The Big Circus The Big Circus The Big Circus is a 1959 film starring Victor Mature as a circus owner struggling with financial trouble and a murderous unknown saboteur. It was produced and co-written by Irwin Allen, later known for a series of big-budget disaster films. Hank Whirling (Mature) needs a bank loan to keep his Whirling Circus going. He gets it from a stuffy New York City bank, but only on the condition he take along accountant Randy Sherman (Red Buttons) and publicist Helen Harrison (Rhonda Fleming) to help the circus turn a profit. Hank's top act is the Colino trapeze troupe,
The Circus Surprise to look out at the circus and makes Nick laugh by saying that the lions are kittens and the people were ants. Bina Williams in her review for the School Library Journal said "Fletcher details an occurrence that is bound to happen to just about every kid at one time or another--getting lost in a public place. Vagin's gouache pictures vividly portray the details of a circus that is big enough to be interesting but not so big as to be scary." Publishers Weekly was mixed in their review saying "Fletcher's text is by turns reassuring and practical in tone,