Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Circus of Horrors Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson June 13, 2021

In a year when Peeping Tom and Psycho set a new bar for terror on the screen, another less publicized picture arrived from England's Amalgamated Studios. Circus of Horrors takes its cue from a sociopathic plastic surgeon who restores the disfigured faces of females, enrolls them in his circus troupe, and dispatches of them when they wish to leave or can no longer fulfill his romantic needs. The film opens in 1947 England where the once-beautiful Evelyn Morley (Colette Wilde) has removed her bandages prematurely following plastic surgery and is experiencing a nervous breakdown as she heaves things at her mirror. The unscrupulous plastic surgeon, Dr. Rossiter (Anton Diffring), didn't properly perform the surgery on Evelyn and is on the run from Scotland Yard. Police have set up a road block but that doesn't deter Rossiter from plowing his car right through it and killing a constable in his way. He pays a price, though, as the vehicle descends a mountain, injuring him. He gets out of the wreckage and straight to see siblings Martin (Kenneth Griffith) and Angela (Jane Hylton), who are his associates. The trio flee to France and notice a young girl named Nicole (Carla Challoner) along a country road. Nicole has facial scars and when asked how she sustained them, she replies when a bomb exploded around her school. (This may be a reference to the Nazis' aerial attack over Paris during the war. It was the subject of Clements's Forbidden Games [1952].) Nicole takes Rossiter and his two assistants to visit her popa, Vanet (Donald Pleasence), who operates a run-down circus. Rossiter indicates to Vanet that he can fix his daughter's face, which he does. Vanet is overjoyed and suggests to Rossister that they become co-owners to revive the dormant circus. Rossiter would never pass up an opportunity up like this. One evening an inebriated Vanet is walking with Rossiter when the former is attacked by a bear. The surgeon chooses to do nothing. Angela thinks they should tell the authorities but Rossiter, a fugitive in exile, wants to keep it a guarded secret.

The narrative flashes forward by ten years and to Berlin where Rossiter has changed his name to Schüler. Rossiter has been recruiting female prostitutes and criminals to perform in the circus. Many have facial disfigurements and scars, which Rossiter operates on so they entertain spectators as trapeze artists and horseback riders in the show. But mysterious "accidents" keep happening, causing Rossiter's circus to be named The Jinxed Circus. (The movie was photographed at Billy Smart’s Circus of England.) Arthur Ames (Conrad Phillips), an undercover inspector posing as a investigative reporter, snoops around the circus and begins interviewing the performers. Will Scotland Yard catch up to Rossiter's devious antics and deadly stunts on the ropes?

A surgery for the circus.

Anton Diffring built a career playing Nazis and he's in his element here, inhabiting a malevolent doctor with fascistic intentions. Rossiter/Schüler is a conniver, carouser, and narcissist who charms and lures the young ladies into his unsavory hands. Erika Remberg gives an effective performance as Elissa, a feisty woman who demands top billing in the circus show. Yvonne Romain is also quite good as Melina, who becomes a lion tamer. Overall, Circus of Horrors doesn't have a lot of subtlety but director Sidney Hayers maintains the suspense as both the circus crowd and the film's audience doesn't know if or how the next victim will bow out of the show.

Note: The picture was photographed at Beaconsfield Studios and on location in London and Buckinghamshire.

Circus of Horrors Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Scream Factory has brought Circus of Horrors to US Blu-ray on this MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50 (30.13 GB). The film's Eastmancolor photography, shot by Douglas Slocombe (Kind Hearts and Coronets; The Lion in Winter), appears in the aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Scream's packaging carries the Studiocanal logo and information courtesy of SC suggests that this transfer emanates from a 4K scan and restoration. The original camera negative still exists and was the basis for the restoration. Details on Anton Diffring's face are clear and apparent to this viewer's eye. The image sports a good texture (e.g., see Screenshot #16). Burgundy, pink, cyan, and green show excellent delineation. Very few film artifacts pop up. Scream encodes the movie at a mean video bitrate of 36000 kbps. My video score is 4.75.

The 92-minute feature is accompanied by twelve chapters.

Circus of Horrors Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Scream supplies a DTS-HD Master Audio Dual Mono (1572 kbps, 24-bit). The mix is clean but not being a native Brit, spoken words aren't always clear to my ears. The track is bereft of any hiss or background noise. Sound f/x, including the car careening off the cliff and diegetic music scoring the circus acts, sounds solid along the front channels. The musical number, "Look for a Star," is sung by Garry Mill and performed several times throughout the film.

Scream provides optional English SDH for the feature.

Circus of Horrors Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The extras on the 2001 Anchor Bay DVD have been retained on Scream's release. Studiocanal recorded a recent 20-minute interview with film historian Kim Newman and a 26-minute piece with author/broadcaster Stuart Maconie for the UK's SC Vintage Classics Blu-ray last year. That release contains a shorter image gallery than the one Scream includes here but has a longer trailer.

• Trailers from Hell with Commentary by Filmmaker John Landis (2:56, 1080p) - While Landis admires the photographic qualities of Circus of Horrors, he's not really a fan. Here he introduces the actors and describes their characters. He gives away some major story events so definitely give it a look after you've watched the film. In English, not subtitled.

• Theatrical Trailer (1:44, 1080p) - an original trailer for Circus of Horrors presented in 1.77:1. It's in relatively good shape but shows its age with dirt and thin vertical tramlines. It reveals some pivotal plot points so don't watch it until you've seen the movie at least once.

• TV Spots (0:42; upconverted to 1080p) - two original spots for Circus of Horrors that aired on TV in 1960. They're presented in grainy black and white.

• Still Gallery (3:50, 1080p) - a slideshow consisting of fifty-one images from the publicity campaign for Circus of Horrors. The first eleven images are glossy black-and-white stills taken from American International Pictures' press packet. The next six contain one color and five B&W snapshots, some of which are gory. The last thirty-four comprise poster sheets, lobby cards, and ads from US, UK, and foreign publicity materials.

Circus of Horrors Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's a good possibility that Christoph Waltz studied Anton Diffring's performance in Circus of Horrors when he prepared for the role of circus owner August in Water for Elephants (2011). Both Rossister and August share sociopathic tendencies. The plastic surgeon is arguably more of a misogynist but August is more clearly a zoosadist. Circus of Horrors was better and more entertaining than I thought it would be. I'd like to see a label release Horrors of the Black Museum (1959), which Amalgamated Studios also produced. Scream Factory delivers an outstanding transfer from the original camera negative and an above-average uncompressed monaural mix. The disc is skimpy on the extras so you may want to indulge yourself to Studiocanal's UK disc, which contains a couple good interviews. I would have relished hearing a commentary on both editions. A MODERATE RECOMMENDATION for Circus of Horrors.