Not part of a collection.
The Circus
The Circus is Here!
Charlie, a wandering tramp, becomes a circus handyman - soon the star of the show - and falls in love with the circus owner's stepdaughter.
- Original title
- The Circus
- Language
- EN
- Country
- US
- Budget
- $9,000,000
- Revenue
- —
CinemaSerf
Oct 10, 2025 · via TMDB
This is definitely my favourite Charlie Chaplin outing for the “Tramp” as he alights at the circus and discovers that he has quite a penchant for entertaining the crowds. Of course, we only discover this after a few mishaps with the police who think he’s a vagrant trained by “Fagin” lead him to the big top where his antics cause ructions of laughter. The boss of this enterprise knows he’s onto a winner, but not to a performing seal. This “Tramp” doesn’t rehearse or perform any standard routine, he can only improvise as events dictate! With some careful manipulation, this soon makes the shows a success and sees our newly successful entertainer become smitten with his boss’s daughter (Merna Kennedy). Needless to say, the owner (Al Ernest Garcia) isn’t so impressed, but then he has a habit of mistreating his daughter anyway so maybe the “Tramp” might be able to offer her some protection from his abuse. Just when things look to be rosey, the debonair tightrope walking “Rex” (Harry Cracker) arrives and begins to steal his thunder. How to compete? Well fight fire with fire, of course - metaphorically and fifty feet above the ground! Chaplin delivers effortlessly here with a comedic timing that is skilfully disguised as chaotic and slapstick but in reality is so perfectly choreographed as to look simple and natural. The love story adds a little extra substance to the characterisations as he and Kennedy clearly understand how to perform with each other, and it also serves as a reminder of just how crucial these travelling circuses were to a small town America where family entertainment was thin on the ground. It also illustrates just how frugal life was as these “acts” travelled from town to town living as subsistence an existence as many of their mangy and malnourished beasts that fascinated the audiences. A finer example of less being more you’ll probably never see, and on a big screen with a live pianist this is cinema at it’s finest, and funniest.
talisencrw
Apr 13, 2016 · via TMDB
When I'm faced with challenges in my life, I am somewhat heartened by something I learned as a child, that an oyster has to be irritated by a grain of sand in order to eventually make a pearl. That knowledge always made the load I was carrying seem less significant, and helped me to see the light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. Cinematically speaking, at least in the fine age of silent movies, one of the most difficult gestation periods for the birth of a great film was the highly traumatic 11 months of production for one of Sir Charles Chaplin's masterpieces, 'The Circus'. I love both silent cinema and early filmic comedies, and though I prefer Buster Keaton to Chaplin, I always enjoy his great works, up to and including 'The Great Dictator'. Particularly close to my heart is 'The Circus'. Considering all of the brutal disasters Sir Charles Chaplin was facing during the movie's elongated production (ruined film negative, studio burning down, Lita Grey's divorce papers [and the related sex-scandals hitting the papers], nervous breakdown, mother dying, IRS demanding a million in back taxes, one of the circus wagons being stolen, just to mention a few), it's miraculous that a film was released at all, let alone one as gracefully hilarious yet contemplatively mature as 'The Circus', and that he was able to both recover and rebound from this bad spell to have a superlative career as one of the greatest actor/directors ever to grace cinema. His life was basically a three-ring circus, and he was still able to retain his dignity and escape virtually unscathed. Because of the aforementioned trials and tribulations he endured in those eleven months of the film's making (which IMHO would be worthy of a fine film itself, in its documentation and chronicling), though it may not be as side-splitting in its hilarity as 'The Gold Rush' or 'Modern Times', it will probably hold the closest place to my heart of Chaplin's films.
User reviews courtesy of TMDB.
Amazon Video
Apple TV Store
Fandango At Home
FlixFling
Amazon Prime Video
HBO Max Amazon Channel
Criterion Channel
YouTube TV
FlixFling
HBO Max
Amazon Prime Video with Ads
The Surf Network Amazon Channel
Amazon Video
Apple TV Store
Fandango At Home
FlixFling
Charlie Chaplin
A Tramp
Al Ernest Garcia
The Circus Proprietor and Ring Master
Merna Kennedy
The Proprietor's Step-Daughter Merna, a Circus Rider
Harry Crocker
Rex, a Tight Rope Walker
George Davis
A Magician
Henry Bergman
An Old Clown
Tiny Sandford
The Head Property Man
John Rand
An Assistant Property Man
Steve Murphy
A Pickpocket
Albert Austin
Clown (uncredited)
Chester A. Bachman
Cop (uncredited)
Stanley Blystone
Cop (uncredited)
Heinie Conklin
Clown (uncredited)
Betty Morrissey
The Vanishing Lady (uncredited)
Jack Pierce
Man Operating Ropes (uncredited)
Harry Crocker
Unit Publicist
Harry Crocker
Assistant Director
Charlie Chaplin
Director
Charlie Chaplin
Editor
Al Ernest Garcia
Casting
Charlie Chaplin
Producer
Charlie Chaplin
Music
Charlie Chaplin
Theme Song Performance
Charlie Chaplin
Writer
The White Rose
Shari al-bahlawan
Lady at Number 16
The Fifth Groom
Unfamiliar Memories
The Unknown Past
The Newest City in the World
Rigadin No Longer Loves Cinema
His Dog
The Tale of Three Girls
Johan på Snippen
Ko-Ko's Hot Dog
Alguien mató algo
High and Low
The Way of the Strong
City Lights
Il Sorpasso
Tokyo Story
Le Trou
The Beginning and the End
Bicycle Thieves
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Persona
The World of Apu
Metropolis
Sherlock Jr.
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Judgment at Nuremberg
The Hidden Fortress
Chungking Express
Autumn Sonata
The Lure of Crooning Water
Smith's Army Life
Not So Long Ago
At the North Sea
The Vampire
The American Venus
The Headless Woman
The Three Kings
Banat bahari
Citizen Kane
Before Sunrise
The Great Escape
Sanjuro
The Exterminating Angel
Roman Holiday
Andrei Rublev
The Virgin Spring
The Battle of Algiers
Winter Light
Circus of Life
Rosemary's Baby
Before Sunset
Anatomy of a Murder
Aparajito
Mulholland Drive
Pather Panchali
Through a Glass Darkly
Le Samouraï
The Best Years of Our Lives
The Face of Another
The Leopard
Hiroshima Mon Amour
Dreams
A Raisin in the Sun
The Hustler
Brazil
Amores Perros
I Vitelloni
Cairo 30
Elevator to the Gallows
All About My Mother
Le Cercle Rouge
The Big Country
War and Peace
My Man Godfrey
Angels with Dirty Faces
The Music Room
Control
Birdman of Alcatraz
Bringing Up Baby
L'Avventura
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
Miramar
Polidor cambia sesso
Altas variedades
Sur un fil
Y Tu Mamá También
Ashes and Diamonds
The Gospel According to St. Matthew
Scrooge
Kes
Destiny
Matewan
Repulsion
Lifeboat
Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx
Cyrano de Bergerac
Lolita
Steamboat Willie
Cabiria
Thief
The Aerial
After Life
An Inspector Calls
King Rat
Sunset and Sunrise
The Room
The Proposal
Following
The Keys of the Kingdom
The Spy Who Came In from the Cold
Bashful
The Wolf Man
Shanghai Express
The Misfits
Christmas in Connecticut
Monkey Business
Oliver!
Love's Devotee
Deserted Palaces
La tarde del domingo
Eayida
The Marital Dwelling
Eashiqat nafsiha
Caucasian romance
The Traveler
Ghaltet El Omr
No Tears
Salama Is Fine
Animal Crackers
Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl
Horse Feathers
L'Âge d'or
Broadcast News
Brighton Rock
Buck Privates
True Stories
Sabotage
Bottle Rocket
Going My Way
The Thief and the Dogs
The Postman
The Arab
High and Dizzy
If the Father and the Son
The Ten Commandments
Yacout
SHTTL
In Search of a Midnight Kiss
The Black Cat
Sons and Lovers
Love in the Time of Advertising
Zapata's Gang
Seven Sinners
Get Out and Get Under
Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam
Two Weeks Notice
Road to Singapore
Haunted Spooks
Dew
The Little Shop of Horrors
Return to Reason: Four Films by Man Ray
Now or Never
The Magician
Captain Kidd's Kids
Sherlock Holmes
The Jazz Singer
Secret Agent
Now Judge...
The Bulldog Breed
The Girl and the Echo
Aurat
Spring in the South
I Do
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
All About the Benjamins
By the Sad Sea Waves
Pippi Longstocking
When Knighthood Was in Flower
One Night in the Tropics
Look Pleasant, Please
Night Express
Fögi Is a Bastard
Pay Your Dues
Happy Ever After
The Mistletoe Bough
Follow the Crowd
The Rajah
Paseo por una guerra antigua
Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens
Boxing Helena
Carmen, the Bandit's Daughter
Harvey
Café Brawl (Remake)
I Demand Payment
The Last Romantic Lover
Move On
El horrible ser nunca visto
Carnival Magic
The Sheets Must Be Silk
The Cold Deck
Resurrection of a Corpse
Four Feathers
The Belle and the Thief
The Beast in Man
The Safe Road
So Divine
Her Satanic Majesty
Just My Imagination
The Iron Woman
Echo and Response
The “Damsel”
A Life in Technicolor
Sudoku
مجرم تحت الاختبار
Eghraa
Al-Haz Al-Sa'eed
Berlanty
Když cirkus přezimoval
Tar Bayet
Der Todeskuss
Spot25N - Rompe el Ciclo
Tears in Kuala Lumpur
BARNI: A Barnabás Ambrus Story
Ishmael
Pain & Potassium
Modern Times
City Lights
Safety Last!
Sabrina
The Secret: Dare to Dream
The Hating Game
The Proposal
Melody
Rosaline
Twelfth Night
Water for Elephants
Endless Love
Mannequin
Much Ado About Nothing
Love in Taipei
The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
A California Christmas: City Lights
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers
Strictly Ballroom
Fools Rush In
Corner Office
A California Christmas
Shall We Dance?
Bootmen
Father of the Bride
Bronco Billy
Not Easily Broken
Wedding Season
Love Sarah
Which Brings Me to You
The Baltimorons
Home Again
The Prince & Me 4: The Elephant Adventure
Runaway Bride
Chéri
Danny Deckchair
Love, Weddings & Other Disasters
Author! Author!
Waiting for Forever
One from the Heart
Catch and Release
The April Fools
The Big Picture
The Right Kind of Wrong
Picture Perfect
L.A. Without a Map
Jan 6, 1928
New York City, New York
May 3, 1969
Re-release
Jun 5, 2005
Seattle International Film Festival
Sep 24, 2019
Bluray
