Man on a Tightrope (1953)

In 1952 Czechoslovakia, circus man Karel Cernik struggles to keep his beloved Cirkus Cernik together, which belonged to his family before being nationalized by the Communist government. The government allows Cernik to manage the circus, but he grapples with deteriorating conditions in the circus, loss of his workers to the state, and tension with his willful daughter Tereza, and his young second wife Zama, whom everyone suspects of being unfaithful. Cernik wants to end a budding romance between Tereza and roustabout Joe Vosdek, who has been with the circus for only a year.

File this under films that depict the treatment of soviet satellite states once they were under communist rule.

Fredric March as Karel Cernik
Terry Moore as Tereza Cernik
Gloria Grahame as Zama Cernik
Cameron Mitchell as Joe Vosdek
Adolphe Menjou as Fesker
Robert Beatty as Barovic
Alexander D'Arcy as Rudolph
Richard Boone as Krofta
Pat Henning as Konradin
Paul Hartman as Jaromir
John Dehner as the SNB chief