Circus of Horrors

1960

1h 29m

Horror

List

Reviews

43%

Audience Score

1,000+ Ratings

When one of his operations results in disfigurement, plastic surgeon Dr. Schuler (Anton Diffring) flees to France. After he successfully operates on young Nicole (Carla Challoner), her father, Vanet (Donald Pleasence), lets him join the circus he owns. Vanet dies and Schuler takes over, expanding his roster of performers with female criminals he operates on. If the girls try to flee, Schuler arranges for their seemingly accidental deaths during performances, drawing large, morbid crowds.

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Chris Alexander

Alexander On Film

The movie really works primarily because of Diffring's truly magnetic performance, a complicated turn that sees his Rossiter/Schuler veer between sympathetic and sociopathic.

Sep 22, 2018

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MFB Critics

Monthly Film Bulletin

A plot that only a very simple-minded sadist would take seriously sustains an anthology of gory killings and maimings.

Jan 26, 2018

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Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

Has some brilliant gory Grand Guignol moments during its circus sequences.

Rated: B

Sep 6, 2015

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David Nusair

Reel Film Reviews

...a tedious and downright worthless endeavor...

Rated: .5/4

Jul 3, 2011

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Audience Member

Joel and the Bots riffed this turkey about a Nazi plastic surgeon for the MST3K Great Cheesy Movie Circus Tour in Austin, and I think all involved would prefer to be crushed by a man in a bear costume than hear the dull dulcet tune of "Look for a Star" again. Cannonical score: 4.5/5 — "Twas the Temple of Beauty that killed the beast."

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/30/23

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bill t

Deliciously perverse film about a quack plastic surgeon who finds a cover in an old circus.. and hires deformed women, makes them beautiful, and forces them to work for him! It's ridiculous, bizarre, very colorful, and oh so much fun.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

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simon d

Not particularly scary, as you would expect from a title like this, but quite good nevertheless. The story is pretty good and the character interesting. For 1960 I'd go as far as to say the effects were quite impressive too.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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Audience Member

Ladies and gentleman, enjoy the horror show.. A Strange Undercurrent Of Sex And Grotesque Mutilation--Anton Diffring at his nastiest!!

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/22/23

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Audience Member

Ah Circus movies. Did you know one won best picture in 1953? That one was about The Greatest Show on Earth. This one is about the Jinx Circus, where fallen women, given a second chance, thanks to plastic surgery and blackmail, are murdered when the become engaged. Its weird that the ape really hates Dr. Schuler. Really strange. A lot of pre-Twiggy English ladies prance about in their panties. Which is nice.But I could not shake the uncanny resemblance btwn Anton Diffring and Wm. S. Buckley.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/16/23

Full Review

Audience Member

a plastic surgeon at a circus!??!

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/29/23

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Sidney Hayers

Director

Anton Diffring

Dr. Schuler

Erika Remberg

Elissa Caro

Yvonne Monlaur

Nicole Vanet

Donald Pleasence

Vanet

Jane Hylton

Angela

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Synopsis

When one of his operations results in disfigurement, plastic surgeon Dr. Schuler (Anton Diffring) flees to France. After he successfully operates on young Nicole (Carla Challoner), her father, Vanet (Donald Pleasence), lets him join the circus he owns. Vanet dies and Schuler takes over, expanding his roster of performers with female criminals he operates on. If the girls try to flee, Schuler arranges for their seemingly accidental deaths during performances, drawing large, morbid crowds.

Director: Sidney Hayers
Producer: Samuel Z. Arkoff
Screenwriter: George Baxt
Production Co: Lynx Films
Genre: Horror
Original Language: British English
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 1, 2018
Runtime: 1h 29m

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