Summaries

Synopsis

In a highly popular stage show sharp shooter Flamarion (Erich von Stroheim) keeps his audience enthralled with his keen abilities at target-shooting with a set of pistols in a high-profile display of talent. One of his assistants Connie Wallace (Mary Beth Hughes) dutifully plays the role of grateful actor as long as the money keeps coming in. The act is relatively secure except for Connies husband Al Wallace (Dan Duryea) who drinks a few too many some nights before going on stage. Connie and Al have a strained marriage partly from stress of show business but also because of Connies adulterous ways with other men, something that has eaten away at Als trust in her. Connie has tired of married life with Al and seduces the solitary and friendless Flamarion convincing him that he should make a mistake some night ridding her of Al so she and the great gun master can be together. After much soul searching Flamarion goes through with the plan eliminating Al, whereupon he and Connie make plans to meet and run away together. But Connie never shows up and Flamarion goes bankrupt on a drinking and gambling binge as he spends years searching the country for her, eventually finding and confronting her in a theater south of the border.

THE GREAT FLAMARION

In Mexico City in 1936 at a variety act theater, the show is interrupted by shots and screams during a clown act. The performers rush back stage, the crowd starts to panic and the clown Tony (Lester Allen) tries to convince the audience to keep their seats, as everything is under control. Meantime, a mysterious figure climbs a vertical ladder slowly, to the catwalk, as if wounded.

The police arrives and start questioning, and find that a woman who was part of a bicycle act has been strangled. Her husband becomes the chief suspect and is taken away. Everyone has left except for Tony when the mysterious figure, badly wounded, slides onto the stage from above. Tony turns the man over, and recognizes him as The Great Flamarion (Erich von Stroheim), once the world's greatest sharp shooter. Flamarion begs Tony not to call for aid or police, but says he wants Tony to listen to why he killed the woman.

From this point he film tells its story in flashback.

Flamarion had a topdrawer variety act starring himself and his pistols. He used two assistants, former dancers Connie and Al Wallace (Mary Beth Hughes and Dan Duryea), a husband and wife. The act would begin with Connie and Al in evening dress canoodling at a table when Flamarion would knock. Al would hide, Connie would lift a glass of wine, and Flamarion, after entering in formal dress, would use his pistols to shatter the glass, light her match, shoot off a garter, use bullets to take off the tiny ornaments on her hair comb, and tear off the strap of her gown. Al would come out of hiding and weave back and forth among the light bulbs of a dressing table while Flamarion with split second timing would shoot out the bulbs, barely missing him at each shot.

Flamarion himself was a stern, no-nonsense, arrogant, friendless, older man with a bull neck and a shaved head, bitter against women since his wife left him fifteen years earlier. Since then, Flamarion had lived only for his work. Connie, a great beauty, and Al seemed an outwardly happy couple. Connie had no problems with Flamarion as long as the money kept coming. On the other hand, Al had friction with Flamarion because he drank a few too many some nights before going on stage, and Flamarion was a perfectionist about their act, and did not tolerate anything that might lead to any mistakes, or in other words, someone getting shot.

Connie and Al seemed happily married, but behind closed doors her ruthless ambition had turned him into an alcoholic and she was having an affair with Eddie (Stephen Barclay), a cyclist with the troupe. Al was jealous, but also a man of many weaknesses, particularly toward his wife.

"Connie," he tells her, "no matter what you do you're the only dame for me. You're a bad habit I can't cure, even if I wanted to. Any guy who wouldn't fall for you is either a sucker or he's dead."

Al blamed her for his drinking, but he wouldn't divorce her. The marriage was strained also because of Connie's adulterous ways with other men, something that ate away at Al's trust in her.

Connie had tired of married life because she couldn't take any more of Al's drunkenness, and decided to seduce the solitary and friendless Flammarion, convincing him that he should make a mistake some night, ridding her of Al so she and the great gun master could be together.

Flamarion is a man of a certain age who had earlier sworn off women. He has no friends and practices ceaselessly with his pistols. It's not long before Connie breaks through Flamarion's reserve. When Connie professes her love for Flamarion and tells of her husband's abusive nature and hard drinking, Flamarion eventually opens his heart to this deceitful woman.

Connie leads Flamarion to think she cares about him but her motive is to convince him to kill Al during a performance and make it look like an accident. Connie is careful never to suggest the murder directly, she just talks that she had a dream of it happening by pure accident. Flamarion is grim and impassive most of the time, but we also see his heart being torn apart by Connie, we see his smile of sheer happiness when he thinks she loves him. He also believes Connie when she says Al will never let her go. Flamarion has talks with Al, offering him money to get a new start in life somewhere else, but Al will not leave Connie.

After much soul searching Flamarion decides to go through with the plan to eliminate Al. In his last moments before the show that will kill him, Al confesses his weaknesses to Eddie, who ends up lending him a fin, and he talks to Flamarion, who gives him 100 dollars. Just before the final act, Connie makes sure Al drinks an extra measure of whiskey. So, Flamarion makes an error in his stage act and Al has a bullet in his heart.

The coroner rules the death an accident because Al was judged too drunk to perform properly and weaved incorrectly in what was otherwise a completely normal show. After the coroner's finding, Connie convinces Flamarion to wait three months before the two can show themselves together. Insisting they must lay low for a while, she tells him she will go back to Minnesota to be with her family. She agrees to meet Flamarion in exactly three months, in Chicago, at a specific hotel. Connie insists on no contacts, no phone calls, no letters, no gifts, but relents only to give Flamarion an address. Meantime, she makes actual plans to leave with Eddie on a tour south of the border, where she is sure the old man will not find her.

Three months later, Flamarion shows up at the Chicago hotel, has the room filled with flowers, purchases gifts, and waits. Flamarion does a little dance in his eager anticipation to soon be with Connie. Connie never shows up. After waiting for days, Flamarion sends a telegram to the address Connie had given her in Minnesota, and eventually receives a response saying no such person lives at that address. Flamarion learns in a cruel way that Connie betrayed him.

From then on we witness the downward trajectory of Flamarion as he realizes how he was used. He spends his money searching for Connie, first in Las Vegas, then in other cities. In Los Angeles, Flamarion asks his agent for information about where Connie might be. The agent tells Flamarion to forget about Connie, because he can get him booked right away and he would have an easy time getting a replacement. But Flamarion decides to continue looking, claiming he has no need for money. Flamarion goes bankrupt on a drinking and gambling binge as he spends years searching the country for her. He even sells his pistols, except for one. The only things he has in his pocket are a few dollars and a pistol. Finally, he gets a clue from Cleo (Esther Howard), a woman with a vaudeville act involving dogs, who tells him that in order to find Connie he needs to look for a bycicle act under the name of Eddie Wheeler.

With this information Flamarion eventually traces both Connie and Eddie performing at the theatre in Mexico City. He sneaks into the theater, and, concealed behind props, witnesses Connie having first a tryist with yet another man, and an altercation with Eddie.

After others are out of the way, Flamarion enters Connie's dressing room, and upbraids her for her duplicity. At first Connie pretends she still loves him, that others forced to do what she did, but Flamarion will have none of it. Once convinced that she is not going to be believed, she shames Flamarion by claiming he has never been loved, and she put up with his disgusting self just to use him to get rid of her husband. As she senses that Flamarion is about to choke her to death, she manages to grab his pistol. She is able to shoot him only after he has started to strangle her, but he keeps enough strength to finish the job. Bleeding from the shot, he crawls away to die.

Policemen arrive back at the scene just as Flamarion dies after speaking his last words to Tony.