Circus Girl
Cast & Crew
John H. Auer
June Travis
Robert Livingston
Donald Cook
Betty Compson
Charlie Murray
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Bob McAvoy and Charles Jerome are the star trapeze artists of the circus owned by Jesse Roebling. Both Bob and Charlie are in love with Kay Rogers, who is training to join their act. Charlie is a philanderer, however, and is carrying on an affair with Carlotta the lion tamer while he woos Kay. Charlie and Kay are secretly married, and Bob is furious when he finds out. Angry over Charlie's treatment of Kay and Carlotta, Bob starts a fight with him and receives a bad cut over his eye. Later, the blood from the cut blinds Bob as he and Charlie perform, causing him to drop Charlie. The fall breaks Charlie's shoulder, and although he recovers, it is clear that he will never be able to perform again. Believing that Bob dropped him on purpose, Charlie plans his revenge. He pretends to forgive Bob, then teams him and Kay in a new act and becomes their manager. After Bob and Kay have been training together for a few weeks, Charlie realizes that Kay is in love with Bob, and his bitterness grows. Charlie decides to dispose of his rival during the new finale that he has convinced Bob and Kay to perform. In the finale, Bob is to swing, without a safety net, over the open top of a cage of lions. Just before the performance, Charlie tampers with Bob's rigging, and during the act the weakened rope breaks just as Bob is over the lions. While he hangs on one rope, Kay swings out on her trapeze to try to save him. When it appears that Kay is also going to fall, Charlie swings out on another trapeze. Just as Charlie is about to drop Bob deliberately, Gabby Clark, one of the barkers, throws Bob a line. Bob swings to safety, and Charlie falls to his death in his own trap. Free from Charlie's vengeful presence, Bob and Kay make plans to marry.
Director
John H. Auer
Cast
June Travis
Robert Livingston
Donald Cook
Betty Compson
Charlie Murray
Lucille Osborne
Donald Kerr
Emma Dunn
John Wray
John Holland
Kathryn Sheldon
The Escalante Family
Crew
Charles A. Browne
Adele Buffington
Adele Buffington
Ray Culley
Eloise
Harry Grey
Terry Kellum
Nat Levine
Jack Marta
Ernie Miller
Lester Orlebeck
Bradford Ropes
Herman Schlom
Murray Seldeen
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title of this film was Without a Net. According to a Hollywood Reporter news item, June Travis was borrowed from Warner Bros. for the production. Willard Robertson was originally scheduled to play "Jesse Roebling," but had to be replaced by John Wray when he was needed by Warner Bros. The Variety review noted that the "cat sequences look like Mabel Stark of the Al G. Barnes show, although unbilled." A May 12, 1937 Hollywood Reporter news item stated that Marion Orth had filed a $10,000 suit against Republic, which she claimed had stolen the title of her book Circus Girl. According to the news item, Orth had submitted the book to Republic for consideration, then refused to let the studio use the title when it did not want to buy the book. Republic then announced the impending production of a film entitled Circus Lady, but changed the name to Circus Girl after Monogram bought a magazine story by the same name. The news item stated that Orth was currently at Monogram working on the screenplay of Circus Lady, which May have become Monogram's 1938 release Under the Big Top (see below). The outcome of the suit has not been determined.
