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Circus of Fear

1966 film by Werner Jacobs, John Llewellyn Moxey

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 20, 2026
Entity authorityQ323820
Source-derived summary

Circus of Fear (German: Das Rätsel des silbernen Dreieck / Mystery of the Silver Triangle); also Scotland Yard auf heißer Spur, also Circus of Terror; U.S. title Psycho-Circus) is a 1966 Anglo-German international co-production thriller film directed by John Llewellyn Moxey and starring Christopher Lee, Suzy Kendall, Leo Genn and Cecil Parker. Werner Jacobs directed the version released in West Germany. It was written by Harry Alan Towers based on the 1928 novel Again the Three Just Men by Edgar Wallace.

Plot

The film is set in London and the countryside, mainly in the East End and docklands. When an armoured car is robbed, in a daring daylight raid co-ordinated on Tower Bridge, one of the guards is shot and killed by Mason. The gang escape on the river. Part of the gang escape northwards on the M1 motorway. The police catch up and force them off the road, killing one man. Meanwhile Mason dumps his car in a lake and takes a suitcase full of money to nearby buildings. An unseen knife-thrower kills Mason as he turns to leave.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Circus of Fear” as 1966 film by Werner Jacobs, John Llewellyn Moxey. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1966, 1928—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1966-01-01. The account is most persuasive where Circus, Fear and film can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1966 film by Werner Jacobs, John Llewellyn Moxey. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q323820. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1966 and 1928.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Circus of Fear”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Circus of Fear primary sources, Circus of Fear archive and Circus research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Circus of Fear”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Circus of Fear” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.