Trapeze

Despite some stiff acting and a ponderous script, this was a smash at the box office, if only because audiences got to see Lancaster, himself a former circus performer, playing against the attractive Lollobrigida and the handsome Curtis. Lancaster is a lame acrobat who is famed for having done the impossible, a "triple" off the trapeze before having the accident that caused his limp. Two somersaults in mid-air are a commonplace, but a triple is the stuff of which high flyer's dreams are made. He's working as a rigger for a Parisian circus when Curtis arrives, eager to meet Lancaster and learn from him. Curtis is the son of a former circus friend of Lancaster and wa...