berserk

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(bər-sûrk', -zûrk', bə-)

1. Destructively or frenetically violent: a berserk worker who started smashing all the windows.
2. Mentally or emotionally upset; deranged: berserk with grief.
3. Informal. Unrestrained, as with enthusiasm or appetite; wild: berserk over chocolates.

1. One that is violent, upset, or unrestrained.
2. A berserker.

[Back-formation from BERSERKER.]

WORD HISTORY   When we say that we are going berserk, we may not realize how extreme a state this might be. Our adjective comes from the noun berserker, or berserk, which is from the Old Norse word berserkr, "a wild warrior or champion." Such warriors wore hides of bears, which explains the probable origin of berserkr as a compound of *bera, "bear," and serkr, "shirt, coat." These berserkers became frenzied in battle, howling like animals, foaming at the mouth, and biting the edges of their iron shields. Berserker is first recorded in English in the early 19th century, long after these wild warriors ceased to exist.

In the early Middle Ages, the Vikings of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark were famous for going berserk--not because they were simply crazy, but because they were as crazy as a bear when they overran and terrorized England and northern Europe. In Old Norse, the Viking language, berserk meant "bear shirt." Instead of wearing body armor, berserkers would put on bearskins, which would transform them mentally, if not physically, into bears. By some accounts, they would also prep themselves by eating psychedelic mushrooms. They would then enter battle in a fearless rage, and if they won they would pillage afterwards with the same fury. The earliest king of Norway, Harald Fairhair (850-933), had berserkers as his household guard.

Not until nearly a thousand years later, when the berserkers were a safely distant memory, did their name appear in English. One of the first modern writers to describe them was Sir Walter Scott in his 1822 novel The Pirate. "Aye--aye," says an old woman, "the Berserkars were champions who lived before the blessed days of St. Olave [died 1030], and who used to run like madmen on swords, and spears, and harpoons, and muskets, and snap them all into pieces, as a finner [a whale] would go through a herring-net, and then, when the fury went off, they were as weak and unstable as water."

Since Scott's revival of the word, even though the original berserkers are long gone, there has often been occasion to speak of someone "going berserk." In 1940, for example, the Chicago Tribune wrote of "the recent addition of the word 'berserk," as a synonym for crackpot behavior, to the slang of the young and untutored." In the 1990s, things got so wild that to the expressions go berserk and run amok we added a third, go postal.

Old Norse is the ancestor of modern Norwegian and Icelandic. Thanks to the uninvited presence of Vikings in England, hundreds of Old Norse words entered the English vocabulary much earlier than berserk. The very pronouns they and their are from Old Norse, as are basic verbs like cast, crawl, hit, stagger, and take; adjectives like loose, low, odd, ugly, and weak; and numerous nouns like anger, bag, dirt, egg, gift, skill, skirt, skin, sky, thrift, and window. All these Norse words became English during the Middle Ages, some as early as the 800s and none later than the fourteenth century.

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• Excessive, Mad, Insane, or Radical
• Insanity - berserk: (adj) frenzied; crazed

This article is about the film. For other meanings, see Berserk (disambiguation).

Berserk!
Original theatrical poster
Directed by	Jim O'Connolly
Produced by	Herman Cohen Aben Kandel
Written by	Herman Cohen
Starring	Joan Crawford Ty Hardin Judy Geeson
Music by	John Scott
Cinematography	Desmond Dickinson
Editing by	Raymond Poulton
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	September 1967 (UK), January 1968 (US)
Running time	96 min.
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Berserk! is a 1967 British Technicolor thriller film starring Joan Crawford, Ty Hardin, and Judy Geeson in a macabre mother and daughter tale about a circus plagued with murders. The screenplay was written by Herman Cohen and Aben Kandel, and the film directed by Jim O'Connolly. Berserk! marks Crawford's penultimate big-screen appearance.

Contents 1 Plot and cast 2 Cast 3 Reception 4 DVD release 5 References 6 External links

Plot and cast

Monica Rivers (Joan Crawford) and Dorando (Michael Gough) own a travelling English circus. Monica acts as the ring mistress, and Dorando is the business manager.

When Gaspar the Great falls to his death, it appears that his tightrope might have been purposely weakened. Monica's unemotional reaction to the tragedy alarms Dorando. When she suggests it will be good for business, he asks her to buy him out, which she refuses to do. Monica hires a new high-wire walker, Frank Hawkins (Ty Hardin). Not only is he handsome, he is daring as he does his act over a carpet of sharp bayonets. Monica is impressed, especially by his physical appearance. Shortly after an argument with Monica, Dorando is found gruesomely murdered. Suspicion of Monica's guilt grows and Frank in particular suspects her as he saw her leaving Dorando's trailer before Dorando was discovered. He confronts Monica with this information, demanding a share in the circus for his silence.

Monica's daughter, Angela (Judy Geeson), having been expelled from school, shows up at the circus. Not knowing what to do with her unruly daughter, Monica pairs her with Gustavo the knife thrower (Peter Burton). Another of the circus members is Matilda (Diana Dors) who attempts to seduce Frank, which Monica discovers. During Matilda's act, sawing-a-woman-in-half, there is a malfunction in the equipment and she is killed. During his high-wire act, Frank falls onto the bayonets and is killed. It was not an accident. Angela was seen throwing a knife into him before he fell. Then she confesses she has hated her mother for years as a result being ignored and has been "removing" those who take up her mother's time. She then unsuccessfully tries to kill her mother. As Angela attempts to escape, she is electrocuted by an exposed wire during a rainstorm. Monica sobs inconsolably over her daughter's body.

Cast

• Joan Crawford as Monica Rivers
• Ty Hardin as Frank Hawkins
• Diana Dors as Matilda
• Michael Gough as Albert Dorando
• Judy Geeson as Angela Rivers
• Robert Hardy as Detective Supt. Brooks
• Geoffrey Keen as Commissioner Dalby
• Sydney Tafler as Harrison Liston
• George Claydon as Bruno Fontana
• Philip Madoc as Lazlo
• Ambrosine Phillpotts as Miss Burrows
• Thomas Cimarro as Gaspar
• Peter Burton as Gustavo
• Golda Casimir as Bearded Lady
• Ted Lune as Skeleton Man
• Milton Reid as Strong Man
• Marianne Stone as Wanda
• Miki Iveria as Gypsy Fortune-Teller
• Howard Goorney as Emil
• Reginald Marsh as Sergeant Hutchins
• Bryan Pringle as Constable Bradford

Reception

Howard Thompson gave the film a mostly negative review in The New York Times, comparing it unfavorably to Circus of Horrors, but also commented, "It's also hard to make a hopeless movie with a circus background and sawdust aroma. This is the one solid thing the picture has going for it—the intriguing workaday routine of circus folk and some good, spangly ring acts, all handsomely conveyed in excellent color photography. And under the reasonable direction of Jim O'Connolly, the film does project a kind of defiant suspense that dares you not to sit there, see who gets it next and, finally, why." He goes on to state that Crawford "...is professional as usual and certainly the shapeliest ringmaster ever to handle a ring microphone."^[1]

Frank Leyendecker in Greater Amusements wrote, "Joan Crawford gives authority and extreme conviction to the colorful role of a circus owner and ringmaster...she consistently rises above the highly melodramatic, yet exploitable, material."

Lawrence Quirk wrote in Hollywood Screen Parade, "[Crawford] is all over the picture, radiant, forceful, authoritative, a genuine movie star whose appeal never diminishes."^[2]

DVD release

Berserk! was released on Region 1 DVD on September 6, 2011 from Columbia Classics DVD Collection. This is a Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) release, available online through Warner Archive Collection and ClassicFlix and only in the US.

References

1. ^ http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9A05E0DE1430EE3BBC4952DFB7668383679EDE
2. ^ Quirk, Lawrence J.. The Films of Joan Crawford. The Citadel Press, 1968.

External links

• Berserk! at the Internet Movie Database
• Berserk! at AllRovi
• Berserk! at the TCM Movie Database
• Review at TVGuide.com
• Berserk! Movie Stills
• Interview, Attack of the Monster Movie Makers: Herman Cohen, Crazed Trog Goes Berserk!

v t e Films directed by Jim O'Connolly 1960s The Hi-Jackers (1963) Smokescreen (1964) The Little Ones (1965) Berserk! (1967) Crooks and Coronets (1969) The Valley of Gwangi (1969) 1970s Tower of Evil (1972) Mistress Pamela (1974)

v t e Filmography of Joan Crawford 1925-1939 The Circle (1925) Pretty Ladies (1925) The Only Thing (1925) Sally, Irene and Mary (1925) Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1926) The Boob (1926) The Unknown (1927) Twelve Miles Out (1927) West Point (1928) Our Dancing Daughters (1928) Rose-Marie (1928) Across to Singapore (1928) Dream of Love (1928) The Duke Steps Out (1929) Our Modern Maidens Paid (1930) Dance, Fools, Dance (1931) Laughing Sinners (1931) Possessed (1931) This Modern Age (1931) Grand Hotel (film) (1932) Letty Lynton (1932) Rain (1932) Dancing Lady (1933) Today We Live (1933) Sadie McKee (1934) Chained (1934) Forsaking All Others (1934) No More Ladies (1935) I Live My Life (1935) Love on the Run (1936) The Gorgeous Hussy (1936) The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1937) The Bride Wore Red (1937) Mannequin (1938) The Shining Hour (1938) The Ice Follies of 1939 (1939) The Women (1939) 1940-1949 Strange Cargo (1940) Susan and God (1940) A Woman's Face (1941) When Ladies Meet (1941) They All Kissed the Bride (1942) Reunion in France (1942) Above Suspicion (1943) Hollywood Canteen (1944) Mildred Pierce (1945) Humoresque (1946) Possessed (1947) Daisy Kenyon (1947) Flamingo Road (1949) It's a Great Feeling (1949) 1950-1959 The Damned Don't Cry! (1950) Harriet Craig (1950) Goodbye, My Fancy (1951) This Woman Is Dangerous (1952) Sudden Fear (1952) Torch Song (1953) Johnny Guitar (1954) Female on the Beach (1955) Queen Bee (1955) Autumn Leaves (1956) The Story of Esther Costello (1957) The Best of Everything (1959) 1960-1970 What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) The Caretakers (1963) Strait-Jacket (1964) I Saw What You Did (1965) Berserk! (1967) Trog (1970)

v t e Cinema of the United Kingdom Culture of the United Kingdom World cinema Films by year (Films A–Z) Pre 1920 1920s 1930s 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Production companies and studios Active Aardman Animations BBC Films British Lion Films Ealing Studios Elstree Studios Eon Productions Film4 Productions Goldcrest Films Hammer Film Productions HandMade Films London Films Palace Pictures The Pinewood Studios Group (Pinewood Studios Shepperton Studios) S4C Films Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden Wimbledon Studios Working Title Films Former Amicus Productions Associated British Picture Corporation Bryanston Films Denham Film Studios Gainsborough Pictures Hemdale Film Corporation Ideal Rank Organisation Tigon British Film Productions Warwick Films Organisations BAFTA British Board of Film Classification British Film Institute BFI National Archive BFI Southbank British Society of Cinematographers Children's Film Foundation Cinema Exhibitors' Association National Film and Television School National Media Museum Northern Ireland Screen Scottish Screen UK Film Council People Actors and actresses Cinematographers Directors Editors Producers Production designers Score composers Screenwriters Other British Academy Film Awards British Independent Film Awards British New Wave Carry On Cinematograph Films Act 1927 Documentary Film Movement Eady Levy Ealing Comedies Free Cinema Gainsborough melodramas Harry Potter History of British film certificates Home Video Charts James Bond London Film Festival London in film Telecinema Category Commons

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Dansk (Danish)
adj. - bersærk, amok
n. - bersærker

Nederlands (Dutch)
ziedend, woesteling

Français (French)
adj. - fou furieux, furibond
n. - fou furieux

Deutsch (German)
adj. - rasend, wutschäumend
n. - Berserker

Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - μαινόμενος, φρενιασμένος
n. - Νορβηγός πολεμιστής
v. - γίνομαι έξαλλος, μαίνομαι

Italiano (Italian)
furibondo, guerriero vichingo, perdere ogni controllo

Português (Portuguese)
adj. - furioso, frenético
n. - guerreiro (m) nórdico que luta com furor frenético

Русский (Russian)
вышедший из-под контроля, разъяренный

Español (Spanish)
adj. - enloquecido
n. - frenético

Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - bärsärk-
n. - bärsärk
v. - gå bärsärkergång

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
狂暴的, 狂怒的, 狂暴斗士

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 狂暴的, 狂怒的
n. - 狂暴鬥士

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 광포한, 미친 듯이 날뛰는
n. - 광포한 전사, 폭한

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 狂暴な
n. - 狂戦士, 狂暴な人
adv. - 狂暴に

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(صفه) بلا سيطرة (الاسم) فاقد السيطرة, مجنون (فعل) جن جنونه, اندفع هائجا‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮בטירוף זעם, אחוז-חימה, כועס‬
n. - ‮בעבר: לוחם פרא מארצות הצפון‬

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