The Legend
of the Juggler

(aka MAGIC LEGEND OF THE JUGGLER,
THE JUGGLER OF NOTRE DAME)
(1970, U.S.) color 72 minutes
Lou Tillman Productions
Story: Anatole France ("The Juggler of Notre Dame")
Screenplay: Milton H. Lehr, Marice Tobias ("The Juggler of Notre Dame")
Script Supervisor: Phyllis Schonwetter Shaw
Cinematography: Tom Kolowrat
Produced by Gareth Davies
Directed by: Milton H. Lehr

With: Walter Slezak, Barry Dennen (the Juggler), Willoughby Goddard, Peter Madden, Joe E. Ross, Jessica Benton, Jeff Gillen, Dunya Gabor, Christopher Ellis, Walter McGinn

Plot Outline: After being arrested for stealing fruit while passing through a small village, a wandering minstrel serves his time in a creepy monastery.

***

THE LEGEND OF THE JUGGLER is a terminally odd period fantasy, spoken in Olde Englishe, that could have been filmed on the sly at a local Renaissance Fair, for all the slipshod atmosphere that abounds here, although the credits imply it was filmed in Portugal. Barry Dennen plays the title juggler, an odd Pied Piper figure who gets to appreciate the weird little community he's stumbled upon.

As a main character, Dennon is hard to like, coming across as both deranged and smug. Either way, he's a grating, mugging ham.

Much of the film, a reworking of "The Littlest Angel", is dry as toast, yet other scenes, such as the "Rum de Dum" musical number, fairly jump off the screen.

Most odd of all is the finale, in which the Juggler manages to make a statue of the Virgin Mary cry and lift its arms. A bonafide miracle in the midst of all the pedestrian period shenanigans really jumps out at you, and this is where THE LEGEND OF THE JUGGLER shines.

Otherwise, this film is quite dreary. And it is downright sad to see comedy great Joe E. Ross in a heartbreaking role as a constable. Walter Slezak tells the flashback tale via a hasty wraparound.

If you adore obscure period fantasy, seek this out by all means.

Video/DVD availability: VHS (United American Video, oop)

UPDATE September 2006: The Making of Legend of the Juggler! One of our favorite Kiddie Matinee films, and also one of the most obscure, is the mysterious international co-production, LEGEND OF THE JUGGLER (1970). We only learned of the film's existence thanks to a 1980's VHS release of the film by United Video, courtesy of super-collector Jeffrey C. Hogue. Falling in love with the film on sight, we have been trying to find historical data on this most elusive of Miami-European ventures. As fate would have it, the film's script supervisor, Phyllis Schonwetter Shaw, contacted us recently, and sent us the following amazing production photographs from the film, along with this note: "I can't tell you how much I appreciated, after 37 years, finally getting to see the finished version (of LEGEND OF THE JUGGLER); it meant a great deal to me as well as my family. They've suffered through many boring reminiscences between me, Tom Kolowrat, who was director of photography, Jeff Gillen ( now deceased), who played the chubby, angry shopkeeper and also monk, and Gareth Davies, the producer. I was the script supervisor, and Gareth, Tom, Jeff and I were the non-Lehr family U.S. crew on the film. Like any other film, making LEGEND OF THE JUGGLER involved fun, intrigue, stress and near disaster, but what stands out was the camaraderie between the Yugoslav, American and English actors and crew." Actor Peter Madden and director Milton Lehr in the front of the boat with Phyllis Schonwetter Shaw and Gareth in the rear. The crew could only get to the location by boat, and each morning they would make the trek before the sun came up. The director, Milton Lehr, sets up in a clearing. Phyllis Schonwetter Shaw is the girl with the clipboard and Gareth Davies is the dark haired man caught in a curious position in the far right of the photo. The two other men were local assistants. At the end of filming, IVP dissolved and Gareth Davies ended up in L.A. where he eventually received an Emmy for "The Bicentennial Minutes", a wonderful series of short, historical information produced for our country's 200-year birthday. Gareth is English. He produced many other TV series, most notably to anyone under 21, the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" series. He continues to produce and live in Los Angeles. A similar shot to photot #2, except Jeff Gillen is in it. Jeff worked as an actor in the film, but he worked in many other capacities back in Miami Beach, where International Video Productions was located. He was smart, competent and hardworking, and went on to play the bad Santa in the film classic, A Christmas Story. He also formed his own company in Miami for set building, scenery design, filming and assorted other venues. When he died suddenly, the street his studio was located on was renamed in his honor. Phyllis Schonwetter Shaw with Tom Kolowrat, the director of photography, discussing some issue as on a break while filming. The two met on the set and became close friends during the filming. Tom is a first generation American of Czech ancestry who lives part of the year in the Czech Republic and part of the year in the U.S. He's also a Count and no longer is involved in filmmaking. The first page of a local magazine article that coincided with the film's U.S. release. The photograph shows a different view of one of the interior sets. The young man in the red shirt is Mike London, Milton Lehr's son-in-law at the time. The Legend of the Juggler was filmed in Bled, Yugoslavia, on an island in the middle of Lake Bled. This is in Slovenia, and when it was filmed, across the lake was the summer getaway of Marshal Tito. Shaw states, "I know this well, because one Sunday morning I took the young English actor who played the role of the younger brother, out rowing and as we approached the middle of the Lake, we saw heavy artillery shifting to keep us in their sight. You can bet I beat a hasty retreat back to our side of the Lake. The boy was 12 years old and at 23 years old, I was the closest in age to him. Here I thought I was going to give him a break from his English chaperone/caretaker and I nearly got him killed."