The Wagons Roll at Night

From a traveling carnival managed by Nick Coster (Humphrey Bogart), an aggressive lion named Caesar escapes, but is cornered in a grocery store by clerk Matt Varney (Eddie Albert). Seeing that Matt has become an instant celebrity with the town's residents, Nick hires the farm boy to work with his current lion tamer, Hoffman the Great (Sig Ruman), who drinks alcohol before his shows. When Hoffman is passed out after being inebriated and is unable to perform, Nick convinces Matt that he is ready to run the show. After a successful performance in the lion cage, Nick replaces Hoffman with Matt as his lion tamer.