A child is born. We see underwater swimmers representing this. He is young, in a jungle setting, with two fanciful "instincts" guiding him as swooping bird-like acrobats initially menace, then delight. As an adolescent, he enters a desert, where a man spins a large cube of metal tubing. He leaves his instinct-guides behind, and enters a garden where two statues dance in a pond. As he watches their sensual acrobatics of love, he becomes a man. He is offered wealth (represented by a golden hat) by a devil figure. In a richly decorated room, a scruffy troupe of a dozen acrobats and a little girl reawaken the old man's youthful nature and love.
Two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, glide through the streets of Berlin, observing the bustling population, providing invisible rays of hope to the distressed but never interacting with them. When Damiel falls in love with lonely trapeze artist Marion, the angel longs to experience life in the physical world, and finds -- with some words of wisdom from actor Peter Falk -- that it might be possible for him to take human form.
On behalf of "oppressed bugs everywhere," an inventive ant named Flik hires a troupe of warrior bugs to defend his bustling colony from a horde of freeloading grasshoppers led by the evil-minded Hopper.
When Polly Fisher, a circus aerialist, is hurt while performing, she is taken to the house of a nearby minister, John Hartley. As she recuperates, they fall in love with each other and secretly marry. But when the truth leaks out , John's congregation rebels at having a circus woman as their minister's wife, and he is fired. Polly decides to leave John in hopes of giving back to him the calling that means so much to him. But fate steps in and rearranges all plans.
After Clown Teddy lost his son, he lost his gift for laughter. He opened a joke shop and lives above the shop. His landlady has had a foster son since birth, and Teddy decides to raise the child, who always believed that Teddy was his father. When the mother suddenly appears five years later and wants her son, Teddy decides to run away with the child and goes back onstage with his son. Will the family catch up with them, or will the mother never get her son back?
Director George Sherman's 1959 circus drama stars Michael Callan as a cocky aerialist causing romantic problems under the Big Top.
A jealous trapeze star decides he must eliminate his romantic rival.
Eccentric scientist Victor Von Frankenstein creates a grotesque creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment.
The owner of a failing circus has to cope with the return of her son after he is released from the psychiatric hospital with complete loss of memory.
After causing his friend's death, an animal trainer marries the man's daughter to atone.
When Gelsomina, a naïve young woman, is purchased from her impoverished mother by brutish circus strongman Zampanò to be his wife and partner, she loyally endures her husband's coldness and abuse as they travel the Italian countryside performing together. Soon Zampanò must deal with his jealousy and conflicted feelings about Gelsomina when she finds a kindred spirit in Il Matto, the carefree circus fool, and contemplates leaving Zampanò.
An affable drifter on the lam for a murder he didn't commit hides out in a circus.
Teenage orphan Luca leaves his hometown Chipilo for Mexico City, seeking fortune. There, he meets 24 year old trapeze artist Paulina, who teaches him love and life in the circus.
Plauto, the clown, tells us the story of the Circo de las Alegrías. Doña Alegría, owner of the Circus is determined that her son Palevhi, maintain the classic line of the show, which begs for a complete renovation. During the last years, the Circus has been dragging like a dying man until the threat of bankruptcy and unemployment has led his workers to anguish. One night in September, Palevhi decides to inform the big family of the circus the final closure. Tears of frustration give way to the search for solutions.
After Dan collapses at a train station, he enlists Maxie to watch his beloved dog, Molly. Maxie develops a soft spot for her new furry companion - a dog which has a unique ability to sing in tune.
A circus wild animal trainer searches for the son who was taken away from him by a meddling relative years earlier.
Impressionistic glimpses of London life from early morning to rush hour.
Raju faces many hurdles and disappointments in matters of the heart throughout his life. But as a clown in a circus, he tries to make his audience laugh at the cost of his own sorrows. Along the way, Raju loves and loses, but must always keep a smile on his face because, in the words of his circus manager, "The show must go on."
It's night on a Paris bridge. A girl leans over Seine River with tears in her eyes and a violent yearning to drown her sorrows. Out of nowhere someone takes an interest in her. He is Gabor, a knife thrower who needs a human target for his show. The girl, Adele, has never been lucky and nowhere else to go. So she follows him. They travel along the northern bank of the Mediterranean to perform.
Oskar Matzerath is a very unusual boy. Refusing to leave the womb until promised a tin drum by his mother, Agnes, Oskar is reluctant to enter a world he sees as filled with hypocrisy and injustice, and vows on his third birthday to never grow up. Miraculously, he gets his wish. As the Nazis rise to power in Danzig, Oskar wills himself to remain a child, beating his tin drum incessantly and screaming in protest at the chaos surrounding him.