The Main Attraction

Handsome drifter, able crooner and guitar player and pursued for a murder he didn't commit, gets involved with pretty young circus girl as they brave an avalanche in the Italian Alps. I was unprepared to be as charmed by this candyfloss feature as I was. God know there's not one iota of bad-guy in Pat Boone who tries hard to fit the picture of insolent masculinity and act the cad. Someone who sings 'Amore, baciami' with honeyed tones such as his is not destined for evildom. If it comes your way, watch it by all means, it's not half bad.

TMA is stupid film about stupid people living stupid lives for stupid sake.

I don't know why this one has such a low score. For starters you have a horse kick its legs to jazz rhythms. And Pat Boone is actually pretty good. He has a sort of presence, he's attractive, he looks like he's having fun. They all look like they're having fun. The film is kind of campy in its own way. With this cast it can't be helped. There's lots of sex, implied of course. Neither Mai Zetterling nor Nancy Kwan are shy about pouring it on and it's fun to watch. Especially Mai although Nancy Kwan can be sensuous as well. It's hard to imagine Pat Boone as a hard-nosed vagabond but he gets a lot of help from his costars and eventually we accept it. Both he and Nancy Kwan are athletic. It looks like it's really him some of the time on the trapeze. It's obvious that's her somersaulting and jumping on and off the horse, not a double. And there's real chemistry between them. It's too bad Yvonne Mitchell doesn't have much more to do but what she does have she does well. She's the icing on the cake. Kieron Moore is very good as her husband. This is an actor who can be really passionate and his character has real pathos. Granted, the story is not the greatest but it's good enough, there's plenty of good lines and enough action to move it along and keep us entertained. So, overall, it's much better than its score would have you believe. In fact I'd say it's good enough for a second or third look. It's just plain fun.

The movie begins with a scene where Boone is crooning a syrupy tune with the audience paying no attention,till one of the guests tries to teach him his own song.There's a similar scene in one of Presley's early movies.

Pat Boone was a safe alternative to the fifties Elvis and his only good movie was the tremendous "Journey to the center of the earth" (1959). This one is pleasant ,mainly in its first part ,more boring afterwards even though it features a relatively smart "unexpected end" .

The main attraction of the circus is a lovely girl, Tessa ,who does very dangerous things.But pretty boy Eddie is aging alcoholic ventriloquist Gina 's partner and gigolo and she is not prepared to accept a rival.And ,to make the matters worse,Tessa's brother -in -law propositions her.

The second part takes place -we did not notice it in the circus scenes- in a chocolate box Austria where everybody speaks English ;it even includes the Bundesheer (two soldiers) and an avalanche,which makes the movie a disaster flick as well as a musical or a sentimental story.

Pat Boone attempts a serious performance in this otherwise insipid circus melodrama with romantic underpinnings, its story culminating in a silly avalanche sequence which adds not excitement but only melodrama to the mix. Surly American troubadour, traveling the world with his guitar after getting fired from every job he's ever had, winds up singing in Italy where he's discovered by a female ventriloquist employed by the circus. Big Top nonsense (with a scenario oddly similar to Elvis Presley's later "Roustabout" from 1964) quickly gives way to a heightened ridiculousness as Boone thinks he's killed a man and hightails into the Italian Alps with smitten Nancy Kwan in tow. British production has good color photography but no discernible style, not to mention some of the laziest circus acts of all time. Kwan, struggling to mount a running horse, gets one of many unintentional laughs; Boone is in fine, clear voice and lends the movie any vitality it possesses. *1/2 from ****