Den Flyvende Cirkus (1912)
Directed by Alfred Linder / Alfred Lind
Run Time - 52 min. |
Countries - Denmark |
MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Hans J. Wollstein
One of the more curious of the early European film companies, the Danish Scandinavian-Russian Trading Company specialized in sensationalistic melodramas that often had a circus or carnival background. Den Flyvende Circus, or "The Flying Circus," was probably the company's most famous film and it certainly was sensationalistic. Somewhat anticipating later American serials, the film featured Lili Bech as a circus snake charmer whose boyfriend, high-wire artist Richard Jensen, drops her in favor of the mayor's daughter. The mayor agrees to the uneven match only if the circus performer can earn enough money to leave his past life behind. In a final act of bravura, the high-wire artist attempts to cross a wire strung from the circus tent to the church spire. Halfway across, he is met with the snake charmer's reptilian co-star, who is approaching from the opposite direction. The mayor's plucky daughter (Emilie Otterdahl) saves the day by adroitly climbing the church spire and retrieving the serpent. Director Alfred Lind left Denmark shortly after this film in favor of Germany, where he continued directing melodramas with circus atmosphere.