Life Is a Circus

For the song, see Michael Holliday.

Life is a Circus is a 1960 British comedy film directed by Val Guest^[1] and starring Bud Flanagan, Teddy Knox, Jimmy Nervo, Jimmy Gold and Charlie Naughton of the Crazy Gang. The screenplay concerns a down-on-its-luck circus that uses an Aladdin's Magic Lamp to try to save their business.

Life Is a Circus
Directed by	Val Guest
Written by	Val Guest Len Heath John Warren
Produced by	John Pellatt E.M. Smedley-Aston
Starring	Bud Flanagan Teddy Knox Jimmy Nervo Jimmy Gold
Cinematography	Arthur Graham
Edited by	James B. Clark Bill Lenny
Music by	Philip Green
Production company	Vale Film Productions
Distributed by	British Lion Films
Release date	16 February 1960 (1960-02-16)
Running time	84 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

The film is generally considered inferior to the Crazy Gang's previous screen appearances.^[2]

Cast

• Bud Flanagan as Bud
• Teddy Knox as Sebastian
• Jimmy Nervo as Cecil
• Jimmy Gold as "Goldie"
• Charlie Naughton as Charlie
• Eddie Gray as Eddie
• Chesney Allen as "Ches"
• Shirley Eaton as Shirley Winter
• Michael Holliday as Carl Rickenbeck
• Lionel Jeffries as "Genie"
• Joseph Tomelty as Joe Winter
• Eric Pohlmann as Rickenbeck
• Harold Kasket as Hassan
• Edwin Richfield as Driver
• Peter Glaze as Hand #1
• Sam Kydd as Removal Man
• Geoffrey Denton as Policeman

Production

Val Guest said British Lion and E.M. Smedley-Aston "called me up and said “We want to make another picture with The Crazy Gang, are you interested?” and I said “Yes.” Because he said that they’d mentioned me or something…so the whole idea was to write a picture for the Crazy Gang. There we were writing for the Crazy Gang again, and all the boys got together again; we made this circus film for which we put up a big tent in Windsor, near the castle and shot it. They were all exactly the same, they hadn’t changed." Guest felt the film "worked, but I think the humour became dated... however much you tried to update it a bit was difficult. It wasn’t a success. I mean I don’t think it lost money, but it certainly didn’t make anything."^[3]

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Script and settings here simply provide a flimsy framework for knockabout antics in which the Crazy Gang disarm criticism by their innocent and undisciplined enthusiasm. As writer-director, Val Guest seems to take control only for an elaborate and hilarious trapeze sequence and the rather tedious romantic interludes with the self-consciously charming Michael Holliday. The woodenness of the small team of extras, and the almost total absence of children, make the circus and funfair scenes strikingly unplausible."^[4]