Carnival Story (1954)

Best movie ever!

Absolutely Fantastic

A Masterpiece!

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Anne Baxter is channeling her 'inner Joan Crawford' at every key scene of this lively B-Movie time waster. Carnival Girl Joan was a natural for this - a shame she was too old. Those looks of blazing hatred and the words Baxter spits out at Steve Cochran (when she's not grinding all over him) need some serious eyebrows and shoulder pads. To be honest I watched this from start to finish and never felt the urge to turn it off. Many a 'great' movie I've left half finished. This is pure B movie and certainly not great but the story hooks keep it moving from scene to scene. I should have seen the ending a mile away but didn't bother to look for it.That male high diving husband wore the CREEPIEST bathing suit I have ever seen on a man. I never saw the actor before but he was oddly sexless, effeminate and unsettling. There is one scene when he is having his blond locks lovingly styled by a midget that belongs in a Bunuel movie.

This movie is mostly just a sordid wallow, but features some good actors who at least are watchable. The turgid melodramatic plot is set in effective circus/carny atmospherics. It has some tense moments, mainly due to the dangerous stunts and to the clawing (if predictable) emotions of the lead characters. Anne Baxter does a good job portraying a beautiful gold-digger in post-war Germany. Steve Cochran is very believable as a smarmy heel/conman/thief. You won't care about the characters, but together the lead actors manage to steam up the story enough to keep it interesting. Otherwise this movie doesn't have much to offer except for some good color filming and excellent nighttime photography.Baxter has the usual potboiler dialog along the lines of "I'm no good for you", "I'm just rotten", etc. but she really can play this type of over-dramatics as well as any actress.If you want to wallow for a while in a shallow, steamy potboiler for strictly entertainment purposes, this movie is for you. Enjoy it, just don't expect a classic.

No - that's not my opinion of the movie -- but a possible alternative title. Cecil B's classic a couple of years earlier caused a resurgence of movies with Circus/Carnival themes. To me this movie comes across almost as a knock-off. They even cast Lyle Bettger. It's as if GSOE had been rewritten as a Harlequin paperback.Personally - - if I want a more or less serious circus movie - I'll watch the classic. - if I want a light formula romance with a circus theme - I'll skip ahead a few years and catch Roustabout.Still - as mentioned by others - anything with Anne Baxter is definitely worth a box of popcorn and a couple of hours out of your life.

The believable atmosphere and some moments of real tension, along with Anne Baxter's starring performance, make "Carnival Story" worth watching despite its somewhat uneven quality overall. It has some strengths, but it leaves you feeling that it could have been improved without too much difficulty.The story has an interesting setting, with the drama and romance taking place in an American traveling show that is touring Germany, having attracted little interest in the US. Although the portrayal of the show and its players uses a number of clichés, in general the atmosphere is believable, and it supplies an effective background to the story. The world of the carnival is self-contained to begin with, and their presence in a foreign country emphasizes their isolation from the 'real world'. Jay C. Flippen plays the show's manager, and his character adds an appropriate air of run-down authority.Anne Baxter stars as the only German native among the main characters, an intense young woman who becomes involved romantically with more than one of the show's employees. In itself, the plot is the same as that in many other movies about romantic rivalry, with Baxter's character torn between the 'good' lover and the 'bad' lover. Baxter herself works well enough in the role, since her restless style fits in with her character here.Most of the other characters, though, remain one-dimensional, and some of the confrontations and tense moments lose something as a result. When the dramatic turns work, it is usually because they take place in an interesting setting, rather than because they have been filmed with any particular skill. The pacing likewise is inconsistent. There are a number of slow stretches that do little of note, but then it does make good use of the recurring high dive scenes, with the pageantry, danger, and tension that they bring.Overall, it has some definite strengths and some obvious weaknesses. It is essentially a formulaic drama about romantic rivalries, with a relatively interesting setting that hides enough of the weaknesses to make it worth seeing.