Fearless Fagan | |
---|---|
Directed by | Stanley Donen |
Written by | Charles Lederer Frederick Hazlett Brennan |
Story by | Sidney Franklin Eldon W. Griffiths |
Starring | Janet Leigh Carleton Carpenter Keenan Wynn |
Cinematography | Harold Lipstein |
Edited by | George White |
Music by | Rudolph G. Kopp |
Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date |
|
Running time | 79 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $855,000 [1] |
Box office | $950,000 [1] |
Fearless Fagan is a 1952 American comedy film directed by Stanley Donen and stars Janet Leigh and Carleton Carpenter. It is about a clown who is drafted into the military and tries to sneak his pet lion into the service. [2] The film was inspired by the 12 Feb 1951 Life Magazine story Fearless Fagan Finds a Home where Private Floyd D. Humeston requested an emergency 14-day furlough from Ft. Ord, California to take care of his pet lion. [3] Fagan played himself with the army assigning Pvt Humeston to act as a technical adviser on the film. [4]
Floyd Hilstown is working in a circus as a clown with a comical lion act when he finds out he's a draft dodger. He is given a chance to enlist, instead of going to jail, but he doesn't want to leave his best friend. The friend is one Fearless Fagan, a lion which Floyd has raised since he was four days old. The circus owner Owen Gillman suggests he buy the lion, after which Fagan would be worked as an ordinary lion by the circus lion tamer Emil Tacuchnitz, which doesn't sit well with Floyd.
Floyd joins the army and hides Fagan somewhere on the base. All goes well until Abbey Ames, who is on the base to entertain the troops, stumbles on Floyd and Fagan playing in the woods. Frightened, she gives her word to keep Fagan's presence a secret, but soon appears in the woods with Colonel Horne and troops in search of the lion.
When Fagan is found Sgt. Kellwin, Captain Daniels and Colonel Horne try to help Floyd find the lion a home. After an exhaustive search a home is found with the Ardley's. By this time Floyd has professed his love to Abbey and she is starting to have feelings for him even though she believes him to be a bit touched.
Fagan escapes his cage and creates some humorous havoc along his way back to Floyd. After he is recaptured the Army gives Floyd the choice of selling Fagan to his old circus troop or euthanasia. When Emil comes to pick up Fagan he cracks the whip and is promptly attacked. The lion is wounded by a soldier and Floyd knows a wounded lion will kill so he takes a pistol and knows what he must do. Once he finds the lion he can't pull the trigger and is himself attacked but quickly calms Fagan down.
Floyd wakes up in the hospital to find Sgt. Kellwin, who tells him he's to receive a medal and a ten-day pass. He also tells Floyd that Fagan is alive and Abbey has taken him to Hollywood. Floyd arrives at Abbey's home and to his horror discovers a lion skin rug. Abbey then appears and leads Floyd to the outdoor pool where they find Fagan jumping from the diving board and swimming to safety.
According to MGM records the film earned $722,000 in the US and Canada and $228,000 overseas resulting in a loss of $324,000. [1] Harrison's Reports found the movie "...a highly amusing comedy, the kind that will provoke uproarious laughter." [5]
The Greatest Show on Earth is a 1952 American drama film produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille, shot in Technicolor and released by Paramount Pictures. Set in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, the film stars Betty Hutton and Cornel Wilde as trapeze artists competing for the center ring and Charlton Heston as the circus manager. James Stewart also stars as a mysterious clown who never removes his makeup, and Dorothy Lamour and Gloria Grahame also play supporting roles.
"Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" is a song recorded by the English rock band the Beatles for their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was written and composed primarily by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney.
The Phil Silvers Show, originally titled You'll Never Get Rich, is a sitcom which ran on the CBS Television Network from 1955 to 1959. A pilot titled "Audition Show" was made in 1955, but it was never broadcast. 143 other episodes were broadcast – all half-an-hour long except for a 1959 one-hour live special. The series starred Phil Silvers as Master Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko of the United States Army.
Parley Edward Baer was an American actor in radio and later in television and film. Despite dozens of appearances in television series and theatrical films, he remains best known as the original "Chester" in the radio version of Gunsmoke, and as the Mayor of Mayberry in The Andy Griffith Show.
Giles Martin is an English record producer, songwriter, composer and multi-instrumentalist. His studio recordings, stage shows, TV and film works have been critically acclaimed and commercially successful around the world. He is the son of Beatles producer George Martin and half-brother of actor Gregory Paul Martin.
He Who Gets Slapped is a 1924 American silent psychological thriller tragedy film starring Lon Chaney, Norma Shearer, and John Gilbert, and directed by Victor Sjöström. The film was written by Victor Seastrom and Carey Wilson, based on the Russian play He Who Gets Slapped by playwright Leonid Andreyev, which was completed by Andreyev in August 1915, two months before its world premiere at the Moscow Art Theatre on October 27, 1915. A critically successful Broadway production, using an English language translation of the original Russian by Gregory Zilboorg, was staged in 1922, premiering at the Garrick Theatre on January 9, 1922, with Richard Bennett (actor) playing the "HE" role on stage. The Russian original was made into a Russian movie in 1916.
JoJo's Circus is a stop-motion animated television series created by Jim Jinkins, David Campbell, Lisa Jinkins, and Eric Weiner and produced by the Canada-based Cuppa Coffee Studios and Cartoon Pizza. The series was written by Douglas Wood, who previously worked for Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs as a creative executive. The series' songs were composed by Jeffrey Zahn and Jim Latham, with lyrics done by Judy Rothman. The theme song was performed by BECKY.
Circus World is a 1964 American Drama Western film starring John Wayne, Claudia Cardinale and Rita Hayworth. It was directed by Henry Hathaway and produced by Samuel Bronston, with a screenplay by Ben Hecht, Julian Zimet, and James Edward Grant, from a story by Bernard Gordon and Nicholas Ray.
Carleton Upham Carpenter Jr. was an American film, television and stage actor, magician, songwriter, and novelist.
Billy Rose's Jumbo is a 1962 American musical film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and starring Doris Day, Stephen Boyd, Jimmy Durante, and Martha Raye. An adaptation of the stage musical Jumbo produced by Billy Rose, the film was directed by Charles Walters, written by Sidney Sheldon, and featured Busby Berkeley's choreography. It was nominated for an Academy Award for the adaptation of its Rodgers and Hart score.
Circus of Horrors is a 1960 British horror film directed by Sidney Hayers, and starring Anton Diffring, Yvonne Monlaur, Erika Remberg, Kenneth Griffith, Jane Hylton, Conrad Phillips, Yvonne Romain, and Donald Pleasence. Set in 1947, it follows a deranged plastic surgeon who changes his identity after botching an operation, and later comes to gain control of a circus that he uses as a front for his surgical exploits. The original screenplay was written by American screenwriter George Baxt.
The Circus Clown is a 1934 American Pre-Code comedy film about a man who wants to join the circus against the wishes of his ex-circus clown father. It stars Joe E. Brown and Patricia Ellis.
The Big Circus is a 1959 American drama film directed by Joseph M. Newman and starring Victor Mature as a circus owner struggling with financial trouble and a murderous unknown saboteur. It was produced and cowritten by Irwin Allen, later known for a series of big-budget disaster films.
Douglas Henderson was an American film and television actor.
Tanks a Million is a 1941 American comedy film film directed by Fred Guiol. It was the first of Hal Roach's Streamliners, short films under an hour designed for the lower half of a double feature. The two leading characters, whiz-kid sergeant Doubleday and his rival Sergeant Ames, would go on to feature in seven more films, though the series has no overall title.
New Mexico is a 1951 American Western film directed by Irving Reis and starring Lew Ayres and Marilyn Maxwell.
Thunderbirds is a 1952 war film directed by John H. Auer and starring John Derek, John Drew Barrymore, Mona Freeman, Gene Evans, Eileen Christy and Ward Bond. It features the exploits of the 45th Infantry Division in the Italian campaign of World War II. The film was made by Republic Pictures with sequences filmed at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
Last of the Comanches is a 1953 American Western film directed by Andre de Toth and starring Broderick Crawford, Barbara Hale, Johnny Stewart and Lloyd Bridges. The film is a remake of the 1943 World War II film Sahara, starring Humphrey Bogart. Lloyd Bridges appeared in both films.
Michael Creighton Balfour was an English actor, working mainly in British films and TV, following his TV debut in the BBC's The Marvellous History of St Bernard, in 1938. He was a recognisable face, often in small character parts and supporting roles, in nearly two hundred films and TV shows, from the 1940s to the 1990s, often playing comical heavies or otherwise shady characters notable for their "loud" clothes, sometimes convincingly cast as an American.
Robert George Burton was an American film and television actor.