Trapeze (1956)

Trapeze poster

Warner Bros.
Starring:
 Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Gina Lollobrigida
Directed by: Carol Reed

Cat Out of the Bag Alert!  This review contains some spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: Mike Ribble (Burt Lancaster) is a crippled trapeze artist who comes out of retirement to help a young up-and-comer named Tino Orsini (Tony Curtis) learn his skills but a woman named Lola (Gina Lollobrigida) breaks into their act and threatens to ruin everything.

Purr Blurs: After failing to seduce Mike, Lola turns her attention to Tino. As they are walking out of the circus tent a grey cat is seen sleeping in the foreground while a group of mice run around the circus ring. This is probably meant to be symbolic of Mike’s being unaware of Lola finding a new target.

Trapeze - cat sleeping on circus ring with mice in ring

The cat seems strangely unreal, almost looking like a statue. It’s possible since the cat needed to be asleep throughout the scene that they may have used a fake cat instead?

Trapeze - cat sleeping on circus ring with Tino Tony Curtis and Lola Gina Lollobrigida in background

Later Lola and Mike have an intense discussion. Lola walks away down a dark street. A tuxedo cat can just be seen in the background running away.

Trapeze - tuxedo cat running on dark street with Lola Gina Lollobrigida

Trapeze - tuxedo cat still running on dark street with Lola Gina Lollobrigida

Final Mewsings: Fake cats are no substitute for the real thing!

Many thanks to Ted Davis for spotting the quick tuxedo cat for us!


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