An adventurous large-scale attempt to rival Hollywood, this is based on the novel of the same name by Lady Eleanor Smith, the source of the Gainsborough melodramas 'The Man in Grey' and 'Caravan' both of which share some basic elements with this, including a reflection of her lifelong interest in Gypsies - whom she romanticised in her work - not to mention romance and the odd whipping too. She was also an expert on the circus world, of which she was a great advocate. Austrian émigré Paul L. Stein, BIP's most prestigious director along with Hitchcock at the time, though later forgotten, generally does an impressive job including making use of the English countryside.
At the centre of a sprawling story is Joe Prince and his life, from losing both parents as a young boy during a riot at a circus in America, running away as a teenager in England to join another circus, becoming a renowned horse rider, then circus owner, falling for feisty 'big cat' tamer Greta Nissen, prior to an unhappy marriage to a temperamental gypsy, Raquel Torres, finally finding happiness when all seems lost. You have to accept that embodiment of the English bloke Jimmy Hanley morphing into all American Charles Bickford, but Joe has spent a considerable part of his life in the States and it seems to work. There are the usual rivalries, jealousies and intrigues, including an attempt at sabotage by a rival owner, played by the young Francis L. Sullivan. A memorable scene sees this usually urbane figure swapping punches in an all-out scrap with Bickford. Even more eye-opening is the adroitly edited episode with the whip-wielding Greta Nissen doing her stuff in a cage with a group of ferocious tigers. Even as someone whom has always disliked the use of animals in circuses, I can't really agree with the comment that the scenes were excessive, and don't think many would find them too upsetting.
