‘Go ahead and be funny…’
The Circus is probably the least well-renowned of Charlie Chaplin’s early run of feature-length masterpieces. It lacks the pathos of The Kid or City Lights, it doesn’t have the social commentary of Modern Times or The Great Dictator, and it never matches the visual flair of The Gold Rush. As such, it deserves to be thought of as the worst of that particular sequence of films. Luckily, the worst Chaplin film (and I’m not counting his later work or the stuff that the Tramp doesn’t appear in), is still better than most films out there…
In possibly his simplest plot yet, the Tramp (Chaplin) is advantageously appointed by a local circus after accidentally entering the big top and gaining more of a laugh than the troupe of clowns already employed by the strict circus proprietor (Al Ernest Garcia). The Tramp, however, is more concerned with winning the heart of the circus proprietor’s charming stepdaughter Merna (Merna Kennedy).
Barely mentioned in Chaplin’s own autobiography, perhaps it is not surprising that The Circus didn’t turn out as well as the movies that came out before and after it. Chaplin was in the middle of a messy divorce from one of his many much younger brides – Lita Grey in this case – and the studio burned down during filming. Chaplin’s beloved and troubled mother Hannah also died while the film was being made. If that were not enough, the famous climatic tightrope scene, a scene in which Chaplin genuinely performed on a tightrope 40 feet above the ground, had to be refilmed after the original negative was accidentally scratched – Chaplin always claimed that his original performance was better. That being said, it really is a stunning scene, as is the wonderful set piece in which the Tramp is trapped inside a lion’s cage. Those two moments aside, however, The Circus doesn’t have as much to offer as the rest of the Chaplin canon and therefore isn’t as essential. There are still plenty of moments to enjoy but my advice would be to reach for all of the aforementioned Chaplin films before you cop for this one – despite the fact that the ending is pleasingly lacking in sentimentality.