Popular reviews

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  Review by Andy Summers 🤠 ★★½ 4

  Even when John Wayne wasn't starring in Westerns, he somehow managed to dress like just like one? Henry Hathaway's 1964 drama may well be called Circus World, but Wayne's character, don't you know it, just happens to be dressed head to toe as a Wild West circus star reminiscent of Buffalo Bill Cody. A film that cost a small fortune back in 1964, $9 million dollars, Hathaway brought together a starry cast to assist Wayne in bringing this circus film to fruition, and despite many scenes where it would seem we've literally just come to watch carnage and bad luck, something here just doesn't quite work?

  Wayne plays Matt Masters, who buys a bankrupt circus and turns it around over…

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  Review by C_elegans ★★★

  Western legend John Wayne dabbles in leading a circus and prefers to rescue his lions, while most of his employees still fight against drowning. The movie is circuslike lush but some of the sounds (especially the audience and animals' noises) did not age well. The artist family joining plot is quite foreseeable but it's good to see Cardinale, Hayworth and Wayne together on a film. Even if Hayworth's acting is very reduced and (despite the circus setting) Wayne is the same old patriachal cowboy as in so many other movies.

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  Review by Fint ★★ 3

  About an hour into this tepid tale of circus folk, Rita Hayworth finally appears and gives a rather touching portrayal of a washed-up, guilt-ridden former trapeze artiste. Director Henry Hathaway related later how the production had some problems with Rita's fondness for the bottle, which undoubedly adds to the poignancy of these scenes. Not long thereafter, she is embraced into the bosom of her circus family once again, and the acting honours transfer to her acrobatic body double.

  This Samuel Bronston production lumbers around like a performing elephant - impressive in scale, not exactly subtle in execution and lacking life behind those sad eyes. It was filmed at the Bronston studios in Spain and pesetas have clearly been pumped into…

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  Review by 𝑨𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒄𝒂 ★★★½

  underrated circus film.

  Happy birthday Rita Hayworth 🖤

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  Review by loureviews ★★★

  Shown on UK TV as 'The Magnificent Showman', this tale of the Big Top teams an ageing John Wayne and a matronly Rita Hayworth as veteran artists (she's a trapeze whizz, as you see with the help of a partly-convincing double) who'd been in love until her high-flying husband fell to his death and she ran away in guilt, leaving her daughter behind to be raised by Wayne. Claudia Cardinale plays the daughter, something of a spoilt brat, and I can't imagine for the life of me why she has such a strong accent, but let's suspend disbelief for a while.

  So the Duke meets up with the Lady again, and there's a bit of a shouting match between daughter,…

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  Review by Hugo ★★½

  Os números circenses e as duas sequências de tragédia são muito bem filmados, enquanto o arco dramático deixa a desejar.

  Para ler mais: cinema-filmeseseriados.blogspot.com/2023/11/o-mundo-do-circo.html

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  Review by JJ ★★★

  Way longer than it needed to be, but I liked it

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  Review by Christopher Lutz ★★★

  Probably the most difficult to track down John Wayne movie. Good thing we have YouTube for obscure movies that only unusual people like me want to see…

  While extremely bloated in it’s runtime (to the point where 30 mins could’ve easily been removed), Circus World, at least to this Wayne fan, is not the train wreck that it’s reputation suggests. For such a long film the plot is very basic and predictable for sure, but the spectacle of the circus that we got to see throughout was actually pretty entertaining in spots. John Wayne basically plays a down on his luck Buffalo Bill style circus owner. Seeing his character doing some trick shooting from atop a stagecoach and leading a cavalry charge made me wish Wayne had told a story about Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show instead. He would’ve been a great fit for Bill Cody’s persona.

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  Review by UltimateMovieRankings ★★★

  A John Wayne movie that I had not seen. In this one, Wayne plays the owner of a circus. The movie looks amazing. That is about the best part of the movie. Wayne is ok at best in this one. Rita Hayworth looks bored. The story is predictable. Many scenes are circus performances. After seeing this one, I realize why Circus World is rarely talked about, when discussing John Wayne movies. Final thought: Lucky to get an average rating from me...which means 3 stars.

  Ranked 82nd of 94 movies on our UMR John Wayne Movie Ranking Page. www.ultimatemovierankings.com/john-wayne-movies/

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  Review by Gunnar Syrén ★★★

  Samuel Bronston + Henry Hathaway + John Wayne = A great film, right? Well, that's what I thought when I went to see it the opening week in London in July 1964. Unfortunately it's not a great film. It's hardly even a good film. I wouldn't go so far as to say that it's a bad film, though.

  The main problem with this film is the script. Plus it's too long. It takes a good script to sustain a movie for 2 hours and 15 minutes. And with the exception of the fire sequence, this film is not very exciting. The capsizing of the circus ship is nicely done, but unfortunately comes off as rather unrealistic, I think.

  Several plot…

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  Review by QED ★★

  Also known as The Magnificent Showman this film from director Henry Hathaway stars John Wayne, Claudia Cardinale and Rita Hayworth. An American circus travels to Europe but suffers a disaster and has to rebuild.

  This film is pretty rough around the edges and could have done with trimming down in the running time to start with. The plot is not bad but does appear to leave some loose ends with respect to the motivations of one of the side characters. Obviously the main draw here are the circus acts which are decent but nothing that will take your breath away.

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  Review by 𝐉𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐬.🌙🤎 ★★★

  when rita hayworth finally showed up my heart went: 💕🥺💖💘😭🥰💗🤧❤