The Magnificent Showman Reviews

This enormously entertaining big-top saga features John Wayne as a circus owner whose business faces an endless variety of crises. Begun as Circus World by director Frank Capra, the film was then entrusted to the much more suitable Henry Hathaway, who makes the lengthy tale race by in a jiffy. On the big screen the climactic fire and the capsize of the circus ship (special effects by Alex Weldon) were amazingly effective and, even if the scale is inevitably diminished on TV, the excitement and tension remain. And what other movie features Rita Hayworth and Claudia Cardinale as mother and daughter, each one constantly trying to upstage the other?

This enormously entertaining big-top saga features John Wayne as a circus owner whose business faces an endless variety of crises. Begun as Circus World by director Frank Capra, the film was then entrusted to the much more suitable Henry Hathaway, who makes the lengthy tale race by in a jiffy. On the big screen the climactic fire and the capsize of the circus ship (special effects by Alex Weldon) were amazingly effective and, even if the scale is inevitably diminished on TV, the excitement and tension remain. And what other movie features Rita Hayworth and Claudia Cardinale as mother and daughter, each one constantly trying to upstage the other?