Circus employee Poodles gets into plenty of monkey business (with elephants, tigers and camels, too) while competing with the bullish ringmaster for the love of equestrienne heroine Betty ("she was brought up around horses," a title tells us, adding "her father married a nag"). But when she faints before an important performance, he must don drag so the show can go on. Star Poodles Hanneford must've felt quite at home in this comedy vehicle as he was part of a fabled circus family whose performing roots purportedly went back to 17th century England. Though Poodles (who does some of his famous trick riding here) passed on quite some time ago, the now U.S.-based Royal Hanneford Circus continues to tour today. - Dennis Harvey