Stephen Torg seeks work at a struggling travelling circus. While there, a lion escapes; Torg is able to control it with his skill at hypnotism. Phil Danton, the head of the circus, is so impressed, he hires the newcomer. Then someone comes up with an idea. Torg hypnotises Mary so that she can perform a dangerous aerial stunt without props. Her partner and boyfriend, Tom Danton is suspicious, but is overruled by the others.
With Torg's help, the circus becomes very successful, and Torg is able to force Phil into making him a partner. Meanwhile, Torg falls in love with Mary, though she makes it clear to him that her heart belongs to Tom. As time goes on, Torg begins to exert control over Mary. Before one performance, he tells her under hypnosis that she will be so tired that she will be unable to hold onto Tom during their trapeze act. As a result, Tom falls and is injured so badly, he has to stay in the hospital. The others suspect what is going on, but have no proof and are powerless to do anything.
When Tom recovers enough to return to the circus, he finds that Torg has Mary performing an even more dangerous stunt. While watching it, he unthinkingly cries out her name, breaking her trance and almost causing her fall from the high wire. While Torg is being lowered to the ground, Phil cuts the rope and Torg falls to his death. Phil admits his actions to his colleagues. It was the only way to free Mary. However, in a twist, the doctor reveals that Torg was shot in the head in mid-air, a feat that could only have been done by the circus's sharpshooter, Dora, who steps forward. The doctor goes to call the police and summons Tom to where Mary is waking up. They kiss.
Cut to the ringmaster announcing Danton's Empire Circus, and the credits roll over the performance.
In a review from May 2013, Dennis Schwartz gives the film a B-. calling it “an entertaining crime drama…It concludes without an imaginative climax and at times the melodramatics seemed heavy-handed, but there are enough thrills and circus atmosphere to keep things always watchable.”[4]
References
^ abSteve Chibnall (2019) Hollywood-on-Thames: the British productions ofWarner Bros. – First National, 1931–1945, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 39:4,
687-724, DOI: 10.1080/01439685.2019.1615292 at p 714
.jpg)
