Tags:
Film: Berserk
Year: 1967
Director: Jim O’Connolly
Writers: Aben Kandel and Herman Cohen
Starring: Joan Crawford, Ty Hardin and Diana Dors
Review:
This was movie that I hadn’t heard of until looking for horror movies from 1967 as potential Summer Challenge Series picks for The Podcast Under the Stairs. What piqued my interest here was that this starred Joan Crawford. I also recognized the names of Diana Dors, Michael Gough, Judy Geeson and Robert Hardy. When I learned that it took place at a circus, I was intrigued even more.
Synopsis: a scheming circus owner finds her authority challenged when a vicious killer targets the show.
We start this at the circus from the synopsis. Our ringmaster is Monica Rivers (Crawford). She introduces her main event, which is Gaspar (Thomas Cimarro) doing a tightrope act. Things look to be normal until we see that the wire starts to snap. This results in him being hung in front of the crowd. Monica jumps into action to avoid panic.
What we learn then is that Monica has a business partner, Albert Dorando (Gough). He wants out though. Monica can’t afford to pay for him to leave and he knows it. These two might also be lovers. Their relationship is strained through years of working together though.
Monica also doesn’t waste time meeting with managers to find a replacement for Gaspar. This leads her to Frank Hawkins (Ty Hardin). He manages himself and he’s rough around the edges, getting into a tiff with a manager trying to represent him. Monica is intrigued by him and allows him an audition. Dorando isn’t a fan, but he doesn’t have much to say here.
The police rule what happened an accident. That’s not the case though when others are killed. The next victim is Dorando when a spike is driven into the back of head. With him gone, Monica can run this circus alone. Frank wants in on it though and seeing Monica is his way in. As more are killed, Scotland Yard gets involved. Superintendent Brooks (Hardy) is assigned to investigate the deaths. It gets even more complicated for Monica when her daughter, Angela (Geeson), is expelled from her boarding school. She wants to join her mother’s circus. The other members of her business don’t fully trust Monica. Matilda (Dors) especially believes that Monica knows more than she’s letting on and will tell that to anyone who will listen.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start is that this is interesting that I watched this around the same time as She Freak. Where that one was a remake of Freaks, this one is considered a remake of The Shadow. The trivia stated that this is closer to Circus of Horrors, which I have seen. Both this and that older movie use the same real circus as a backdrop and place to film. The only one on this list I haven’t seen is The Shadow currently. I guess that features a killer stalking in a circus as well.
Now that I’ve set that up, let me get into what we get for this movie. First will be the setting. I love the use of the circus for this. They are transient people. They tend to be filled out by criminals or those with less than savory backgrounds. I applaud them for giving these people jobs. I don’t like it if they commit crimes in the different cities though. This backdrop is also a problem I have. We have so many filler shots to showcase the circus itself. What I did like is that we never saw the same act twice, outside of Frank’s. Kudos there, but I wanted a bit less of the actual circus. It did well more than enough to set it up. It hurt the pacing for me.
Before getting into the negative there, this is a proto slasher in my opinion. We have someone killing certain people. Monica should be the prime suspect. It is her business partner, someone who talked out against her and other motives. As a seasoned cinephile, I briefly considered her but that also seemed too convenient. The different kills were good. Credit there. They were either with something circus related or themed around whatever their act was. My problem is with the reveal. It’s not that they couldn’t do it, it just felt a bit like a cheat. I did guess it was them when we got down to figuring out the killer so that slightly hurts this.
Let me go over to the acting which I thought was good. I’ve not seen a lot from Crawford at this time, but she was good here. I like seeing her as this cold woman who has a shrewd business mind. It is held against her and it shouldn’t be. She does have emotions though so she felt human still. I like Hardin as this rough around the edge performer. He has high hopes and uses Monica to help get him there. That also felt real. Dors and the rest of the performers were good. I like Gough in his role. It is fun seeing him as young as he is here. Other than that, Geeson was solid as Monica’s daughter who just wants to be part of her mother’s world. Hardy and the rest of the police officers worked as well.
All that is left then is filmmaking. I’d say that the cinematography was good. They were able to frame the kills in a way where we saw things, but not too much. I’d be fine going farther. This is 1967 so there’s that. I don’t love all the filler of the circus shots. Want to say that once more. I do think that slows the pacing down. The effects that we did get were fine. The soundtrack also fit what was needed.
In conclusion, there are good elements to this movie. I love using the circus for this story. My issue there is that we see too much of it. The acting is probably the next best part. Crawford leads the way with a solid cast behind her. I like the proto slasher elements. It would have been nice to see just a bit more there. I get why we don’t. This is still a well-made movie despite the issues I had. This is one that I’d recommend if you’re a Crawford fan. Want to see a solid circus horror movie or just like films from this era.
My Rating: 7 out of 10