(1954)
2
Craig Butler
Carnival Story is a fairly ho-hum melodrama that has a colorful background and a game cast going for it, but not much else. Nothing in Carnival's screenplay really feels right; everything has been rigged simply for the sake of creating effect. As a result, viewers must watch Anne Baxter suffer abuse at the hands of Steve Cochran time and again and come back for more without ever having a reason to believe that she would actually behave in this way. There's a great deal of drama that can be mined out of such a situation, but the bite of reality has to be there in order to make it worth while. There's also something just not right about Baxter in this carnival setting; she doesn't seem to belong there. Had the filmmakers used this "otherness" creatively, it might have made for some interesting depth. Instead, it just makes things awkward. For her part, Baxter tries hard and does well. She's not ideally cast, but when she finds the parts of the character that suit her, she drives them home. Steve Cochran, Lyle Bettger and George Nader are fine as the various love interests. They, too, are hampered by the writing but make the most of things.
cast-crew for Carnival Story on AllMovie
Carnival Story (1954)
