VividSimon Simply Perfect

SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

bsmith5552 With the success of Cecil B. DeMille's "The Greatest Show on Earth" in 1952, it was inevitable that another circus themed movie would be made. John Wayne's Batjac company did just that. They produced "Ring of Fear" in the newly introduced CimemaScope and glorious color.The Clyde Beatty Circus is at the forefront of the film showcasing not only Beatty's prowess in the lion cage but many of the acts in his show as well. The story is about a homicidal maniac Dublin O'Malley (Sean McClory) who escapes from a mental hospital. He murders a guard and then a railway worker whose clothes he takes before pushing the man's body in front of a train with the hope that he will be identified as O'Malley thus diverting attention away from himself.O'Malley heads for the Clyde Beatty Circus where he had been before "going away". He had been in love with aerialist Valerie St. Denis (Marian Carr) who has since married Armand St. Louis (John Bromfield) a fellow trapeze artist. O'Malley enlists the help of a drunken clown with a past, Twichy (Emmett Lynn) whom he blackmails into staging "accidents" within the circus.Beatty brings in crime novelist Mickey Spillane to find the source of the circus' problems. He in turn brings in Jack Stang a detective posing as a magazine writer to assist him. Circus manager Frank Wallace (Pat O'Brien) keeps the show running while coordinating the detective work (and acting).O'Malley has gotten back into the good graces of Beatty who hires him as the Ringmaster. All the while O'Malley is plotting his revenge on both Valerie and Beatty. When Twichy threatens to go to the police, O'Malley murders him. When Spillane and Wallace suspect O'Malley, the mad man is forced into the open. He unlooses a tiger and...............................................................................The circus sequences are entertaining and Beaaty's lion taming show is quite good. As actors, Beatty makes an excellent lion tamer and Spillane a great mystery writer. Acting cudos go to the veteran O'Brien ion one of his signature wise guy roles and "B" western sidekick Lynn as the boozy Twichy. McClory is also good but tends to go over the top at times. He was, by the way, a member of Ireland's Abby players and can be seen in John Ford's "The Quiet Man". Pedro Gonzoles-Gonzolez is along for comedy relief and watch for Ken Tobey as a circus worker.Long time John Wayne associates James Earl Grant directed and actor Paul Fix co-wrote the screenplay.And incidently, did anyone else see the resemblance between Clyde Beatty and TV star Don Adams (Get Smart)?

Neil Doyle While RING OF FEAR may not qualify for Best Film of the Year (as DeMille's circus epic did), it is a colorful and fast moving story of life under the big circus tent, whereby an ex-employee returns to his old job seeking vengeance on none other than CLYDE BEATTY and intent on evening the score for an ex-girlfriend who married another man (JOHN BROMFIELD). Beatty's lion-taming act is fascinating to watch.The film's main purpose seems to be in showcasing the circus life, the roustabouts setting up the tents, the training of wild animals (and I do mean wild), the petty arguments among the trapeze artists and other performers, and all of it supervised by a caustic manager (PAT O'BRIEN) in the sort of brassy wise-guy role he could have performed in his sleep. For added interest, there's a laid-back performance from MICKEY SPILLANE as himself, helping O'Brien solve the case of the psychopath bent on murderous revenge, who is hiding out in the traveling circus.SEAN McCLORY is guilty of overacting in many a scene but he does create a fascinating offbeat character as the madman who has escaped from confinement and is intent on revenge. The last fifteen minutes of the film contain more suspense and excitement than deMille managed to do in his lengthy, pretentious Oscar-winning epic THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH.Summing up: Not masterpiece theater as far as acting and script are concerned, but interesting enough as a suspense tale played against a colorful circus background, to maintain a reasonable amount of interest.

bkoganbing After Cecil B. DeMille's extravaganza, The Greatest Show On Earth came out, he showed Charlton Heston a review from a paper and told him it was the greatest review he will ever have as an actor. The reviewer remarked at what a great performance DeMille got out of the circus boss. Of course Charlton Heston wasn't CHARLTON HESTON back then.What John Wayne and partner Robert Fellows did instead of getting actors hired a couple of real people to play themselves, Clyde Beatty and Mickey Spillane. Good thing these two did not attempt to create a character and just played themselves.Clyde Beatty, jungle cat trainer extraordinaire, just isn't and actor. The poor man looked very embarrassed indeed. My guess is that he wanted to publicize his circus in the way that Ringling Brothers had their circus publicized by DeMille. I'm sure that is the genesis of Ring of Fear. Beatty had played himself before in the Abbott&Costello film Africa Screams. There like here his dialog was kept to a minimum.When you've got a string of unexplained accidents at the circus, what do you do, but hire a mystery writer to solve the crime. That's what Beatty does, his circus boss played by Pat O'Brien gets Mickey Spillane obviously thinking he's really Mike Hammer. Fortunately what Spillane does is get a real detective to do the actual work.Like The Greatest Show on Earth, Ring of Fear has a psychotic doing all these dastardly deeds. Sean McClory steps into the able psychotic shoes of Lyle Bettger. Bettger's psychosis however in the other film was only part of that plot. Here the suspense is killed rather early when you know right away that McClory is the bad guy.In his memoirs The Wind at my Back, Pat O'Brien took time to thank John Wayne for this part. His career was in doldrums at the time and O'Brien was grateful for the part. He certainly out acted his two co-stars.The circus acts are entertaining, they're the best part of Ring of Fear. John Wayne later on appeared in a circus film of his own, Circus World, that director/writer James Edward Grant did the script for him. That Cinerama epic, unfortunately ran into an unforeseen problem. The re-release of The Greatest Show On Earth.

django-1 Well, say what you will about RING OF FEAR, it's certainly a novelty. First of all, the real "Star" is the Clyde Beatty Circus, which couldn't have purchased better advertising than this beautifully shot color and cinema-scope production, half of which must be the circus's best acts. A psycho is at loose in the circus, so the great crime writer Mickey Spillane, playing himself, is called in to investigate! Spillane himself calls in for a fellow investigator to help, and that guy poses as a magazine reporter. Pat O'Brien plays the manager of the circus, and Clyde Beatty himself also appears and does a number of lion and tiger-taming routines. Irish actor Sean McCrory, in an over-the-top performance, plays a one-time circus employee who became a stalker of a lady working at the circus and escapes from a mental institution to re-join the circus (and this is NOT a spoiler--all this is shown in the first few scenes), where he's accepted back as ringmaster. There's even comedy scenes with Batjac Productions regular Pedro Gonzalez-Gonzalez! My favorite scene is one where Mickey Spillane shows up at the circus and runs into the uncredited comic master Vince Barnett, who is reading Spillane novels on the job all day and explains to Spillane himself how his productivity has gone down so much due to Mick's novels! Mick then produces his newest one, hot of the press, and hands it to Barnett, who almost salivates over it! There's not much "mystery" here since we know exactly how each crime is committed, and we only get to know about a half dozen employees of the circus at all, so obviously the suspect pool from which Spillane and assistant have to choose isn't really that large. No, what makes the film entertaining is the circus setting, the idea of Mickey Spillane playing himself, and the colorful performances. Pat O'Brien (no relation to the bar or the TV gossip host) could play a role like this in his sleep, but he still has the gruff authenticity that makes him so watchable and loved by audiences for decades. Spillane comes off as an amiable and sarcastic yet tough guy. Sean McCrory, the "human star" of the film (the circus itself being the main star), chews the scenery and one wonders how ANYONE would not instantly think he was guilty of SOMETHING. This film will no doubt get a large audience through its being included in the new box set JOHN WAYNE'S SUSPENSE COLLECTION, which contains four Batjac Productions (see also my review of MAN IN THE VAULT, also in the package). It's a fascinating curio that's worth watching once, and may have some camp appeal for future viewings. As a Spillane fan, I'm happy to see the master in anything, so I may well watch it again. The transfer is superb on the DVD with rich colors and fine widescreen composition. One can only imagine how beautiful and awesome the circus scenes were on a large 1950's movie screen.