MovieChat Forums > Trapeze (1956) Discussion > Trapeze Source Material?

Trapeze Source Material?

posted 18 years ago by Delovley
5 replies | jump to latest

Recently discovered this film, and am truly enamored! In doing some research, I found that it was based on Max Cattos novel "The Killing Frost"- which, it seems, cannot be procured or no longer exists...

Then, some more research found that author Daniel Fuchs took credit for the source material, from his short story "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze".... which I also cannot locate....

Closest I can come is a short story by the same name, by William Saroyan... but this does not appear to be the same thing.

Sooo... anyone know the real deal, or where/if the actual source material can be procured?

[–] lilrayrei87 18 years ago

Yes, TRAPEZE is based on a novel by Max Catto of the same title. The film deals with the same characters, two trapeze artists falling inlove with the same woman. The characters in the novel have the same name as the characters in the movie, but although a melodrama, it is much darker... In it, Mike (the Burt Lancaster role) kills Lola (Gina Lollobrigida) out of jealousy and lays the blame on Tino (the Tony Curtis role), who then ends executed for a crime he didn't commit. Mike eventually kills himself upon feeling himself responsable for Tino's death. The undercurrent is darker in its sensuality: Mike is inlove with Tino and as Lola comes between them, he kills her...
As is, the film has its resemblance to a German classic of the twenties, with Emil Jannings in the Lancaster role, directed by E.A. Dupont.

I read the novel in the early sixties, (found it in the public library, hardbound), as I was then and now, a big fan of the movie.

[–] Delovley 18 years ago

Thanks for the information. I've been looking for the book for some time, and except for one solo copy in a rare-books collection in NY, it seems to have disapeared completley! But I will keep a look out- thanks for the information about the differences in plot!

[–] vonhangman 18 years ago

The Sayoran book, I can assure you, is completely different!!

[–] ScarletPimpernel64 11 years ago

Have you tried www.alibris.com ?

"Be sure you're right, then go ahead."
Davy Crockett

[–] Shut_Up_Lige 10 years ago

Library of Congress has a copy. I got it through an inter-library loan.

Watch 'em Abe, I seen 'em do some things!