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A clown on stilts towers above his fellow performers during a production number. Susan Selky (Kate Nelligan) bundles up her off to disappear in "Without a Trace." it Mix of tradition r.irni is tr By John Vaughan Crushed popcorn boxes, spilled soda an torn posters were all that remained lat Sunday night, as The Greatest Show o Earth pulled out of town. The 112th edition of Ringling Bros, an Barnum & Bailey Circus, in Carolin Coliseum for six performances during th weekend, was a mix of tradition and trial. The circus pleased its audiences with th familiar sights of elephants, clowns, traine animals and exciting acrobats. It als watched for reaction to new acts and to it increased emphasis on the Spectacular, th choreographed production number tha closes the first half of the circus routine. THE "SPEC," as it's called by its pei formers, is sheer showmanship, wit colorful costuming and plenty of singing an dancing. This year's production centered on a Wil West themfe. Set in a huge "dance hall" tha covers the three circus rings, the show i played to the entire arena. Choreographers Bill Bradley and Jerr Fries, with costumer Don Foote, reportedl; worked on the show for a year. "Instead c more parading, though, we concentrated o more uancing, saia tsraaiey. The kids in the crowd seemed duly awe< by all the sights and sounds, far too broai for them to see all at once. Older circu buffs, however, seemed puzzled by the ne^ accent, though it was impossible to judg whether the reaction was positive o negative. The applause acknowledged a least the feeling that all the hullabaloo wa well-rehearsed and a fine effort. ONE OF THE circus' highlights thi season is the presence of 18-year-old M guel Vasquez of The Flying Vasquez. Th young acrobat is the first man ever t successfully complete a quadruple son ersault on the flying trapeze. Vasquez, unfortunately, missed hi mark at the second show Saturday a ternoon and landed in the safety ne This reporter can only guess as t ^ whether he made it during th otner periormances. One daredevil that made goc was Elvin Bale, who thrilled th audience with defiance of grav ty in the wildly spinning "Whe< of Death." Circus titles are s dramatic; Bale is known as th "Phantom of Balance." rt Alex (Daniel CorkiH) for school, and sends hin , trial eats Coliseunr V Famed tiger trainer Charly Baumann is a crowd circus, as he toys with the big cats. s f- Charly Baumann's trained tiger act and t. Axel Gautier's performing elephants were ;o shows rooted in circus tradition, and the ie crowd loved them, cheering wildly at Baumann's bravery anH at r.antim-'g in. d credible command of his ponderous le pachyderms. i r1 THE CIRCUS sets up with one end of the ;o arena as an entrance, which means the le people with seats on that end sometimes feel "behind" the action. Producer's direci suffers from pre By Doug Bell "Without a Trace" marks the directorial j| debut of Stanley Jaffe, the Academy Award 3 winning producer of such films as "Kramer vs. Kramer" and "Taps." Those films reveal a concern for youth and the tensions of tender years. "Without a Trace" is another example of the "Kramer" formula, appealing to those among us with soft hearts ? and perhaps even softer heads. Based on the novel "Still Missing" by Beth Gutcheon (who wrote the screenplay as well), "Without a Trace" concerns an independent mother's determined search to find her six-year-old son, who vanishes one morning on his way to school. SUSAN SELKY (Kate Nelligan) wakes up her blond-haired boy Alex (Daniel Corkill), s/?nlrfo him tjontIn ff l: ? ' * ' * mi gvniijr iui itxuiug ins oreaKtcist to the dog and waves goodbye to him at the street crossing. When her son doesn't return that evening, Selky calls the police. Within hours, her apartment is swarming with people: reporters, busybodies, friends, policemen, her ex-husband (David Dukes) and most prominently, detective A1 Menetti (Judd Hirsh, from "Ordinary People" and television's "Taxi"). Menetti is thorough, sensitive and dedicated, but after weeks of investigation, he fails to come up with any definite leads concerning the boy's disappearance. He continues the search largely because he is cn m nuA/i 1 * ow ...v?vtu vjy ocii\y s orave, neadstrong persistence, which seems unquenchable. As this synopsis suggests, the plot lacks substance. It's interesting enough to a point, I Ul Uvvllo avorito in Ringling Bros, and Barnum& Bailey The 15 miles of rope and cable necessary to set up the circus were necessarily strung all over Carolina Coliseum. A circus official commented on the smaliness of the Coliseum, citing several "near misses" that escaped the audience's attention. That was as it should be, though. At the circus, the only things the audience should focus on are the things that make it fun, and the crushed popcorn boxes, spilled soda and torn posters certainly attest to that idea. torial debut film review but that point is passed halfway into the movie, rne turn's subject and scope would have been better suited to television. MOST OF the story's dramatic details are well directed ? again, up to a point. The restrained, authentic, unsentimental quality of the first scenes are admirable. A lesser director would have oversweetened the episodes before the kid's disappearance in order to "intensify" the feeling of loss. But Jaffe keeps a lid on it ? only to spill it in the end. The final scene pours on a truckload of sap, sickeningly sweet and nauseating. The film is almost redeemed by Nelligan's performance as the mother. Nelligan, who was lauded in 1980's "Eye of the Needle," is an intelligent actress, playing in this case an intelligent woman, a professor of English at Columbia University. Not a great beauty, Nelligan possesses a radiant, cheeky sensuality, somewhat like an Irish Ingrid Bergman. She is remarkably adept at conveying emotional trauma; the viewer senses Selky's natural qualities of cleverness, sensitivity, practicality and obstinance all raging against fear within her. "Without a Trace" is a harmless lit tip movie in which good actors enliven a mawkish, meager story. It is obviously intended to be significant, inspiring, etc., but this reviewer's only response as the credits rolled up was "so what?''