REVIEW: PHANTOM DES GROSSEN ZELTES/PHANTOM OF THE BIG TENT (1955) - A delightful re-discovery

 

Unavailable in any form since it's original theatrical run in 1955, PIDAX delightfully offers us a decent HD scan of a good print. The production company back then was the ALGEFA which was founded in 1935 and was able to produce their light entertainment pictures basically unbothered by both Nazis and Allies. Combining the  talents of Paul May (director of Scotland Yard vs. Mabuse) and Egon Eis (writer of basically all early RIALTO EDGAR WALLACE MOVIES) and featuring future HEXER/RINGER Renée Deltgen as well as Angelika Hauff whom we know of 1944s FREITAG DER 13. / FRIDAY 13th. 

One of the many disguises

Based on a book by Egon Eis, this is a mix between Phantom of the Opera and the Edgar Wallace movie CIRCUS OF FEAR/DAS RÄTSEL DES SILBERNEN DREIECK (1966). 

The story: Italy during WWII: Two friends: Rossi and Capelli do not only share a Circus but the love for the female animal tamer Dolores (Ilse Steppat from MADELEINE 13 62 11). Rossi has a daughter and is looking for Dolores to become his wife and her mother. Capelli however, has an affair with Dolores and knowing that Rossi is about to marry her, locks her in her circus caravan and rapes her. At that point, Rossi's daughter is attacked by one of Dolores' lions and her father is killed by that lion in the attempt to rescue her. Also at that point, an allied bomb raid takes place and lots of wounded men are hospitalized with the doctors not being able to save him.

Dolores leaves Capelli and the circus (to got to Brazil for a while - in a clever meta commentary about the 3rd Reich being basically a circus) while Capelli adopts the daughter, changing her name from Lilli to Lolita. 

10 years have passed and the circus now returns to the place of the "accident". Dolores also returns from Brazil and Lolita is quite happy in love with a French trapeze artist. Sooner than later "accidents" happen and a "Phantom" is being seen. The French lover of Lolita turns out to be married and in a very clever montage, the Phantom is able to make Capelli the main suspect. The clown Naso shows up and soon becomes Lolita's elderly friend. 

Angelika Hauff who had just become a naturalized Brazilian,

returned to Germany for this role.

If you know your krimis, you know exactly where this will end, but at that point, only the Phantom half of the plot was already known to the audience, so the story  must have been good entertainment in that department.

If a movie like that (basically THE German Krimi of the years up to the RIALTO EDGAR WALLACE wave in 1959) had not been accessible for a long time, the fear exists that it is not good, just an  oddity and basically not worth rediscovering.

I would not go as far as calling it a classic, but to Krimi-connoisseurs, this is a highly satisfying movie.

 Shot at CCC-Studios in Berlin we get everything: Stark expressionism, lots of Film Noir moments and the first sign of the humor that would later be essential to Krimis (Ralf Wolter, the Sam Hawkins of the Winnetou movies provides comedy). 

At 100 minutes, the movie tends to go slow with lots of shots of animals or circus attractions. However, clever set-pieces and a quite terrifying phantom do offer enough to keep you entertained. So far, this is the most noirish German Krimi I have seen. Everyone's broken here and they do not hide it. They just keep going. 

Pushing the envelope in 1955, we get a bold nude scene of Angelika Hauff with her French lover (none other than Howard Vernon!!) and some decent suspense-sequences.

The Phantom, doing hard promo work in the streets of Frankfurt, 1955

The movie was not a success. Although backed by COLUMBIA, aside from France, no other major markets were interested, proving to the sceptics that German crime-films just were not "delivering".

Little did they know.

Ah yes. It looks like this is the first Killer-Clown movie ever. And certainly not one of the bad ones!