"18 Minutes" is also known as "This Woman is Mine" and "King of the Circus" and is a very cheap British B-movie. I say very cheap because although the acting is good, as you watch the story, it's obvious they cut a few corners to save money. In particular, to have the lion tamer 'tame' a lion, he's CLEARLY superimposed across the picture...so obvious that it even looked very cheap back in 1935.
The story begins with Nikita the Fearless (Gregory Ratoff) working as a lion tamer at a circus. Two things soon happen to him...he adopts an orphan girl and raises her. He also buys a lion with a bad reputation...one that killed its previous tamer. The idea is that it will bring in tons of customers to know he's tamed a man-killer!
Years pass. Lida has grown into a lovely woman and men are certainly noticing her. Now here's where it gets a bit weird. Nikita marries his adopted daughter because he's jealous of these other men...plus, he's obvious got issues. She agrees to the marriage but it's obvious her heart isn't in it. Soon she meets a handsome man and he sweeps her off her feet...and it's NOT Nikita! What's this odd man going to do about this? Well, considering he married his daughter, you can only assume the worst with this strange, freaky man.
This is not an especially great film. The biggest problem with it, aside from the lion taming scenes, is that Nikita is practically impossible to like....not only because he has the hots for his daughter (I know...she's not biologically his...but this is still nasty) but because he's a bit of a jerk otherwise. As for Lida, she really doesn't have a lot of personality....like some sort of piece of toast. Unless you love circus-incest pictures, this one is easy to skip.
