SUPERNATURAL THEATER: CIRCUS OF FEAR, FIVE GOLDEN DRAGONS, & TEN LITTLE INDIANS

BLOG ENTRY # 9 ----- CIRCUS OF FEAR, FIVE GOLDEN DRAGONS, & TEN LITTLE INDIANS-----Supernatural Theater showcases THREE FILMS PRODUCED BY
HARRY ALAN TOWERS.

Harry Alan Towers was a film producer in London that produced 100 films in his long career. Also notable, that he wrote 59 of those films under the name Peter Welbeck. I picked three of my favorites to write about here. He began in radio, served the RAF in WWII, moved to early British television, then made his name in feature films. In 1964 he met his love of his life, Maria Rohm. She acted in many of his films, and they were married till his death in 2009.
Many of his films still have cult status today, and are popular around the globe.

CIRCUS OF FEAR
PSYCHO CIRCUS
RIDDLE OF THE SILVER TRIANGLE

Starring CHRISTOPHER LEE, LEO GENN
Anthony Newlands, Margaret Lee, Heinz Drache, Suzy Kendall, Maurice Kauffman,
Cecil Parker, Victor Maddern --- With Eddi Arent and Klaus Kinski

Directed by John Moxey
Produced by Harry Alan Towers
Screenplay by Peter Welbeck (aka. Harry Alan Towers)
Music by Johnny Douglas
Released by American International Pictures in the US.
England ---- 1966

Early on a weekend morning a daring robbery of a van full of bank notes takes place on Tower Bridge in London. The gang begin their escape to a waiting boat below by rope from the bridge. One of the gang members named Mason, over reacts.
He shoots and kills one of the guards that attempts to escape.
The criminals flee down the Thames as the opening credits begin to roll.
Jackson, the gangster overseeing the robbery, gets a call at the river hideout from the real boss.
He reports that they succeeded, but Mason panicked and shot one of the guards.
Jackson's told to have Mason take a suitcase full of loot, buy a car and ditch it, then go to the Old Farm in Windsor. Mason does what he is told because he thinks he will get help to get out of the country. The boss is a smart planner, but he did not plan on Mason killing a guard. Mason finds the farm and a darkened storage building of circus items, along with a caged lion.
A bright beam of light hits Mason's face.
It's me, with the money.
He gets his escape, by a knife thrown into his back. Bye Bye Mason.
The boss now has the loot, hiding himself and the money with the Barberini circus.

The police send Inspector Elliot to investigate (Leo Genn), because some of the bank notes were passed in a local bank, and department store. The money came from the Barberini circus.
We meet various odd ball circus characters to create some old fashioned red herrings.
Murders ensue! And a British film classic begins!

Gregor, the lion tamer, scarred years before by a renegade lion. He must hide behind a mask.
Christopher Lee proves again, he's one of the great actors. He created a memorable film character by only using his eyes, and his fantastic deep voice.

Anthony Newlands as Barberini, the owner of the Circus of Fear.

Leo Genn as Inspector Elliot of Scotland Yard (where else?).
The ringmaster is played by an Edgar Wallace series star, Heinz Drache.

German Edgar Wallace film star, Heinz Drache plays Carl, the circus ringmaster .
He's secretly looking for the killer of his father at the circus.---- Is it Gregor?

Gina is the beautiful girlfriend of the circus knife thrower Mario.
Is Mario the boss of the gang, and a killer? Nah, just a red herring.
(played by Margaret Lee and Maurice Kauffman)

We learn that Gina is cheating on Mario. And she's seeing someone from the circus.
After love making, and a smoke, she bumps into a secret cabinet door and reveals
circus throwing knives with a certain triangle insignia.
She is unaware that she is the mistress of the real criminal mastermind
that is the boss of the gang that did the Tower Bridge robbery.
He is the son of the Great Daniello, a famous circus knife thrower of long ago.
Gina doesn't realize that she now know's too much.
Later that evening, the lion cage gets unlocked, and a killer lion almost gets Gina.
Gregor comes to her rescue.

Inspector Elliot wants to interview Gina about the incident.
The police find Mason's body on the circus property. Elliot & Gina see the knife.
And the triangle insignia.
As you know in mysteries, when you know who the killer is, it's your turn to go.
One of those sharp knives winds up in Gina's back.
Poor Gina.

Pretty Suzy Kendall as Natasha, the daughter of Gregor. She's a lion tamer like her Dad.

Suzy Kendall's known for To Sir With Love, Bird With the Crystal Plumage, & Torso.

Klaus Kinski as Manfred Hart, one of the gang, looking for his cut of the loot.

Ok, Klaus Kinski gets extra space on my blog, since he's so great, especially in his dying scenes. The knife throwing killer gets one in his heart, then falling with the circus mask. Just find me a character actor like him in today's films. ---- Lotsa luck. Klaus was the coolest!!!

Christopher Lee masked & unmasked.

People said he was badly disfigured by a rebel lion years ago.

Another mystery was solved when we see him normal after taking his mask off.

The man hides his true identity behind it, and from a long ago crime in Africa.

Gregor also found the loot from the robbery hidden in his storage area.
He wanted a fresh start for Natasha and himself, so he hid it other places.

The killer boss lost his loot, so he had to stay at the circus to find it.

Gregor attempts an escape from the police through a nearby woods.

The stolen money in the suitcase.

Lee's sympathetic character comes to a fall. Killed by the unknown boss.

This film had a strange, original release in America.

The original British version was in Eastmancolor, and ran about 90 minutes.

It was released in the US in Black and White, and then horribly cut down to 65 minutes creating a choppy, uneven plot.

Plus American International Pictures changed the title to Psycho Circus.

Now add on another strange thing. A.I.P. released this on Philadelphia & New York TV,

about the same time as theaters, and had it back to the original title, in full color,

and the original 90 minute running time.

The poster below, had the "In Color" covered up.

One thing to note in the Times Flies Department. During the Thames robbery sequence in the beginning. Keep an eye out to see the shoreline of warehouses and docks lining up along the Thames back in 1966. Now it's lined with office buildings, high rise dwellings, and tourist attractions. I just love London!

Skip Martin as Mr. Big. He heard many secret things.
Making money on the side by blackmail.

Inspector Elliot asks a old local barman if he has seen the missing gang member Mason.

"Oh yes....... I remember him........a teetotaler."

Another great comic relief actor, from the Edgar Wallace series is Eddi Arent.

Eddi's about to get the knife himself. Or will he??? Part of the climax of this big top thriller.

Eddi is the bookkeeper for the circus. But he really wants to be a clown.

You have to have love interest. Carl & Natasha have the hots for one another.

Carl confronts Gregor about his Dad's murder.

Eddie's about to get a close shave.
Spoiler Alert ----- Now we know who the boss is!
Eddie says he made fools of all of you!

Lovely Margaret Lee in pin-ups below.

I can't help it. I've been a big Margaret Lee fan since the sixties. Whether she plays a good or bad girl, she was great in many roles through the 1960's & 1970's.

She starred in many of Towers' films.

Nice production shot of 3 great character actors, Kinski, Arent, and Newlands.

The pretty & talented Suzy Kendall below.
She also co-starred in one of my favorites---- Dario Argento's first Giallo feature,
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (from 1969, starring Tony Musante).

Original artwork from the Italian & German release.
It's advertised as an Edgar Wallace Superkrimi.
A different director is credited, and supporting character Heinz Drache, given the lead billing.

It was not based on a Wallace novel as far as I know.
Harry Alan Towers wrote it under his normal pseudonym, Peter Welbeck.
Spanish theater ad below.
Plus British artwork from the original release, printed in the British Quad poster from 1966.

MY RATING ----- A MINUS (Minus a few characters killed off)

This has been one of my big favorites since I was a kid.

I first saw it on New York's Channel 9.

Then I got hooked on film. I mean real film.

My hobby for 49 years was collecting 16mm film prints (features, TV shows, cartoons, & shorts). Over those years, I had about 4200 films all together.

From the 60's to 80's, thousands of films were sold off, destroyed, reclaimed for silver content, or just dumped in the trash. Tons & tons of films were lost.

Film collectors bought the available ones up, and we enjoyed running them in our own homes. Video tape for home use came later.

I have written about watching 16mm films here on my blog. Check it out.

Way back in 1973, I was lucky to get an ex-TV print of COF from a big film dealer in Texas.

For a long time, American International Pictures that released COF, dumped a lot of their titles. In the 70's, when Color TV's became the relacement for Black & White sets, film companies dumped their B&W titles, then had to keep coming out with more & more color titles to satisfy the added TV watching demand.

Then a new little thing started --- Home Video.

In 1989, my old TV color print (90 minute) was used for a master transfer for VHS.

Recently a gorgeous DVD release of COF from the original negative is out. Yay!!!

But I was happy, in my small way, to help out with saving it, way back when.

This film was sold on Super 8 film for home use in Europe.

This home version was just 25 minutes long.

When you watch Circus of Fear today, try to keep of all our new technology out of your mind. Things were very simple in 1966.

The Tower Bridge robbery if done today, would be foiled in 3 seconds with traffic video cameras, alarms, and cell phones. Swat teams would sweep the circus compound quickly.

So the movie would be over in about 4 minutes instead of 90.

So use your imagination, and go back in time to 1966.

Have some popcorn, a cold one, and simply enjoy.

Thanks to Harry Alan Towers !!!

2 pages of the original Pressbooks for theater advertising.

Then the US Presbook.

The cover page of the original script by Peter Welbeck below

(aka. Harry Alan Towers). Notice the crossed out "terror" in the title.

American one-sheet poster.

******************

FIVE GOLDEN DRAGONS

Starring--- Bob Cummings, Margaret Lee, Rupert Davies, Maria Perschy,

Sieghardt Rupp, Maria Rohm,

and Klaus Kinski.

Guest Stars---Christopher Lee, George Raft, Dan Duryea, & Brian Donlevy as the Dragons

Directed by Jeremy Summers

Produced by Harry Alan Towers

Screenplay by Peter Welbeck (Towers)

This Harry Alan Tower production is a Golden Turkey! It's soooo bad, it's good!!!

Should have been on Mystery Science Theater 3000, so the boys in the future could tear it apart. But it's a favorite of mine since 1967.

Bob Cummings, the over the hill actor with a tiring smile, plays Bob Mitchell, a chewing gum salesman & playboy visiting Hong Kong. Nah, that's his stupid cover. He is really a way too cheerful secret agent looking for the Five Golden Dragons, a criminal organization. The Dragons are rich industrialists that are dabbling in international crime. They are not known to each other (how is that possible?) and are about to have their first meeting. They are Duryea, Donlevy, Lee, and George Raft (with a violin/ machine gun case yet). The fifth member will show up soon. And they invest tons of money together?

Maria Perschy and Maria Rohm are lovely sisters Margaret and Ingrid, that attempt to escape the clutches of the Dragons. They enlist the dubious aid of Bob Mitchell to save them. He says yes, cause they look great in bikinis. You know someone will get bumped off cause this is a
60's silly comedy-thriller.

Sexy Margaret Lee plays Magda, a singer and cohort of the gang.

And my favorite, Klaus Kinski as Gert Aberdine, a chain smoking, wacko Dragon henchman.

Will the police stop the evil Dragons?
Will George Raft play the violin or use a machine gun?

Will Bob Mitchell save those two pretty girls?
Will we get hungry for Chinese by the middle of the picture?

Will we stay awake for the end of the movie?

The suspense is gripping!

Beautiful Maria Perschy as Margaret, being hunted by the sort of evil, Five Golden Dragons.

Sappy Bob Cummings being seduced by the sexy Magda, played by Margaret Lee.

Margaret Lee sings two songs in the film, including the title song, during the nightclub sequence. Pretty good too. Sultry voice.

The crooked nightclub owner Peterson, was played by Sieghardt Rupp.

Best known to international audiences for being a bad guy against Clint Eastwood in

A Fistful of Dollars (from 1964). Rupp's career spanned 72 movie & TV roles.

C'mon Bob, get a grip. Your nervous zipping "up" a dress on sexy Magda?

The 2 Maria's enlist help from Bob Cummings poolside.

Who would say "No" to them? Maria Perschy sees the note that Bob gets with a

3 word mysterious clue -- Five Golden Dragons.

Maria Rohm & Maria Perschy escaping the evil baddie, Klaus Kinski & his henchmen.

Margaret found Bob. He finds out she's escaping the Dragons.

Sadly, they catch up to her.

Christopher Lee as one of the master criminal group, the Five Golden Dragons.

Lee is probably the most prolific starring actors in film today. Has over 300 acting credits, and is still acting at 91. Famous for his Dracula, Frankenstein, Sherlock Holmes, Fu Manchu, and Man With the Golden Gun film roles. One of the all time greats !!!!

The German poster release.

Klaus Kinski playing another great weirdo named Gert. Being nasty to Maria Rohm above, and about to chase the sisters through Hong Kong harbor below. Yes, Gert is a chain smoker.
Klaus always gets a good death scene in movies. This time, strangulation.

While being chased and tormented by the baddies, Ingrid (Maria Rohm) just has to go water skiing in her lovely bikini. Of course the bad guys swoop in by boat to pick her up.

I mean I love bikini scenes, but this was soooooo dumb even in 1967.
But Maria makes it all worth while.

The film opens with a rotund man being chased, & sending a note to Bob Mitchell saying only one thing,"Five Golden Dragons". Big clue. Then he attempts to escape by going to the highest floor (what?). A cheap skinny stuffed dummy falls to the ground. Oooops.

Rupert Davies playing Commissioner Sanders, and Roy Chiao, playing Chiao.

Hot on the trail of eeeeeeevil.
They even question poor Ingrid.

The finale of Five Golden Dragons. It's a great cure for insomnia.

MY RATING ------ D (for Delightfully Dumb)

This saving grace of this movie are the exotic Hong Kong locations, 3 beautiful women, and some great character actors including Kinski, Rupp, & Davies. Casting Cummings as the hero was the mistake. Cummings' over the hill clowning hurt the film. Good light hearted actors have handled action for years, like Jean Paul Belmondo, Eddie Constantine, and Michael Caine to name a few. With a bit of work on the script, and a better lead, this could have been a winner.

Wide screen Region 2 DVD's are out now, with a beautiful color transfer.

VHS tapes still around, mostly at garage sales in the US. Streaming is available.

For me, I'll just keep my 16mm film print.

Shots of Maria Perschy and Maria Rohm.

"Tiny trivial trivia question"

What's different between the title card at the beginning of this article, and this one above?????

Answer--- This one is from the original release in glorious Technicolor & Techniscope

wide screen. --- The one above was from the TV release, with washed out Color by Pathe.

Hey, I told you it was trivial.

** UP NEXT here at SUPERNATURAL THEATER**

AGATHA CHRISTIE'S

TEN LITTLE INDIANS

Starring OLIVER REED, ELKE SOMMER,

Sir Richard Attenborough, Herbert Lom, Adolfo Celi, Gert Frobe, Stephanie Audran,

Alberto de Mendoza, Maria Rohm, with Charles Aznavour

And the ominous voice of Orson Welles

Directed by Peter Collinson

Produced by Harry Alan Towers

England ---- 1974

THEY WERE ALL INVITED TO A PARTY.... BUT WAS REALLY AN INVITATION

TO A MURDER..... THEIR OWN !!!

Love that catchline.

Harry Alan Towers must have really loved this Agatha Christie tale, or got a hell of a deal on the rights to film it. Film it he did, three times in fact! 1965 with Hugh O'Brien & Shirley Eaton, then this version shot in 1973, and his final one in 1989.

And Then Their Were None was the original novel published in 1939. It brings ten strangers together for a party in a desolate location. They want to meet their host, Mr. U.N. Owen, since their invitations mention a good reason for each to meet him for the first time.

The characters include his new secretary, a playboy, a hired detective, a movie star, a doctor, an ex-judge, a retired general, a popular singer, their cook, and butler.

Just as they settle in for cocktails before dinner, a recording booms through the room.
The voice of their host accuses each of them to a brutal crime, and that they have escaped justice. So far.

(The ominous voice belongs to Orson Welles)

These guys were very, very baaaaad.

They realize that the name U.N. Owen really means unknown, and that he must be hiding somewhere. They were brought there under false pretenses, huh?

And since it is a "classic who done it" ------ Murders start. One at a time.

Below, Elke Sommer and Oliver Reed. Plus Maria Rohm and Alberto deMendoza.

Filming of this version was not in a studio, but on location in a plush hotel in IRAN called the

Shan Abbas Hotel. Iran then was in the pre-revolution era, before their international troubles started. This hotel gives this version a fabulous overall look of opulence with classic styles of the middle east. Looks much better than the average studio on film.

To me, a perfect location for a who done it.
And the characters are trapped there, with more than a hundred miles of desert all around.

One Sheet poster from the US --- Style "A"

Elke and Oliver lead the great international cast. --- Can Elke be the killer host?

Another example of this hotel being a great setting for this film.

The Style B version of the US one-sheet poster.

At dinner, Vera remembers the old children's tale of 10 Little Indians. And it comes true.

Ten Little Indians as a table centerpiece. After each murder a figure is broken off & removed.

The fine international cast --------

Elke Sommer as Vera Clyde, the secretary

Oliver Reed as Hugh Lombard, the playboy

Herbert Lom (Pink Panther) as Dr. Armstrong

Sir Richard Attenborough as Judge Cannon

Gert Frobe (Goldfinger) as Detective Blohr

Adolfo Celi (Thunderball) as General Salve

Stephanie Audran as Ilona Morgan, the actress

Charles Aznavour as Michel Raven, the singer

Alberto De Mondoza as Otto, the butler

and Maria Rohm as Elsa, the cook

Who is the killer? Who will make it till the end?????

Yugoslav & Italian posters.

Original Lobby Card set from the US release.

Interesting artwork from Thailand.

The butler Otto is fed up with this group, especially after his wife goes missing.
Elsa's found below ---- strangled.

Original reviews of this were really mixed. I've always enjoyed it, and I still have a 16mm
film print of it after 35 years.

The actors live up to the characters they portray. All show one thing missing in other versions of the story --- fear. Plus it was great to see some great character actors together in one film.

The music by Bruno Nicolai adds to the suspense when needed. Nicolai should be familiar to European film fans. He was the conductor for the famous Ennio Morricone for years,
and also composed film scores of his own.

French singing star, Charles Aznavour, besides being the first to get bumped off, sings 2 songs, including his big hit, The Old Fashioned Way. A great song, but the orchestra sounds strange
when it's just him at the piano in the film.

The director, Peter Collinson had a steady hand in this, especially filming far away in Iran.
He proved himself a good location director previously in the very famous, now classic 1969 version of The Italian Job, starring Michael Caine and three fast Mini Coopers. His career ended way to early at 44, when he passed away with lung cancer. A good talent still missed.

This is a tough one to find in America, since it only had a VHS release years ago. If you see a tape of it, grab it. Europe has a good DVD release of it (Region 2). Avco Embassy originally had the theater & TV distribution in the US. Unfortunately, I haven't seen it on TV in years.
Glad I saved a good film print of it.

MY RATING ------ B MINUS (MINUS A FEW CHARACTERS BUMPED OFF)

This fabulous hotel made set design easy, and it was great to look at on film.

Dr. Armstrong discovers Ilona, after her and her Teddy Bear's demise.

(Herbert Lom and Stephanie Audran)

After having a stiff glass of milk, Vera and Hugh search to unravel the mystery.

The Doctor got it. Now it looks like Vera has the upper hand.

The end for Hugh???

Will Vera have the last shot???

Who's left alive before the end credits???

Remember this is classic Agatha Christie. Surprises to the last!

Excellent music by Bruno Nicolai, who was the primary conductor for countless film scores of Ennio Morricone. --- Nicolai has had a pretty good solo career too.

Artwork for the French release above, and the British release below, under
the original title from the book.

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