” Wayne observed. “We didn’t need to go through that difficult phase of getting used to each other. I didn’t have to get to know Henry’s directorial style; he knows my capabilities, and what’s really important,—how to get the most out of them.” Wayne, or “Duke,” as he is generally called, took a keen interest in every aspect of “Circus World,” including not only the casting of his co-stars, Claudia Cardinale, Rita Hayworth, Lloyd Nolan, Richard Conte and John Smith, but also smaller roles as well. An exceptional note goes to a young girl billed as ‘Katharyna,’ who plays a significant role of a wire-walker in the film. Wayne enthusiastically asserts, “We all felt that Katharyna has every chance of becoming a very important teen-age actress after other producers see her in the film.” Thus spoke the prophet as well as the actor, John “Duke” Wayne. Mat 1-B JOHN WAYNE plays coura geous Matt Masters in Samuel Bronston’s action-packed Wild West saga “Circus World,” a Paramount release opening .. a eeesie' at the ....... Theatre. Filmed in Technicolor and directed by Henry Hathaway, “Circus World” has a brilliant east including Claudia Cardinale, Rita Hayworth, Lloyd Nolan, Richard Conte and John Smith. Still # CW-7 Still # CW-160 Mat 2-A TWO GENERATIONS TAKE A BOW—Lovely Claudia Cardinale plays the daughter of equally glamorous Rita Hayworth in Samuel Bronston’s exciting Wild West adventure “Circus World,” a Paramount release which opens i ee eo BEPC sivciystevs one la oi. Theatre. John Wayne, always a man of action, does dare-devil stunts in this thrilling Technicolor production which leads the troupe half-way across Europe. Directed by Henry Hathaway, “Cireus World” also includes Lloyd Nolan, Richard Conte and John Smith as part of its brilliant cast. Have Elephant—Will Travel Is Key To Wild West Atmosphere In “Circus World” Around 216 B.C., Hannibal, the Carthaginian, crossed the Alps with 20,000 infantry, 6,000 cavalry and what amounted to a veritable battalion of elephants, to start the second Punic War against Rome. It was rough going, not only for the foot soldiers but for the cavalry and the elephants as well, through the Alpine pass. In 1963, an Army of a different kind crossed the Alps. They weren’t on the move to wage a war, but to lend men, equipment, and elephants to the making of a motion picture. This vast assemblage is the famous Althoff Circus, owned and directed by Franz Althoff, who had contracted with film producer Samuel Bronston for the use of his stellar performers, his menagerie, and thousands of tons of equipment for the making of “Circus World,” a Paramount release which opens pS ere at the=: 4.4. ..0. Lheatre: This recently completed film stars John Wayne, Claudia Cardinale, Rita Hayworth, Lloyd Nolan, Richard Conte and John Smith. After their final performance of the season, the Althoff Circus, bags, baggage, performers, equipment and elephants, all boarded a special 50-car express train from deep in the Austrian Alps; their destination, the port city of Barcelona. Having crossed the Austrian and Swiss Alps, the special crack train proceeded through the French Alps to Lyons, where it awaited a clear track for the long jump southwest across the Massif Central and along Mediterranean shores to the French frontier town of Cerbere. After border police and custom formalities were terminated, the Circus off-loaded and re-assembled on a narrow gauge Spanish train. From Port Bou, the train proceeded down the Costa Brava to its immediate destination, Barcelona, where the stars of “Circus World,” along with Director Henry Hathaway were waiting to greet them at the railroad terminal. Thus ended the longest circus haul in the history of the tanbark trail. Although the journey at times seemed somewhat tedious, still there wasn’t a man, woman, child —or elephant aboard, who would have traded places with Hannibal and his Army having to slog their way across the Alps inch by inch, and foot by foot! The Alps remain just as they were back in the days of the Roman Empire, but one thing has at least changed for the better. Even the pachyderms are able to travel in comfort these days! Copyright © 1964 by Bronston-Midway Productions. Permission granted for newspaper and magazine reproductions. (Made in U.S.A.)