Berserk ** (1967, Joan Crawford, Ty Hardin, Diana Dors, Michael Gough, Robert Hardy, Geoffrey Keen, Judy Geeson, Philip Madoc, Sydney Tafler) – Classic Movie Review 3255

Joan Crawford came to England in 1967 f­­or her penultimate movie Berserk to play Monica Rivers, the owner and ringmaster of a struggling circus enjoying the fame and renewed success arising from a series of nasty big-top murders. There’s quite a lot of fun to be found in this mostly silly, occasionally gruesome horror mystery thriller.

Ty Hardin (TV’s Bronco) is the imported American beefcake as Frank Hawkins, the high-wire act who steps in after the circus’s original performer is hanged by his wire in the opening murder. Michael Gough gives a ripe performance as Albert Dorando, the circus’s administrator and Crawford’s confidant.

Robert Hardy gives a briskly fussy turn as Detective Superintendent Brooks, the over-well-dressed Scotland Yard inspector sent to the north of England by top cop Commissioner Dalby (Geoffrey Keen) to the British travelling circus to investigate. Judy Geeson plays Crawford’s teenage daughter Angela Rivers, chucked out of school for girlish indiscipline.

Even in these reduced circumstances and in the most unflattering of costumes, Crawford struts commandingly as the show’s MC and eminence grise.

Jim O’Connolly directs reasonably efficiently with attention to trying to create as many shocks as possible, while Desmond Dickinson’s cinematography keeps the star in bizarre lighting shadows – mostly across her neck – which succeed only in making her look even stranger and older than she was.

In her 60s (she’s 62), the leotarded Joan shows off her fine pair of legs, as does co-star and fellow old trouper Diana Dors, typecast as Matilda, the tarty wife of foreign circus act Lazlo (Philip Madoc, fighting a losing battle with his Welsh accent).

Movie Queens: Joan by Graeme Jukes.

Although the film takes place at The Great Rivers Circus, there are several breaks in the story for lengthy extracts from the real Billy Smart’s Circus, including the lion-training, elephant-riding and poodle-preening displays, plus one break for a novelty musical number. The elephants’ head-dresses bear the initials BS for Billy Smart’s Circus not GR for The Great Rivers Circus!

Even given the script’s lousy dialogue by producer Herman Cohen and Aben Kandel (both credited for original story and screenplay), there are several really ripely bad performances in what adds up to an amusingly bad movie.

Also in the good old cast are Sydney Tafler, Marianne Stone, Peter Burton, Thomas Cimarro, George Claydon, Howard Goorney, Reginald Marsh, Bryan Pringle and Ambrosine Phillpotts.

Crawford was early on set every day to make breakfast for crew members. She supplied her own wardrobe, apart from the leotard, designed by Edith Head. And she changed some of the dialogue because it was too British for her – ‘solicitor’ became ‘attorney’. Like her final film, Trog (1970), which also co-starred Gough, she made it as a favour for her producer friend Cohen.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 3255

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