El circo fantasma

...which is set in the Communist-ruled Czechoslovakia of 1952. Fredric March owns a small-time circus, except that now it's been taken over by the state, which wants to micromanage everything, right down to the clown acts. March and his performers want to escape across the border to part of Germany controlled by the Americans.

The film was shot in Bavaria, which is a big plus. The gritty, run-down circus atmosphere is nicely caught. We can see that although this is hardly a first-rate outfit, it still provides needed entertainment and escape for those who watch the show. As one might expect, the Communists have spies in the circus, and March doesn't know who to trust. His daughter (Terry Moore) has the hots for a young roustabout (Cameron Mitchell) who seems to have come from nowhere. His wife (Gloria Grahame) has the Gloria Grahame thing going on of despising her husband and looking around for someone to betray him with (Richard Boone seems a likely prospect). Betrayal is one of the big themes of the film. Even the Communist officials are looking for ways to betray each other.

This is one of my favorite Fredric March performances, particularly from this part of his career. Among a number of strong supporting performances by men, Adolphe Menjou stands out as a Communist official who sees March as dangerous precisely because he is an honest man. Menjou has remarkable presence every moment he's on screen.

Kazan gave a lot of credit to his producer, Gerd Oswald, and his cameraman, Georg Kraus. It's a solid film, and I look forward to seeing it again.