Tarpeze - 1956
Cats: Set Your Recorders, Romance, Drama|This was a picture that was very close to Burt Lancaster’s heart. As a kid growing up in East Harlem, Mr. Lancaster became far beyond proficient on the parallel bars, the rings and other sorts of gymnastic equipment. He was so good in fact that he did runaway and join the circus along with neighborhood pal Nick Cravat. A few years later he is on Broadway were he is seen by the right people and the rest is history. Mr. Lancaster worked out on the bars for years, maintaining his physique.
One of the great circus pictures of all time. Shot in beautiful technicolor on location at the Cirque d’Hiver in Paris, the picture has some of the most exciting trapeze scenes ever put to celluloid. The story is simple. Mike Ribble (Mr. Lancaster) was once a legendary trapeze artist until an injury sidelined him. He was also one of the only trapeze artists ever to complete a triple somersault. Tino (Tony Curtis) wants to get in on the act and convinces Mike to teach him the “triple”. The problem is not a busted net but that they are both in love with the same woman (Gina Lollobrigida). That could lead to some serious conflict, not a good thing high up in a circus tent.
Mr. Curtis and Mr. Lancaster did their own trapeze work. Gina did not. This is the second picture that Mr. Curtis and Mr. Lancaster appeared together in but the first in which they had dialogue. Mr. Curtis, who in 1949 was known as Anthony Curtis, danced with Yvonne DeCarlo in one scene in Criss Cross. Mr. Curtis and Mr. Lancaster followed up this collaboration with Sweet Smell Of Success a year later.
Safe for the kids but although the trapeze scenes are exciting, the conflict between the two men might bore younger viewers.
November 20th at 6:00PM on Turner Classic Movies
