Ouch! The bowling hand!
Trapeze (1956) is a reminder of another age of movie-making, when the pace of the story was more sedate, strong characters don’t always win, victories are tainted with costs, and virtually no one is content with their role in life. Young Tino Orsini has come to Europe to work with Mike Ribble, specifically, as a circus high flyer, to accomplish the dangerous triple for performance.
But Ribble has been crippled in a circus accident, and has little interest in working with Orsini, as he doesn’t want to endanger anyone else, and so he must be persuaded. Into the mix comes Lola, hungry to advance in her act, up the social ladder, and from tthese three an act is concocted. But the triple remains out of reach. Will one of them master it?
The charm is in the personal tensions and attention to detail: Ribble’s injury, Orsini’s family background as flyers all, Lola’s driving ambition. Indeed, surrounding them are other circus performers with their own agendas, and a circus owner with his own read of the situation. All of this gives this story a frisson of reality. This is no superhero flick, this feels like nitty gritty reality that may, at any moment, drop you from 50 feet up into a net that may, or may not, catch you.
Mesmerizing, if you permit it.
Recommended.
