Rent Trapeze (1956)

Swingers. - Trapeze review by Steve

Trapeze adapts the conventions of the sport film to a circus. Burt Lancaster plays an embittered, alcoholic former trapeze flyer who was grounded after an accident attempting the ultimate, the triple somersault. Tony Curtis is the young gun who arrives in Paris to learn the triple off the master, and to perhaps save him from self destruction.

They are joined by another archetype. Gina Lollobrigida (Lola!) is the hot tempered Italian acrobat who wants to break into their team. She gets between the two men and threatens the purity their act with her drop-dead glamour. They become a threesome in the air and on the ground. While the film soft-pedals this implication of homosexuality between the men, it doesn't quite avoid it.

It's the best circus film there is. While it is full of genre clichés (though we don't get a sad clown) these are made fun by great star performances, and spectacular action photography, in Technicolor. Carol Reed captures the flaking exoticism of the ring and the seediness of the threesome's assignations in trashy Parisian hotels. It's a sexy melodrama.

There's plenty of flesh on show from all the leads. Gina is fabulous in her sequinned leotards. The sassy dialogue uses the ecstasy of the high wire act as ominous innuendo for sex, which makes the film feel quite noirish. Maybe not one of (former real life trapeze artist) Burt Lancaster's more prestigious roles, but it's entertaining and a reminder of Lancaster's imposing physicality, and his athleticism, and grace.