THE CIRCUS QUEEN MURDER

Donald Cook, Greta Nissen, Adolphe Menjou

THE CIRCUS QUEEN MURDER (1933). Director: Roy William Neill. 

Police Commissioner Thatcher Colt (Adolphe Menjou) only wants to take a nice quiet vacation nowhere with his secretary, Kelly (Ruthelma Stevens). He picks out a town upstate named Gilead where he hopes to find "balm." Instead he comes across a circus where the chief performers are involved in a deadly triangle. There's Flandrin (Dwight Frye) and his blond wife, Josie (Greta Nissen), and her lover, the Great Sebastian (Donald Cook). When Flandiron disappears, there's some question if he was dismembered and fed either to the lions or to the cannibals that are part of the circus troupe! Other characters include Rainey (George Rosener), who owns the circus; Colt's friend, the chubby Dugan (Harry Holman); and Lubbell (Clay Clement), who also has a thing for Josie and is scared of her husband.

Dwight Frye

The Circus Queen Murder spills all of its secrets early so it doesn't have much suspense, although it's smoothly done by the cast and director Neill. This was the second of two Thatcher Colt films starring Menjou -- the first was The Night Club Lady -- who is fine in the role. (A third Colt film, The Panther's Claw, starred Sidney Blackmer as the commissioner.) Bug-eyed Dwight Frye has fun with the part of the near-psychotic Flandrin. The best thing about the movie is the trapeze act supposedly performed by Sebastian and Josie. Surprisingly, this was released by Columbia studios, not Monogram. It lasts a little over an hour.

Verdict: Not terrible, but you can still miss it.  **1/2.