A Bad-Tempered Lion and a Bad-Tempered Circus Promoter

 

Francis Wallace was a sportswriter and novelist who, in 1936, published a novel titled Kid Galahad. In 1937, it was made into a Edward G. Robinson movie with the same title. Humphrey Bogart has a supporting role as a bad guy.

In 1941, the story's setting was changed from the boxing world to the circus world and became the movie The Wagons Roll at Night. Bogart is now playing the Edward G. Robinson part, though he's a circus promoter rather than a boxing promoter. Sylvia Sidney is Bogart's Gal Friday

I watched the movie recently after recording it off of TCM. I knew nothing about it going in other than it was one of the few Bogie movies I had never seen. I also apparently didn't pay enough attention to the opening credits. So, when a lion escapes from the circus early on in the movie AND a general store clerk bravely corners it to protect a young girl, I didn't at first recognize the actor playing the clerk. Then it dawned on me. It was Eddie Albert, the future owner of Green Acres in the classic '60s sitcom. (He is also a few years away from being a real-life war hero.) 

Albert looked impossibly young in the film. Does that mean I'm getting old? Gee whiz. 

The movie itself drips with melodrama. Matt (Albert's character) joins the circus and learns lion taming, with Nick (Bogie's character) taking him under his wing. Matt eventually meets Nick's sister and they fall in love. Nick violently disapproves and the movie's finale involves Nick convincing Matt to try to do a show with a particulary nasty lion who had already killed one man. By golly, mess with Bogie's sister and he'll literally feed you to an animal.

The ladies of the film try to talk sense into Nick in time to save Matt's life. Will they succeed?

The movie's plot is predictable and even Bogart can't keep the final scene from descending into painful corniness. But I still like the movie. The cast is good, with Bogart expertly treading a moral line in the sand with his character and Albert bringing charm and believability to his aww-shucks character. 

Also, it's set in a circus back in the travel-by-train and perform-under-the-big-top days. Such movies are always inherently interesting.