A circus' beautiful trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader of side-show performers, but his deformed friends discover she is only marrying him for his inheritance.
During the Great Depression, a con man finds himself saddled with a young girl who may or may not be his daughter, and the two forge an unlikely partnership.
A wild girl who was raised by bears is found by humans when she rescues an injured man. She is brought to the city against her will, and is put in a stage show. She is discovered and saved by her family, and tries to find a way to take revenge on the people who imprisoned her.
Ferdinand Weitel, a forklift driver, is desperate: Insurance agent Arno von Mehling, a true sales talent, has had contracts signed in record amounts. Now Weitel is wandering through the corridors of the insurance company trying to save what can still be saved - on Shrove Tuesday of all days. The department for customer service and complaints is in a colorful mood and has no ear for Weitel's worries. Finally, secretary Annerose Waguscheit takes heart and tells him about the evening carnival ball "Traum-Police", where he can safely find Mr. Mehling.
A young Southern débutante temporarily abandons her posh lifestyle and upcoming, semi-arranged marriage to have a lustful and erotic fling with a rugged drifter who works at a local carnival.
After a chance encounter with a wanted man, a woman is harassed by the police and press until she takes violent action.
With a reputation for seducing members of the opposite sex, regardless of their marital status, a notorious womanizer discovers a beauty who seems impervious to his charms. However, as he continues to pursue the indifferent lady, he finds himself falling in love.
A delinquent tomboy takes the job of a murderous carney's assistant.
A magician in a carnival--who actually can read minds and levitate people and objects--works with a superintelligent chimp named Alex, who can also talk. The magician and the chimp soon become the stars of the carnival, drawing in big crowds. However, the wild-animal trainer, who has been displaced by the team as the carnival's top act, decides to kidnap Alex and sell him to a medical laboratory for experimentation, thereby getting rid of his competition.
Tired of being a small-town waitress, Donna departs with the latest carnival show, living with entertainers Frankie and Patch in a tense, emotional triangle.
Jerry, his girlfriend Angela, and their friend Harold take a trip to a local seaside carnival, but when the carnival's fortune teller, Madame Estrella, predicts death for someone close to Angela, strange things begin to happen.
Two struggling brothers start a money lending business, facing fierce opposition from rival Ah Longs. They must save a tailor from a ruthless enemy while trying to succeed in business to honor their adoptive father’s mandate.
200 years of Cologne Carnival! The most colourful and loudest festival in Cologne celebrates a big birthday. In February 1823, a few men from Cologne's upper class founded the so-called 'Festordnende Komitee' - the forerunner of today's 'Festkomitee Kölner Karneval'. This 'big bang' was a reaction to the old festival getting out of hand in orgies and violence. Carnival was in danger. A ban by the Prussian rulers was imminent. The new committee wanted to control the wild goings-on, establish rules and organise the celebrations.
After receiving a series of anonymous love notes, Spidora, a performer in a carnival Side Show, is finally encouraged to meet her secret admirer. But is he real or just an illusion?
A roustabout joins a traveling carny and schemes to figure out the mind-reading act of Mademoiselle Zeena and her alcoholic husband.
Italy in the early 1930s. To the elderly aristocrat Gerard, all that is left of Leonora, the love of his life, are a number of erotic tape recordings. She led a double life as respectable wife and mother of two, and as a whore at the local brothel. Now, after her death, her children Ursula and Edmund pass under the tutelage of Gerard. Having not seen them for many years, he is utterly bewildered by Ursula's uncanny likeness to her mother. While Gerard's mistress Fiorella takes care of Edmund's sexual needs, Ursula follows the last instructions of her mother. In the process, she uses the legacy of her mother's recordings to get into the mindset of her relationship with Gerard. Is Gerard ready to find his lost love Leonora again... in the likeness of her very daughter?
In a small American town, a diabolical circus arrives, granting wishes for the townsfolk, but twisted as only the esteemed Mr. Dark can make them. Can two young boys overcome the worst the devil himself can deal out?
A trio of former sideshow performers double as the "Unholy Three" in a scam to nab some shiny rocks.
Billy Bigelow has been dead for 15 years. Now outside the pearly gates, he long ago waived his right to go back to Earth for a day. He has heard that there is a problem with his family: namely with his wife Julie Bigelow, née Jordan, and his child he hasn't met. He would now like to head back to Earth to assist in rectifying the problem; but before he may go, he has to get permission from the gatekeeper by telling him his story. Adapted from the Rodgers and Hammerstein hit Broadway musical.
A former novelist returns to his small Midwest town after serving in the Army during WWII, to the chagrin of his social-climbing brother, and becomes close with an easy-going professional gambler and torn between two very different women.