A drama of the circus that focuses on a widowed tightrope walker and the nasty lion tamer pursuing her. The film is primarily a showcase for real circus events.
Home Media Availability: Stream courtesy of the Danish Film Institute.
The daring young man…
If silent cinema had to choose just one genre, circus pictures would have been a favorite to win. Circuses had everything a filmmaker could want: spectacle, an excuse for big performances, a menagerie of animals, censor-proof abbreviated clothing, a lurid reputation and, of course, clowns.
So, it was natural that Denmark would, well, join the circus with its own collection of big top pictures. Or, in the case of In a Den of Lions, the big theater because the picture’s setting was no traveling circus but a big, fancy permanent entertainment center.
Content Warning and Note: This film clearly made use of real circus performers, human and animal, and features a lion and tiger taming performance. Some viewers may find this material disturbing. No cats are killed in the story. Also, I highly recommend going into this film cold. The structure of the picture has a few surprises, particularly for seasoned viewers who have certain expectations of films made during this period. Go ahead and watch the movie and then come back for my review, if you like.
The film centers on a little family of circus performers. Ulla (Ella Sprange) is a tightrope walker married to an aerialist and her brother, John (Henry Seeman), is a stunt rider. Ulla is happily married with a kid but the lion tamer doesn’t see why that should prevent him from making passes at her. Angered by her rejection, the lion tamer takes a moment to harass the circus python and its handler.
The aerialist husband is part of a trio and they are performing a dangerous high trapeze act with a safety net below. They leap and flip—hiring real acrobats for the roles really pays off here—and it’s all very interesting until the husband releases his hold on the trapeze and his partner misses his catch. The safety net is weakened and can’t support the weight of a falling person. It breaks and he hits the ground full force. He is killed instantly.
This is the surprise I was mentioning. Films of this period would often include a thin story as an excuse to include long actuality shots of [insert interesting people, place, event, etc.]. So, when the trapeze performance went on, I was lulled into a false sense of security and took it to be one of those sequences, especially since the net was in place. (Circus pictures would do the “without a net” thing to amp up suspense and this detail is generally a prelude to fatalities.) The physical ability of the aerialists is impressive, naturally, but it’s all just building up to the—oh.
Director Eduard Schnedler-Sørensen fools us! No “without a net” scene, just a normal trapeze performance that goes suddenly very wrong. He even shoots the entrance of the aerialists from underneath the safety net just to lull us. Due to the wily surprise death at the start of the picture, we no longer view the circus scenes as filler or a bit of showing off.
In the aftermath of the husband’s death, the lion tamer sees an opportunity to intensify his pursuit of Ulla. I mean, hey, she’s single now, right? Ulla and John are extremely angry about this but the circus management doesn’t exactly put performer safety first. (Negligence at the python cage allows the snake to escape and nearly eat Ulla’s kid as a delicious snack, if this provides an additional hint of their negligence.)
In fact, the manager decides that the performances are just not exciting enough (one dead aerialist notwithstanding) and wants to up the suspense with a new act: Ulla’s tightrope will be strung over a cage of lions and tigers. (And possibly a liger or tigron, it sure looks like one.)
Tightrope walking needs concentration and it helps if the artist is not distracted or nervous. She’s her child’s only surviving parent and the lions and tigers below are being controlled by the obnoxious sex pest who has been harassing her for ages. What’s to be nervous about?
In a Den of Lions doesn’t have much in the way of plot but story is almost beside the point. This is a film about thrills and it delivers them organically through its setting, allowing acts to play out after establishing that, yes, Virginia, people die suddenly and without cinematic preamble in circuses.
This is also a film that presents the circus in a neutral manner, neither condemning its abusive environment not glamorizing its personnel. In many ways, this picture reads like an actuality of the period. (Actualities are different from documentaries in that the footage is presented without conscious narrative or particular message besides “Come and see something interesting.”)
Ella Sprange is good as the film’s lead (and quite a trouper for her handling of the python—it was clearly wound tightly and possibly squeezing her arm) and handles the plot’s twists and turns with dignity. The lion tamer actor is not specified in the cast list but he brings a lot of bluster and obnoxious swagger to his role, which works for a widow-poaching animal abuser in the Man You Love to Hate tradition.
In general, this is a picture that gives off an air of polish and good planning. It only lasts for two reels but manages to pack in plenty of thrills, as required by its chosen genre, as well as more than a few surprises for even seasoned silent film viewers.
In a Den of Lions is not for every movie lover but it is an excellent showcase of how far film directing had come in less than two decades since the dawn of cinema. Schnedler-Sørensen plays the audience like a fiddle and elevates his very thin story through nefarious trickery.
Where can I see it?
Stream courtesy of the Danish Film Institute. All the titles are in Danish but the story doesn’t use that many and it’s pretty easy to follow if you just read the synopsis.
☙❦❧
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Movies Silently 
This film shows why old films are often so much more gripping. We know there was a real person there among the cats. In a similar scene in a modern movie, we’d know the actors were never near any big, carnivorous beasts.
But snakes make really boring actors, don’t they?
This one got into the spirit just by being so darn big and starting to wrap around the leading lady’s arm. Brr!