- For the MST3K production, see MST3KL - Circus of Horrors.
Circus of Horrors is a 1960 horror film directed by Sidney Hayers. It was used as an alternate feature in Mystery Science Theater 3000 Live - The Great Cheesy Movie Circus Tour.
Plot[]
In 1940s England, Dr. Rossiter is a plastic surgeon wanted by the police after an operation goes hideously wrong. However, believing himself to have brilliant abilities as a surgeon, he and his assistants evade capture and escape to the Continent. There Rossiter changes his name to Schüler, and befriends a circus owner on whose deformed daughter Nicole he operates.
Schüler manipulates his way into running the circus, taking it over when the owner dies in a "freak accident". A decade later, he is running an internationally successful circus, which he uses as a front for his surgical exploits. He befriends deformed women and transforms them for his "Temple of Beauty". However, when they threaten to leave, they meet with mysterious accidents which raise the suspicions of local police, who are soon on his trail.
Cast[]
- Anton Diffring as Dr. Bernard Schüler
- Erika Remberg as Elissa Caro
- Yvonne Monlaur as Nicole Vanet
- Donald Pleasence as Vanet
- Jane Hylton as Angela
- Kenneth Griffith as Martin
- Conrad Phillips as Inspector Arthur Ames
- Jack Gwillim as Superintendent Andrews
- Vanda Hudson as Magda von Meck
- Yvonne Romain as Melina
- Colette Wilde as Evelyn Morley Finsbury
- William Mervyn as Dr. Morley
- John Merivale as Edward Finsbury
- Peter Swanwick as Inspector Knopf
- Kenny Baker as Dwarf
- Walter Gotell as Baron Von Gruber
Notes[]
- The song "Look for a Star" became a hit for Garry Mills in Great Britain, and for Garry Miles in the United States. Tony Hatch wrote it under his regular pseudonym, Mark Anthony.
- Much of the action was filmed at Billy Smart's Circus, one of the three "big tent" circuses in the United Kingdom at the time. Many of the performers served as extras.
- External scenes were filmed on Clapham Common and at Old Amersham.
MST3K Connections[]
- Anton Diffring also provided the dub voice for Captain Von Schoenvorts in The Land That Time Forgot.
- Donald Pleasence also portrayed Prosser in Warrior of the Lost World and Kobras in The Pumaman.
- Yvonne Romain (Melina) also portrayed Marianne Horn in Devil Doll.
- Jim Brady (circus audience member) also portrayed a man in crowd in Gorgo.
- Reg Thomason (roustabout) also portrayed a mountain rescue stretcher bearer in The Crawling Eye.
- Kenneth J. Warren (first roustabout) also had an unspecified role in Beyond Atlantis.
- Producer Samuel Z. Arkoff was also executive producer for The Amazing Colossal Man, It Conquered the World, Earth vs the Spider, Teenage Cave Man, The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent, War of the Colossal Beast, Gunslinger, The Incredible Melting Man, Day the World Ended, Terror from the Year 5000, The She-Creature, Squirm, and At the Earth's Core, as well as producer for Bride of the Monster, I Was a Teenage Werewolf, Reptilicus, The Time Travelers, and The Land That Time Forgot.
- Composer and musical director Muir Mathieson was also musical conductor for Gorgo.
- First assistant editor Harry Ledger was also Visual effects production manager for Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars.