The Circus
About The Circus
A hungry tramp is mistaken for a pickpocket and runs into a failing circus, where his panic gets the only laughs. The ringmaster hires him as a property man because he is funny only by accident, and the show starts to make money. He loves Merna, the ringmaster's stepdaughter and a bareback rider, who is beaten at home. She falls for Rex, the tightrope walker. Fired after he hits the ringmaster, the tramp fetches Rex, sees them married, and walks off as the wagons leave.
Cast & crew
More about The Circus
Charlie Chaplin wrote, produced, directed, and edited it, and plays the tramp. Al Ernest Garcia is the ringmaster, Merna Kennedy is Merna, and Harry Crocker is Rex. The New York premiere was at the Strand Theatre on 6 January 1928. Los Angeles followed at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on 27 January 1928.
Themes
Background
United Artists released it in January 1928, after The Jazz Singer, and Chaplin kept the picture silent.
Making
Production stalled for eight months. Chaplin's mother died, Lita Grey's divorce action delayed the release, and the Internal Revenue Service pressed a claim for back taxes. He later called the shoot the hardest of his career.
Reviews
Mordaunt Hall, in The New York Times on 9 January 1928, thought it would please people who had found The Gold Rush a little wanting, and disappoint people who had loved that film's pathos. Variety, on 11 January, called it Chaplin's best fun-maker. Oliver Claxton, in The New Yorker on 14 January, found long dull stretches between one or two very funny moments.
Audiences
North American theatrical rentals were $1,820,000.
Look
Roland Totheroh shot the film at Chaplin Studios. The negative was scratched early in production; later restoration work reduced the damage.
Music
Silent on first release. In 1967 Chaplin wrote a new score for the reissue and sings Swing Little Girl over the opening credits. That version opened in New York on 15 December 1969.
Preservation
The Academy Film Archive preserved a print in 2002. The renewed copyright expired on 1 January 2024, when the film entered the public domain in the United States.
Notes
- Chaplin was put forward for Best Director of a comedy, Best Actor, and Best Original Story. The Academy took him out of those races and gave him a Special Award instead. The official nominee list no longer carries the three nominations.
- Variety on 21 June 1932 gave worldwide rentals as $3,800,000, a take later described as the seventh-highest for a silent film. North American theatrical rentals were $1,820,000.
- Hanns Eisler worked on music for the film in 1947 and later used it in his Septet No. 2, subtitled Circus.
- The 1969 reissue opened in New York on 15 December 1969 and in London in December 1970.
- A studio fire in September stopped work for a month. The negative was scratched after the first month of shooting.
Awards
- Academy Special Award to Charlie Chaplin for writing, acting, directing and producing The Circus (1929)
Scenes
- Chased as a pickpocket, the tramp blunders into the ring and becomes the act.
- Sent up on the wire when Rex is missing, he finishes the walk while monkeys climb on him.
- After Merna and Rex marry, he watches the circus pull out and walks the other way.
