Claysaba
Excellent, Without a doubt!!
Voxitype
Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.
Bergorks
If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.
poetcomic1
Anne Baxter is channeling her 'inner Joan Crawford' at every key scene of this lively B-Movie time waster. Carnival Girl Joan was a natural for this - a shame she was too old. Those looks of blazing hatred and the words Baxter spits out at Steve Cochran (when she's not grinding all over him) need some serious eyebrows and shoulder pads. To be honest I watched this from start to finish and never felt the urge to turn it off. Many a 'great' movie I've left half finished. This is pure B movie and certainly not great but the story hooks keep it moving from scene to scene. I should have seen the ending a mile away but didn't bother to look for it.That male high diving husband wore the CREEPIEST bathing suit I have ever seen on a man. I never saw the actor before but he was oddly sexless, effeminate and unsettling. There is one scene when he is having his blond locks lovingly styled by a midget that belongs in a Bunuel movie.
James Hitchcock
A "carnival" in British English is a procession through the streets accompanied by singing, dancing, eating, drinking, general merrymaking and dressing up in flamboyant costumes; London's famous Notting Hill Carnival is a good example. This film, however, is about a "carnival" in the American sense, that of a travelling funfair or circus. It is unusual in that it was produced by a major American studio (RKO Radio Pictures) with American actors but made in Germany by a director (Kurt Neumann) who was also making a German language version of the same story using German actors. It was originally intended to make the film as a 3D feature, but this plan was dropped, probably when the 3D craze ended as abruptly as it had begun. The "carnival" in question is an American travelling circus, touring Europe because there is too much competition in the States, which arrives in Munich. (You can tell that it's Munich because the local cathedral features in a number of shots, although the famous domes atop its twin towers seem to have been missing in 1954; possibly they had been damaged in the war). A local girl named Willie joins the show and is offered a job as assistant to Frank Collini, the high-dive artist. Exactly how Willie got her masculine-sounding name is never precisely explained, although it is always pronounced in the English way. When someone tries to germanicise it to "Villi" she corrects him. Frank trains Willie to become part of his act, which involves diving into a flaming tank of water from a great height. (I suspect that this detail was probably inserted to allow as many shots as possible of the lovely Anne Baxter in a swimsuit). The story is a melodrama based upon a love-triangle. Frank falls deeply in love with Willie, but she only has eyes for the handsome Joe Hammond, another carnival employee, even though Frank is decent and kind-hearted whereas Joe is an arrogant swine (or, in American usage, a "heel") who treats her badly. The film explores the complications arising from this triangle, including jealousy, theft, violence and a suspicious death. There is nothing particularly distinguished about "Carnival Story". Unusually for a crime drama from the fifties it was shot in colour, but the colours are rather dull and muddy. None of the acting contributions really stand out; at her best, as in "All about Eve", Anne Baxter could be a brilliant actress, but this is not one of her better films. The plot is little more than a standard melodrama, with the circus background and the German setting adding a touch of exoticism, at least for American audiences. It was obviously made on a relatively small budget and therefore lacks the spectacle of something like "The Greatest Show on Earth", Cecil B. DeMille's circus extravaganza from two years earlier. Neumann gets enough out of his cast to make the film watchable, but is perhaps not difficult to understand why it has faded into obscurity in the sixty years since it was made. 6/10
wes-connors
In Germany, beautiful homeless blonde Anne Baxter (as Willie) is taken in by scuzzy carnival worker Steve Cochran (as Joe). Ms. Baxter, with movie-star hair and make-up, is an atypical dirty waif. Mr. Cochran gets her a job serving freaky "Carnival Story" workers food and drink, after letting her wash up in his shower. "You wet all over?" Cochran asks. "All over!" Baxter replies. "I'll bet you taste clean," he says, before carrying her off screen. Conversations like this make this movie more fun that its worth.Due to the way Baxter moves in her underwear, high-diver Lyle Bettger (as Frank) invites her to join his act. Baxter becomes a carnival star with Mr. Bettger, but remains hooked on Cochran. When tall, dark and handsome photographer George Nader (as Bill) gets in the picture, Baxter may finally have more men than she can handle. Mr. Nader was a much-noticed newcomer, with 1954 "Photoplay" and "Golden Globe" awards. Watching Baxter juggle her male admirers is ludicrously silly fun from the 1950s.***** Carnival Story (4/16/54) Kurt Neumann ~ Anne Baxter, Steve Cochran, Lyle Bettger, George Nader
wilvram
A movie equivalent of one of those 1950s gaudy crime paperbacks, this low budget effort starts down a familiar path but is still able to provide its share of suspense and surprises.The lovely Anne Baxter, though a long way from ALL ABOUT EVE is an attractive heroine albeit with an accent that has a tendency to disappear at times. She obtains work in the carnival through Joe (Steve Cochran)whose pocket she has picked out of desperation and then becomes a partner of Lyle Bettger in a high-dive act. This is an intriguing start as Bettger often played sneering villains and Joe seems decent enough at first, though we soon learn that this is not the case. Steve Cochran was ideal in this sort of role.There is an incredibly similar sequence featuring a high-diver who jumps into a blazing tank in a section of the British film ENCORE, released two or three years before, which may have given the makers of this film some ideas.
