Crump's Colossal Combined Carnival Show barely survives financially by hiring thieves and pickpockets to rob customers. One day, clubman Jack Hamilton buys the circus when his car breaks down on his way to meet a deadline to avoid bankruptcy and he needs the circus tractor to haul his auto out of a ditch.
Douglas Bronston
United States
The Sawdust Rebellion: Class Warfare Under the Big Top Douglas Bronston’s The Merry-Go-Round emerges not as mere carnival entertainment but as a subversive examination of American hierarchy. The film’s genius lies in making the circus a microcosm of societal struggle—a world where pickpockets operate with management...
Comparing the cinematic DNA and archive impact of two defining moments in cult history.
Edmund Lawrence
Edmund Lawrence
Community
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" The Sawdust Rebellion: Class Warfare Under the Big Top Douglas Bronston’s The Merry-Go-Round emerges not as mere carnival entertainment but as a subversive examination of American hierarchy. The film’s genius lies in making the circus a microcosm of societal struggle—a world where pickpockets operate with management’s blessing, reflecting capitalism’s raw underbelly years before Tod Browning’s Freaks would explore similar territory. Willard Louis’ Crump embodies entrepreneurial desperation, h..."
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