3 Ring Circus (1954)

Another movie with Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin. Jerry and Pete are two friends with no money, looking for some job. They finally find one as workers in a circus, but Jerry has different ... See full summary »

Director:

Joseph Pevney

Writer:

Don McGuire (story)

Stars:

Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Joanne Dru

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Dean Martin	...	Peter 'Pete' Nelson
Jerry Lewis	...	Jerome F. 'Jerry' Hotchkiss
Joanne Dru	...	Jill Brent
Zsa Zsa Gabor	...	Saadia
Wallace Ford	...	Sam Morley
Sig Ruman	...	Colonel Fritz Schlitz
Gene Sheldon	...	Puffo the Clown
Nick Cravat	...	Timmy
Elsa Lanchester	...	The Bearded Lady

Storyline

Another movie with Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin. Jerry and Pete are two friends with no money, looking for some job. They finally find one as workers in a circus, but Jerry has different dreams. He wants to become a clown...

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Plot Keywords:

circus | circus performer | handicapped child | crosley automobile | number in title

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Taglines:

Tame a lion. Get shot out of a cannon. Wash an elephant. Jerrico will do anything to become a circus clown.

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 January 1955 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Big Top

Filming Locations:

McKinley Home for Boys - 13840 Riverside Drive, Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Perspecta Sound encoding) (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In August 1955 writers George Beck and Samuel Locke filed a $65,000 infringement lawsuit against Paramount and Hal B. Wallis, claiming that Wallis had hired them to write a circus story for Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, entitled Big Top, which Wallis later rejected. The disposition of the suit is not known.

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Connections

Referenced in Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore (2010)

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Soundtracks

"Time to Shave"
(uncredited)
Performed by Jerry Lewis

User Reviews

A profession born to

3 Ring Circus was not a film Dean Martin cared to remember. Apparently this was a film that Jerry Lewis wanted to make because he got to play a circus clown. Dean had very little to do here, he only got one solo song though it's a good one.

Nick Tosches fine biography of Dean Martin says that Jerry ran the film, including picking the director Joseph Pevney. It was the first time that real tension was rather public between the team.

Dino and Jerry play a pair of newly discharged veterans who pick up jobs in a circus. Jerry is placed as a lion tamer's assistant and he has a marvelous scene with Sig Ruman as a rather inpatient lion tamer. Trying to teach Jerry the trade would be enough to drive anyone crazy. But Jerry is actually correct in his reasoning that if he just hires on with the circus, sooner or later his talents as a clown will shine through. Though he drives owners Wallace Ford and Joanne Dru wacky with his antics, he becomes a marvelous clown. That's a profession you are born to, either your funny or you're not. My favorite scene with him is Jerry trying to hand the aerial cyclist his unicycle and then getting caught on the high wire with it.

On the other hand Dino is caught between Joanne Dru and the star attraction of the show, trapeze artist Zsa Zsa Gabor. Gabor is also jealous when Lewis gets to be the real star of the show. I think you can figure out how all this ends.

Dean and Jerry do a song written for the film Hey Punchinello by Paramount contract songwriters Jay Livingston and Ray Evans. But Dean's one and only solo was the interpolated classic, It's A Big Wide Wonderful World. For reasons I don't understand he made no record of this so the only place you'll hear him is in 3 Ring Circus. The song was introduced by Buddy Clark in the Forties and it fits Dean's style perfectly.

Other than that song, this film was strictly Jerry's show with Dean only in support. No wonder tension flared.