It’s not as bleak and depraved as Nightmare Alley (1947) but Pierre Billon’s Jusqu’au dernier (US: Until the Last One) also offers up broken characters struggling to exist in a circus milieu. Raymond Pellegrin plays Fernand Bastia, who, after his release from prison, tracks down his sister Marcella (Lila Kedrova), who works at a circus along with dancer Gina (Jeanne Moreau), trapeze artist Philippe (Howard Vernon), and others. Marcella secures Fernand a circus job and shelter to hide him from gangster Ricioni (Paul Meurisse), who’s looking for the money Fernand claims (untruthfully) not to possess, while Gina falls in love with Fernand and persuades him to let her in on the truth. Dismissed by some unfairly as a minor film, Until the Last One is admittedly a bit uneven but boasts an outstanding cast of familiar French performers and some wonderful action and suspense sequences, such as the police raid, gunfight, and tunnel escape from Ricioni’s restaurant, and the detention and torture of Fernand and Gina by brutal henchman Pépé (Jacques Dufhilo).