Trapeze (1956)
Trivia
The 41-year-old Burt Lancaster performed all but one of the trapeze stunts himself, having worked in a circus before entering films. He insisted on doing the climactic triple somersault, but technical adviser Eddie Ward initially was hesitant on Lancaster performing the stunt, so Ward doubled for Lancaster during the first weeks of shooting. Director Carol Reed eventually hired Lancaster's longtime friend, stuntman Nick Cravat to perform the stunt.
The script removed a homosexual twist from the novel: Orsini is executed for murdering a woman who left him for Ribble, but the real killer proves to be Ribble who wanted Orsini.
Sally Marlowe was cast as Gina Lollobrigida's stunt double until Marlowe broke her nose on set. Willy Krause, a close personal friend of Burt Lancaster, was asked to fill in as Ms. Lollobrigida's stunt double. He accepted the role.
The stuntwoman for Gina Lollobrigida died after suffering a broken back from a forty-foot fall during the film's production.
Montgomery Clift was under consideration for the role of Tino Orsini.
Although both are portrayed by actors, the characters of "Bouglione" and "John Ringling North" are both actual people referred to by their real names.
Tony Curtis was borrowed from Universal-International for the production.
Writer Batia Jacobs filed a property right infringement suit against Hecht-Lancaster, UA, Catto and agent Ben Medford, claiming her manuscript entitled No Alternative was the basis for Catto's novel. The outcome of the suit has not been determined.
A July 1957 Variety item noted that screenwriter Daniel Fuchs filed suit for $250,000 and one-sixth of the profits of Trapeze, charging infringement of copyright, break of implied contract and violation of a confidential relationship. Fuchs indicated he wrote a story for Collier's magazine in 1940 entitled "The Daring Young Man" and in 1946 hired Harold Hecht as his agent. Fuchs claimed that, in 1952, he gave Hecht a screenplay adaptation of the story which, by that time, was entitled "Trapeze." The suit charged that in 1955, Trapeze's writers produced and "copied in substantial part" Fuchs's original story. A May 1959 Daily Variety article noted that an out-of-court settlement, "believed to be one of the largest of its kind in motion picture history," ended the two-year litigation. Although none of the parties disclosed the amount of the settlement, one contemporary source estimated it to be about $50,000.
