NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH CIRCUS OF FEAR by Dave Goode

Quite often I wonder why certain movies got comic book adaptations by Dell or Gold Key and others didn't. For instance CIRCUS OF HORRORS ( 1960 ). A movie that is sometimes confused with CIRCUS OF FEAR ( 1966 ). The latter comes from an Edgar Wallace story and features Christopher Lee as a hooded circus performer. CIRCUS OF HORRORS is a wonderfully sleazy circus thriller produced by Leslie Parkyn and Julian Wintle. Directed by Sidney Hayers CIRCUS OF HORRORS had an original screenplay by George Baxt. Anton Diffring ( The Blue Max (1966), Where Eagles Dare (1968) and as De Flores in the Doctor Who television story Silver Nemesis.) stars as the unhinged Dr. Schuler and is supported  by a cast that features Donald Pleasance , Yvonne Monlaur , Erika Remberg and Yvonne Romain.

The story has Dr.Schuler fleeing England for France several years after World War Two after a botched surgery left a patient horribly disfigured. There he operates on the daughter of a circus owner portrayed by Donald Pleasance. The little girl was disfigured during the war. When the circus owner dies under mysterious circumstances Schuler takes over ownership of the circus. The little girl grows up to be a circus performer herself and is portrayed by beautiful Yvonne Monlaur who some of you Hammer film fans may remember from BRIDES OF DRACULA (1960). Through surgery Dr. Schuler transforms a number of disfigured women criminals to beautiful circus performers. When these women attempt to leave the show they die in circus accidents.

Though there was never a comic book adaptation as part of the movie's pressbook there was a one - page comic. Also there was a novelization of the movie written by Tom Owen. I wonder if the book was even sleazier than the movie. Giving the reader things the movie only hinted at.