Berserk! marks Crawford's penultimate feature-film appearance.
Plot
Monica and Albert own a travelling circus that tours England. Monica is ringmistress, and Albert is business manager. During one performance, tightrope walker Gaspar the Great dies when his rope breaks. Police believe someone tampered with it, but they cannot say who. Monica predicts Gaspar's death will yield great publicity and bigger audiences. Albert is shocked by her insensitivity. He asks her to buy out his share of the circus, but she is unable. Instead, she replaces Gaspar with daring, handsome tightrope artist Frank Hawkins. He is renowned for performing his act over a carpet of sharp bayonets without a net. Monica is impressed.
Shortly afterwards, Albert is found murdered. The troupe, especially Hawkins, suspect Monica; Hawkins had witnessed her leaving Albert's trailer just before his body was discovered. Hawkins attempts blackmail: he promises Monica his silence if she gives him a share of the circus, and she agrees. In time, the circus enjoys a successful tour of performances—that is, until Monica's daughter, Angela, mysteriously turns up, after her expulsion from school. Monica hires her to perform in a knife-throwing act. Meanwhile, Matilda, another performer, attempts to seduce Hawkins. Monica becomes jealous. Later, Matilda is killed when a magician's trick involving the sawing of a woman in half goes wrong.
A few evenings later, during Hawkins' high-wire performance, Angela is spotted throwing a knife at him. Hawkins falls from his tightrope onto the bayonets and is killed. Angela confesses that she was responsible for the circus murders. She claims it was all due to Monica's absence and inattention throughout her childhood; the deaths were attempts to eliminate the people who consumed Monica's time. Angela then tries to kill her mother but is stopped. While trying to escape capture, she is electrocuted by a live wire outside the circus tent during a rainstorm. Monica sobs inconsolably over her daughter's body.
It was the first of a new deal that Herman Cohen had signed with Columbia Pictures. In August 1966, Joan Crawford signed to star, with filming to begin in October in London.[2] Cohen stated that the script was written with Crawford in mind.[3]
Crawford described her role in the film as "mistress of the ceremonies, lock stock and barrel. She's colorful, she's exciting, she's the most definite dame I've ever played. She knows what she wants and she gets it."[3]
Cohen wanted to cast Crawford's daughter Christina Crawford as Angela, but Joan vetoed the idea,[4] and Judy Geeson played the role instead.[5] Diana Dors played a key support role.[6]
Crawford claimed that the filmmakers wanted to title the film Circus of Blood or Circus of Fear, but she insisted on Berserk! "and I got my way in the end."[7] The title was changed in April 1967.[8]
Release
Box office
Box office receipts for Berserk! were considerable.[9] In North America, the film grossed more than $1,100,000 and ranked #85 on Variety's list of top money makers of 1968.[10] Box office receipts overseas nearly doubled that amount at $2,095,000.[11] This made Berserk! the most successful film that Herman Cohen had produced.[9]
Critical reception
Howard Thompson wrote a mostly negative review in The New York Times, comparing it unfavorably to Circus of Horrors, but also commented, "It's also hard to make a hopeless movie with a circus background and sawdust aroma. This is the one solid thing the picture has going for it—the intriguing workaday routine of circus folk and some good, spangly ring acts, all handsomely conveyed in excellent color photography. And under the reasonable direction of Jim O'Connolly, the film does project a kind of defiant suspense that dares you not to sit there, see who gets it next and, finally, why." Thompson stated that Crawford "... is professional as usual and certainly the shapeliest ringmaster ever to handle a ring microphone."[12]
Lawrence Quirk wrote in Hollywood Screen Parade that "[Crawford] is all over the picture, radiant, forceful, authoritative, a genuine movie star whose appeal never diminishes."[13]
Home media
Berserk! was released as a manufacture-on-demand Region 1 DVD on 6 September 2011, available online through the Warner Archive Collection and ClassicFlix in the U.S. only.
Mill Creek Entertainment released the film along with Strait-Jacket (1964) as a double-feature Blu-ray on 2 October 2018.[14]
Notes
^The opening credits do not include an exclamation mark in the title.
References
^"Big Rental Films of 1968", Variety, 8 January 1969 p. 15. Please note this figure is a rental accruing to distributors.
^'Bonnie and Clyde' to Roll
Martin, Betty. Los Angeles Times 18 August 1966: A10.
^ ab'Her Crawfordship' Conquers England
Marks, Sally K. Los Angeles Times 9 January 1967: D21.
^John Hamilton, The British Independent Horror Film 1951–70 Hemlock Books 2013 pp. 181–185
^MOVIE CALL SHEET: 'Charlie' Next Film for Liza
Martin, Betty. Los Angeles Times 21 October 1966: C16.
