mowasteph If you are looking for a cheesy popcorn flick that you and your friends can watch in the MST3K style then this will do...but go with Straightjacket instead if you can. In fact, I can't believe it ended up with the same twist ending of Straightjacket! Total ripoff of the great William Castle.However, there is some fun to be had here. Ol' Joan had some pretty good gams for a 62-year-old and it's a hoot to watch her love scenes with boy-toy Ty Hardin (whatta name!). Also, Joan was always a good actor even when she was in a complete piece of crap like this.Fun to watch some of the circus acts too. I fast forwarded through the elephants and lions as I don't approve of that sort of thing but the dog act was adorable!And since when is the "woman in half" trick done with a buzz-saw?!

utgard14 Campy horror-thriller starring that grand diva of melodrama Joan Crawford. The plot's about a series of gruesome murders at a circus run by Joan. The opening scene of a tightrope walker being impossibly hung by his own high-wire sets the stage for a schlocky horror film. All of the death scenes are great. Perhaps the funniest was Michael Gough's death. The true horror, though, comes not from the grisly death scenes. It comes from seeing Joan Crawford, over sixty years old at this time, romancing half-her-age Ty Hardin. Sexy Diana Dors is fun to watch. She has a hilarious catfight with another circus performer. In all honesty it's not a bad movie of its type. I think because Hollywood legend Joan Crawford is the star, some people go into this in a state of mourning for her career rather than enjoying this for the cheesy horror movie that it is.

Michael_Elliott Berserk (1967) ** (out of 4) Joan Crawford runs a circus, which is being stalked by a murderer. I've been wanting to check this film out for quite some time due to the fact that material like this is certainly below Crawford's talent and after watching this and Trog I must compare her to Bela Lugosi in the fact that even though the material is pretty bad she, like Lugosi, still gave her all. Director Jim O'Connolly doesn't give the film any motion as it feels like the film is a complete stand still from start to finish. There's no energy, no excitement and the mystery of who the killer is gets quite boring very early in the film. Outside of Crawford you do get a good performance from Michael Gough who overacts as usual but it's still nice to see him. When the killer is eventually identified, the performance by this person is so over the top that you can help but scream with laughter. What follows isn't any better.

Coventry Sigh… Sometimes the outcome of a movie viewing goes beyond being a mere "disappointment" or just "something you expected more from". Sometimes it actually HURTS to acknowledge that a certain title wasn't as great as you initially thought or hoped. For me, this was definitely the case with "Berserk!". I'm a sucker for British horror movies released during the 60's and 70's, I think a circus or carnival forms the absolute greatest setting to tell a sinister tale (just think of "Freaks", "Carnival of Souls" and "Santa Sangre") and I'm a huge fan of both Joan Crawford and Michael Gough. Taking into account all these positive omens, I honestly thought "Berskerk!" couldn't possibly go wrong, and yet it did. You know you're in trouble when the extended padding sequences, which actually don't contribute anything to the overall story, form the highlights of the film. That's like openly admitting to the viewer that the main story lines are too thin to fill up the entire playtime, or that they desperately need the padding in order to distract you from the incoherent and implausible plot. In "Berserk!" the padding footage serves both purposes. A lot of the circus acts, albeit impressive, are integrally shown (like an army of poodles performing neat tricks, elephant dancing, a lion tamer and a knife-throwing act) and the circus' freaks even sing an entire song from start to finish! "Berserk!" nevertheless opens splendidly, with the tense and gruesome death of a tightrope walker before the opening credits even roll over the screen. His death might just have been an unfortunate accident, but when a second and far more eminent member of the circus crew is murdered, Scotland Yard sends its finest agent along on the tour to Liverpool and London. The circus' owner and ringmaster Mrs. Monica Rivers (Joan Crawford wearing tights!) is a harsh and relentless business woman and it looks as if someone intends to put her traveling circus spectacle in a bad spotlight. The concept literally bursts with great potential and possibilities but the film quickly becomes a tedious, inane and totally illogical mess. After the second murder, nothing even remotely exciting happens for nearly 45 minutes and the screenplay loosely hangs together through weak dialogs and Crawford's naturally uncanny presence. The revelation of the killer's identity as well as his/her motivation is downright imbecilic, and you better not contemplate too much about how he/she was even capable of committing the vile crimes. The carnage should have been bloodier and more grotesque, even considering the limited budget and era of release, and the film totally lacks the mysterious and oddly unsettling ambiance of other contemporary circus-horror efforts. Director Jim O'Connelly also made the fantastically over-the-top demented horror gem "Tower of Evil" and, since both films are rather obscure, I recommend tracking down that one instead of "Berserk!".