Watch Trapeze For Free

Please don't spend money on this.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

It's mighty hard to fit a three-ring circus within the confines of a postage-stamp screen. Cecil B. De Mille tried it with "The Greatest Show On Earth". I always had the feeling that something far more exciting was happening in the out-of-focus background or in the out- of-sight wings than the tin-pot drama unfolding within view.I was right. It took CinemaScope to fully uncover the thrills and excitement a circus has to offer. Mind you, CinemaScope in the eyes of an unimaginative director has little impact (don't see "Ring of Fear"). But in the hands of a great storyteller like Carol Reed, and with the talents of superb stylists like photographer Robert Krasker, composer Malcolm Arnold, and art director Rino Mondellini fully utilized, CinemaScope delivers a mighty punch. In the main, I thought the actors handled their chores engagingly and with charismatic aplomb. With one exception, they all made the script — clichéd though it may have been — come alive for me. That exception was Gina Lollobrigida who played the silly dialogue with far more seriousness than it deserved. But aside from her soap opera posturings, the acting was generally well-judged. Both Lancaster and Curtis, who often seemed to be doing their own stunts, came across appealingly, and there were some attractive portrayals from the support cast — from Thomas Gomez, Katy Jurado, even Minor Watson, and most notably from Johnny Puleo as the dwarf.

TrapezeThe best thing about being a trapeze artist is you're safe when the circus elephants stampede below.But, as this drama demonstrates, there are plenty more dangers under the big top.Aspirant high wire aerialist Tino Orsini (Tony Curtis) heads off in search of an injured trapeze legend Mike Ribble (Burt Lancaster) so that Mike can teach him the deadly triple-somersault routine that nearly ruined him.But Tino is not the only performer interested in Mike's attention as an attractive tumbler (Gina Lollobrigida) joins the ranks and drives a jealous wedge between Tino and his mentor.Needles to say, this love triangle begins to affect their precarious performance.Despite its capable male leads, exciting backdrop and array of aerial feats, this sluggish melodrama never gets off the ground thanks to its lacklustre script and amoral leading lady.Furthermore, I always thought injured circus performers were fed to the clowns.Yellow Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

Carol Reed, an English filmmaker, made such an outstanding magnum opus that it left his other films into oblivion many of which are still hiding somewhere. The Third Man (1949) might just be the most famous film-noir ever made and the most iconic film of the Cold War. Even though his other films aren't as good, they're at least fairly interesting. Although, many of Reed's films won awards at several festivals, he never achieved the same fame he did with The Third Man. However, its success was somewhat paradoxical: because it did rise him to the world of cinematic auteurs and gave him the possibility to achieve almost anything but, on the other hand, it was such a masterpiece which was almost impossible to overcome. Therefore, his other films are quite unknown, just like Trapeze even though it won an award at the Berlin Film Festivals and has got quite a cast.It's a story about an ambitious beauty (Gina Lollobrigida) who stirs up trouble between two male trapeze stars. One of them is a youngster (Tony Curtis) who wants to become the greatest aerialist in the world. But only one man can teach him the hardest trick; an older aerialist (Burt Lancaster) who has hurt himself in an injury and has been left alone by an old lover of his. It is a story about disintegration but it leaves on a happy note.To put it briefly, Trapeze is a circus melodrama about a love triangle, with some homo-erotic tension between Curtis and Lancaster who starred together one year later in a crime classic Sweet Smell of Success (1957). Although, at first Trapeze feels a little too schematic and conventional, it grows out to be quite a mature interpretation of the choice made between love and art. Even if the set-up is quite juvenile and built on clichés and conventions, Trapeze is still extremely well directed and filmed -- especially the trapeze sequences with Wagner's music on the background. To my mind, it is a fascinating look at the eternal contradiction between art and entertainment.

Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis and Gina Lollabrigida star in "Trapeze," a 1956 film directed by Carol Reed and also starring Katy Jurado, Thomas Gomez and Johnny Puleo. Lancaster plays a former trapeze artist turned rigger, Mike Ribble, working in a Paris circus. A once great artist, he is grounded due to a permanent injury while doing his famous triple. He is approached by Tino Orsini (Tony Curtis), a talented aerialist who wants to learn the triple. Ribble sees the man's talent immediately, takes him on, and agrees to be his "grabber," the man who catches him mid-air. Problem arise when the beautiful, seductive user Lola (Gina Lollabrigida) who plays both men in order to be part of the act.Director Reed gives the viewer the vivid experience of working in the circus and the resulting pressure cooker of relationships. The trapeze work is glorious, and there is plenty of it.Lancaster has the major role, and he gives an excellent performance as a man with no illusions who, through Tino, dares to dream again. His muscular build is shown to great advantage as well. Curtis is excellent as the young, ambitious Tino who falls hard for Lola. Lollabrigida is gorgeous and sexy as the alluring Lola - she does a good job, but really, all she has to do is stand there and she IS the role. The supporting cast is solid, including Katy Jurado as an ex-girlfriend of Mike's and Thomas Gomez as the owner of the circus.I don't have any figures, but I suspect this film was a big hit. It led to another Lancaster-Curtis collaboration, Sweet Smell of Success, so for that reason alone, it would be worth it. However, Trapeze flies on its own merits.