Berserk!
Encyclopedia
Berserk! is a 1967 British
Technicolor
thriller film starring Joan Crawford
, Ty Hardin
, and Judy Geeson
in a macabre
mother and daughter tale about a circus plagued with murders. The screenplay was written by Herman Cohen
and Aben Kandel
, and the film directed by Jim O'Connolly
. Berserk! marks Crawford's penultimate big-screen appearance.
) and Dorando (Michael Gough
) own a traveling English circus. Monica acts as the ring mistress, and Dorando is the business manager.
When Gaspar the Great falls to his death, it appears that his tightrope might have been purposely weakened. Monica's unemotional reaction to the tragedy alarms Dorando. When she suggests it will be good for business, he asks her to buy him out, which she refuses to do. Monica hires a new high-wire walker, Frank Hawkins (Ty Hardin
). Not only is he handsome, he is daring as he does his act over a carpet of sharp bayonets. Monica is impressed, especially by his physical appearance. Shortly after an argument with Monica, Dorando is found gruesomely murdered. Suspicion of Monica's guilt grows and Frank in particular suspects her as he saw her leaving Dorando's trailer before Dorando was discovered. He confronts Monica with this information, demanding a share in the circus for his silence.
Monica's daughter, Angela (Judy Geeson
), having been expelled from school, shows up at the circus. Not knowing what to do with her unruly daughter, Monica pairs her with Gustavo the knife thrower (Peter Burton
). Another of the circus members is Matilda (Diana Dors
) who attempts to seduce Frank, which Monica discovers. During Matilda's act, sawing-a-woman-in-half, there is a malfunction in the equipment and she is killed. During his high-wire act, Frank falls onto the bayonets and is killed. It was not an accident. Angela was seen throwing a knife into him before he fell. Then she confesses she has hated her mother for years as a result being ignored and has been "removing" those who take up her mother's time. She then unsuccessfully tries to kill her mother. As Angela attempts to escape, she is electrocuted by an exposed wire during a rainstorm. Monica sobs inconsolably over her daughter's body.
, comparing it unfavorably to Circus of Horrors
, but also commented, "It's also hard to make a hopeless movie with a circus background and sawdust aroma. This is the one solid thing the picture has going for it—the intriguing workaday routine of circus folk and some good, spangly ring acts, all handsomely conveyed in excellent color photography. And under the reasonable direction of Jim O'Connolly, the film does project a kind of defiant suspense that dares you not to sit there, see who gets it next and, finally, why." He goes on to state that Crawford "...is professional as usual and certainly the shapeliest ringmaster ever to handle a ring microphone."
Frank Leyendecker in Greater Amusements wrote, "Joan Crawford gives authority and extreme conviction to the colorful role of a circus owner and ringmaster...she consistently rises above the highly melodramatic, yet exploitable, material."
Lawrence Quirk wrote in Hollywood Screen Parade, "[Crawford] is all over the picture, radiant, forceful, authoritative, a genuine movie star whose appeal never diminishes."
on September 6, 2011 from Columbia Classics DVD Collection. This is a Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) release, available online through Warner Archive Collection and ClassicFlix and only in the US.
Cinema of the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom has had a major influence on modern cinema. The first moving pictures developed on celluloid film were made in Hyde Park, London in 1889 by William Friese Greene, a British inventor, who patented the process in 1890. It is generally regarded that the British film industry...
Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
thriller film starring Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....
, Ty Hardin
Ty Hardin
Ty Hardin, born Orison Whipple Hungerford, Jr., is a former American actor best known as the star of the 1950s ABC western television series Bronco.-Early life:...
, and Judy Geeson
Judy Geeson
Judith Amanda "Judy" Geeson is an English actor.-Early life:Geeson was born in Arundel, Sussex, England on 10 September 1948. She came from a middle class family; her father edited the National Coal Board magazine. Her sister, Sally Geeson, is also an actress and is known for her roles in British...
in a macabre
Macabre
In works of art, macabre is the quality of having a grim or ghastly atmosphere. Macabre works emphasize the details and symbols of death....
mother and daughter tale about a circus plagued with murders. The screenplay was written by Herman Cohen
Herman Cohen
Herman Cohen was a producer of B-movies during the 1950s, who helped to popularize the teen horror movie genre with films like the cult classic I Was a Teenage Werewolf....
and Aben Kandel
Aben Kandel
Aben Kandel was an American screenwriter, novelist, and boxer. He was screenwriter on such classic B movies as I was A Teen-Age Werewolf, Joan Crawford's final movie Trog, and one of Leonard Nimoy's first starring vehicles, Kid Monk Baroni.Kandel had an earlier scandalous success with his gritty,...
, and the film directed by Jim O'Connolly
Jim O'Connolly
Jim O'Connolly was an English actor and director.-External links:...
. Berserk! marks Crawford's penultimate big-screen appearance.
Plot and cast
Monica Rivers (Joan CrawfordJoan Crawford
Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....
) and Dorando (Michael Gough
Michael Gough
Michael Gough was an English character actor who appeared in over 150 films. He is perhaps best known to international audiences for his roles in the Hammer Horror films from 1958, and for his recurring role as Alfred Pennyworth in all four movies of the Burton/Schumacher Batman franchise,...
) own a traveling English circus. Monica acts as the ring mistress, and Dorando is the business manager.
When Gaspar the Great falls to his death, it appears that his tightrope might have been purposely weakened. Monica's unemotional reaction to the tragedy alarms Dorando. When she suggests it will be good for business, he asks her to buy him out, which she refuses to do. Monica hires a new high-wire walker, Frank Hawkins (Ty Hardin
Ty Hardin
Ty Hardin, born Orison Whipple Hungerford, Jr., is a former American actor best known as the star of the 1950s ABC western television series Bronco.-Early life:...
). Not only is he handsome, he is daring as he does his act over a carpet of sharp bayonets. Monica is impressed, especially by his physical appearance. Shortly after an argument with Monica, Dorando is found gruesomely murdered. Suspicion of Monica's guilt grows and Frank in particular suspects her as he saw her leaving Dorando's trailer before Dorando was discovered. He confronts Monica with this information, demanding a share in the circus for his silence.
Monica's daughter, Angela (Judy Geeson
Judy Geeson
Judith Amanda "Judy" Geeson is an English actor.-Early life:Geeson was born in Arundel, Sussex, England on 10 September 1948. She came from a middle class family; her father edited the National Coal Board magazine. Her sister, Sally Geeson, is also an actress and is known for her roles in British...
), having been expelled from school, shows up at the circus. Not knowing what to do with her unruly daughter, Monica pairs her with Gustavo the knife thrower (Peter Burton
Peter Burton
Peter Burton was an English film and television actor born in Bromley, England. His biggest claim to fame is being the first actor to portray Major Boothroyd, better known as Q, in the first James Bond film, Dr. No...
). Another of the circus members is Matilda (Diana Dors
Diana Dors
Diana Dors was an English actress, born Diana Mary Fluck in Swindon, Wiltshire. Considered the English equivalent of the blonde bombshells of Hollywood, Dors described herself as: "The only sex symbol Britain has produced since Lady Godiva."-Early life:Diana Mary Fluck was born in Swindon,...
) who attempts to seduce Frank, which Monica discovers. During Matilda's act, sawing-a-woman-in-half, there is a malfunction in the equipment and she is killed. During his high-wire act, Frank falls onto the bayonets and is killed. It was not an accident. Angela was seen throwing a knife into him before he fell. Then she confesses she has hated her mother for years as a result being ignored and has been "removing" those who take up her mother's time. She then unsuccessfully tries to kill her mother. As Angela attempts to escape, she is electrocuted by an exposed wire during a rainstorm. Monica sobs inconsolably over her daughter's body.
Cast
- Joan CrawfordJoan CrawfordJoan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....
as Monica Rivers - Ty HardinTy HardinTy Hardin, born Orison Whipple Hungerford, Jr., is a former American actor best known as the star of the 1950s ABC western television series Bronco.-Early life:...
as Frank Hawkins - Diana DorsDiana DorsDiana Dors was an English actress, born Diana Mary Fluck in Swindon, Wiltshire. Considered the English equivalent of the blonde bombshells of Hollywood, Dors described herself as: "The only sex symbol Britain has produced since Lady Godiva."-Early life:Diana Mary Fluck was born in Swindon,...
as Matilda - Michael GoughMichael GoughMichael Gough was an English character actor who appeared in over 150 films. He is perhaps best known to international audiences for his roles in the Hammer Horror films from 1958, and for his recurring role as Alfred Pennyworth in all four movies of the Burton/Schumacher Batman franchise,...
as Albert Dorando - Judy GeesonJudy GeesonJudith Amanda "Judy" Geeson is an English actor.-Early life:Geeson was born in Arundel, Sussex, England on 10 September 1948. She came from a middle class family; her father edited the National Coal Board magazine. Her sister, Sally Geeson, is also an actress and is known for her roles in British...
as Angela Rivers - Robert HardyRobert HardyTimothy Sydney Robert Hardy, CBE, FSA is an English actor with a long career in the theatre, film and television. He is also an acknowledged expert on the longbow.-Early life:...
as Detective Supt. Brooks - Geoffrey KeenGeoffrey KeenGeoffrey Keen was an English actor who appeared in supporting roles in many famous films.-Early life:Keen was born in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, England, the son of stage actor Malcolm Keen. He was educated at Bristol Grammar School. He then joined the Little Repertory Theatre in Bristol for whom...
as Commissioner Dalby - Sydney TaflerSydney TaflerSydney Tafler , was a British film and television actor, first appearing in London's West End in 1936, after two years at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, with Sir Seymour Hicks in The Man in Dress Clothes....
as Harrison Liston - George ClaydonGeorge ClaydonGeorge Claydon was a British actor notable for his dwarfism. His television roles included that of Nikabrik in the 1989 BBC adaptation of Prince Caspian...
as Bruno Fontana - Philip MadocPhilip MadocPhilip Madoc is a Welsh actor who has had many television and film roles.One prominent role was the title character in the BBC Wales drama The Life and Times of David Lloyd George...
as Lazlo - Ambrosine PhillpottsAmbrosine Phillpotts-Selected filmography:* This Man Is Mine * The Chiltern Hundreds * The Franchise Affair * Happy Go Lovely * Mr...
as Miss Burrows - Thomas Cimarro as Gaspar
- Peter BurtonPeter BurtonPeter Burton was an English film and television actor born in Bromley, England. His biggest claim to fame is being the first actor to portray Major Boothroyd, better known as Q, in the first James Bond film, Dr. No...
as Gustavo - Golda Casimir as Bearded Lady
- Ted LuneTed LuneTed Lune was a British actor, best known for portraying Private Len Bone in the TV series The Army Game...
as Skeleton Man - Milton ReidMilton ReidMilton Rutherford Reid was an Indian-born English actor and professional wrestler. He was born in India, the son of a Scottish-born Customs and Excise inspector and an Indian woman...
as Strong Man - Marianne StoneMarianne StoneMarianne Stone was a British character actress. She appeared in many films from the early 1940s to the late 1980s...
as Wanda - Miki Iveria as Gypsy Fortune-Teller
- Howard Goorney as Emil
- Reginald MarshReginald MarshReginald Marsh may refer to:* Reginald Marsh , American painter most notable for his detailed depictions of life in New York City in the 1920s* Reginald Marsh , actor in many British sitcoms...
as Sergeant Hutchins - Bryan PringleBryan PringleBryan Pringle was a British actor who appeared in television, film and theatre productions.Born in Tamworth, Staffordshire but raised in the Lancashire town of Bolton he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. In 1958, he married character actress Anne Jameson; together they had...
as Constable Bradford
Reception
Howard Thompson gave the film a mostly negative review in The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, comparing it unfavorably to Circus of Horrors
Circus of Horrors
Circus of Horrors is a 1960 British horror film directed by Sidney Hayers. It starred Anton Diffring, Yvonne Monlaur, Erika Remberg, Kenneth Griffith, Jane Hylton, Conrad Phillips, Yvonne Romain and Donald Pleasence....
, but also commented, "It's also hard to make a hopeless movie with a circus background and sawdust aroma. This is the one solid thing the picture has going for it—the intriguing workaday routine of circus folk and some good, spangly ring acts, all handsomely conveyed in excellent color photography. And under the reasonable direction of Jim O'Connolly, the film does project a kind of defiant suspense that dares you not to sit there, see who gets it next and, finally, why." He goes on to state that Crawford "...is professional as usual and certainly the shapeliest ringmaster ever to handle a ring microphone."
Frank Leyendecker in Greater Amusements wrote, "Joan Crawford gives authority and extreme conviction to the colorful role of a circus owner and ringmaster...she consistently rises above the highly melodramatic, yet exploitable, material."
Lawrence Quirk wrote in Hollywood Screen Parade, "[Crawford] is all over the picture, radiant, forceful, authoritative, a genuine movie star whose appeal never diminishes."
DVD release
Berserk! was released on Region 1 DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
on September 6, 2011 from Columbia Classics DVD Collection. This is a Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) release, available online through Warner Archive Collection and ClassicFlix and only in the US.