EDITOR’S NOTE: Circus of Horror was on Chiller Theater on Saturday, May 1, 1965 at 11:20 p.m., Saturday, July 2, 1966 at 11:20 p.m., Saturday, March 4, 1967 at 1:00 a.m., Saturday, March 30, 1967 at 11:20 p.m., Saturday, April 12, 1969 at 11:30 p.m., Saturday, June 16, 1979 at 1:00 a.m., Saturday, September 13, 1980 at 1:00 a.m. and Saturday, April 24, 1982 at 1:00 a.m.

Released in the U.S. by American-International Pictures as a double feature with The Angry Red Planet and A Bucket of Blood, Circus of Horror was inspired by the success of another Anglo-Amalgamated film, Horrors of the Black Museum

Dr. Bernard Schüler (Anton Diffring) is really Dr. Rossiter, a man who ran from England with his two assistants, Martin (Kenneth Griffith) and Angela (Jane Hylton) and makes his way to France, where he starts to practice. He meets a girl scarred in the war, Nicole Vanet (Carla Challoner when she is young, Yvonne Monlaur when she’s an adult), and fixes her wounds, making a deal with her father (Donald Pleasence) that he will buy into his circus and use it to further hide from his past.

As he celebrates the sale, the circus owner begins to dance with a bear — yes, this really happens — and this leads to him mauling him. He yells for Schüler to save him, but the doctor watches him die and takes over the circus, working with his assistants to take criminals, heal their scars and add them to his circus.

One of those performers is Elissa Caro (Erika Remberg), a gorgeous sex worker whose face is marred with a scar through her eye. He promises to fix her if she joins his circus, which becomes a success over the next ten years. When anyone tries to escape, they die accidentally, like star Magda von Meck (Vanda Hudson), who dies in a knife throwing act, allowing Elissa to be the main act again.

However, things start to fall apart when Melina (Yvonne Romain) shows up, her face destroyed by a lover who threw acid at her. The doctor and circus owner fixes her face and falls in love with her.

Elissa decides to stay ahead of her competition and learns who the doctor really is, thanks to overhearing the adult Nicole explain her surgery to Inspector Arthur Ames (Conrad Phillips). Schüler tries to warn her off with a snake, but she keeps blackmailing him, so he makes sure that she dies during her act.

A gorilla goes wild and scars the doctor, who must go through his own surgery, appearing bandaged as the circus is visited by Evelyn Morley Finsbury (Colette Wilde), the very woman who Schüler scarred for life and was nearly ruined by. That night, a lion kills Melina — man, this circus! — as the doctor’s assistants try to run. He stabs Angela as Martin escapes, joining Evelyn in telling everything to the police. Schüler tries to run, but Evelyn returns to run him over with her car.

Director Sidney Hayers also made Burn, Witch, Burn with this movie’s screenwriter George Baxt. The circus was owned by Billy Smart and was also used for the Joan Crawford movie Berserk.

I love the idea of this movie where a plastic surgeon ends up running a circus of criminals and animals that can’t stop attacking human beings.

You can watch this on Tubi.