COOL FLICKS : Man on a Tightrope (1953)

As a companion piece to my review/contrast of Neil Paterson's novella Man on the Tightrope and Elia Kazan's movie Man on a Tightrope (note the subtle difference of the indefinite and definite articles in the two titles) I am putting up this 8 minute section of the film. It occurs at the start of the movie and shows some nicely done scenes of the circus life and the performers, the rocky relationship between March and Grahame as husband and wife, and Cernik's arrest by the Czech police

The entire film is available at YouTube in fourteen parts. You might also find it at your local video store. It's been released as part of a DVD collection made up of 18 films -- both well known and obscure -- from Elia Kazan's long career. The films have been selected by Martin Scorsese, one of Kazan's greatest admirers, who I believe provides commentary on many of them.





NOTE: The large policeman who catches the beach ball in the clown act scene and has no lines is played by Gert Fröbe who will later become very famous as Goldfinger in the James Bond movie.