JUMBO (BILLY ROSE'S JUMBO)

US, 1962, 123 minutes, Colour.
Doris Day, Stephen Boyd, Jimmy Durante, Martha Raye, Dean Jagger.
Directed by Charles Walters.

Billy Rose's Jumbo has the attraction of the circus. It is also a Doris Day musical. Directed by Charles Walters, director of such musicals as Easter Parade and Lili, the film has verve with music and lyrics by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart (whose film biography was Words and Music). Doris Day is a vigorous heroine and is matched by the sturdy Stephen Boyd as hero. Broad comedy comes from Jimmy Durante and Martha Raye. Second direction in by Busby Berkeley, the director of so many musical spectacular routines in the thirties.

1. How entertaining a film was this? A family film? What were the aims of the film-maker? The audience aimed at?

2. The contribution of widescreen, colour, the circus atmosphere costumes, the choreography, the circus acts, the music and the songs, the atmosphere of spectacle? Why do audiences enjoy all this so much?

3. How did the film rely on the mystique of the circus the 'big top', the human skill involved, the role of the animals, the function of the clowns, the nature of a parade, the skill and detail of the acts, the song and the acts in 'Over and Over Again'?

4. How did the film show the usual sadness in circus films, the lack of money, people walking out, storms and dangers, the family setting up one-day stands in the sideshow carnival?

5. The triumphs of the circus, skill, applause and admiration, the wonder of the parade?

6. Jumbo as the central character? The attraction of the elephant, the humanizing of the elephant in the film (the winking), the skill of Jumbo's acts, as a symbol of this particular circus, the ability to start the circus again with Jumbo?

7. The details of the plot? How conventional: the heroine, her capacity for work and management, the swift-talk, saving her father, his involvement in games, Lulu and comedy, the stranger entering, his betrayal, failure and success? Why do audiences find these ingredients interesting?

8. How attractive was Doris Day as the heroine? Her verve, the romantic overtones, her songs, especially 'Little Girl Blue' and 'The Prettiest Girl in the World'?

9. The humour of Jimmy Durante as the character of the father, the sequences of his clown acts, his relationship with his daughter, with Lulu?

10. What comic value did Lulu offer? Her integration into the plot? Advice? Her marriage to Dad?

11. Sam as the hero of the film? Steven Boyd's stolid style? Conventional? The revelation of who he was? His work with his father, finance? His sense of failure and his return with Jumbo?

12. The presentation of the songs and their enjoyment? What did they contribute to the atmosphere and the mood?

13. The effect of the finale and the varying of costumes? An appropriate ending?