If you had asked me a few weeks ago about actor Burt Lancaster, I wouldn't have had much to say. I think I may have known he was in From Here To Eternity (below), but I have not actually seen that film, or until this weekend, any other of Lancaster's films.
Since discovering TMC with this year, with their 31 Days of Oscar, I have been recording and watching as many old movies as I can watch. This past weekend, I finally got around to watching Trapeze, a film from 1956 starring Lancaster, Tony Curtis and Gina Lollobrigida. Some of you might remember my long standing fascination with the Circus, so this film set under a Paris big top, was right up my alley.
Thanks to TMC's Robert Osborne, I learned Burt Lancaster himself was once an acrobat, part of the duo Lang and Cravat in the 1930s and what point traveled with the Kay Brothers circus. In 1939, much like his character in Trapeze, an injury forced Lancaster to give up the profession. Since Trapeze is the first, and currently, the only film of Lancaster's I have seen, I cannot yet say he joins the rank of Favorite Hunk, but... I did love this film, and found myself lusting over his character Mike Ribble.
Trapeze is beautifully filmed, colorful, dramatic and suspenseful. The story is an interesting one to me. It involves a triangle, both professional and personal, between Mike, an eager young flyer Tino Orsini (Curtis) and the ambitious Lola (Lollobrigida). The cinematic ménage à trois certainly has less than subtle homoerotic undertones as Mike's jealousy of Lola, and her interference in his relationship with Tino, dominate the films second half, leading up to a climatic finale high in the air.
Lancaster's Ribble is incredibly sexy. First off, for most of the film he wears nothing by white tights, sadly he also seems to be wearing a diaper under it. Diaper aside, there are still some great shots of Lancaster's body, still in great shape in his forties. Given his circus experience, Lancaster does most of his own stunts, lessening the cut aways to stunt doubles. I, and I would guess most of the audience were rooting for Mike to wins Tino's loyalty over Lola, even with her obvious assets.
A bit more Burt
