There’s drama under the big top in the impossibly hard-to-see rarity The Main Attraction when a guitar-slingin’, smooth-voiced American drifter (Pat Boone) joins a European circus as the singing, boy-toy sidekick for their ventriloquist (Mai Zetterling). Things get sticky when he falls in love with the circus’ horse rider (Nancy Kwan). Their budding romance lights the fuse of already seething conflicts behind the scenes. Co-starring Kieron Moore and Yvonne Mitchell. At the premiere, puritanical Boone was reportedly concerned over the lurid aspects of a few scenes and compromises were negotiated behind closed doors.
“Thanks to the cryptic, lifelike dialogue of John Patrick, the producer, the smooth direction of Daniel Petrie, and the competent playing of a good, small cast, the movie unfolds as a tightly knotted, adult story of sexual tensions and jealousies. Here is a backstage circus yarn, with no spangled nonsense and some workable, simmering frictions – and one ring.” – Bosley Crowther, The New York Times
