The Circus Show-Up (1932) Poster

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5/10
Crime Does Not Pay!
boblipton25 July 2023
When trapeze artist Polly Ann Young goes into her big routine, the lights are cut and she falls to her death. Was it an accident or murder?

It's a poor little murder mystery, the sixth in a series of shorts produced to spotlight the narrator, The Shadow. If people recall him, they may remember that he was played by Orson Welles on the radio, and had lots of weird powers. Actually, he arose by accident. In 1930, Street & Smith sponsored a radio show to boost circulation of their DETECTIVE STORY pulp magazine. The had a narrator, called The Shadow, voiced by James LaCurto, read stories from the magazine. People started asking for the magazine featuring the character, so William Gibson created him, and the magazine went on sale in April of 1931. Over the next 20 years, Gibson wrote 282 of the 325 cover stories for THE SHADOW.
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2/10
Am I missing something?! This just didn't make sense!
planktonrules9 February 2021
Warning: Spoilers
In the early 1930s, Universal Studios made a series of short films marketed as Shadow mysteries. This was named for the pulp magazine and radio program, "The Shadow", and the masked crime fighter introduces the films and makes commentary about the proceedings.

Of the three Shadow mysteries I have seen, "The Circus Show-Up" is by far the weakest, as the story simply does not make any sense at all. I even re-watched portions...and nope, it just doesn't make any sense. And, to explain it, I'll have to give you a spoiler.

The story is set at a circus. While a lady trapeze artists is doing her act, the lights suddenly cut off...and she slips and plunges to her death. Now here is where the story falls apart. When the police are cross-examining folks, TWO different people admit to having committed the crime. But the police assume that there is another person who actually committed the crime...though I have no idea why they wouldn't think either of the folks who confessed did it. In fact, NEVER did the story explain why the two confessed in the first place...never. And, it turns out that they DIDN'T do it....so why did they confess in the first place?! And, how could cops know both were lying?!? Talk about bad writing!! Overall a very frustrating and poorly constructed mystery that really isn't a mystery, as the answer to this one just seemed to come from out of no where.
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