The Mighty Barnum

Wallace Beery, remembered for his disruptive scene-stealing in perennials Dinner at Eight and Grand Hotel, here plays showman PT Barnum in the period before his name was linked with that of Bailey. True to '30s biopic form, key moments and characters in Barnum's life are stitched together with improbable and entirely fictional romanticism, tracing his route from small-town con artist to international circus celebrity.