The Tramp finds himself at a circus where he is promptly chased around by the police who think he is a pickpocket. Running into the Bigtop, he is an accidental sensation with his hilarious efforts to elude the police. The circus owner immediately hires him, but discovers that the Tramp cannot be funny on purpose, so he takes advantage of the situation by making the Tramp a janitor who just happens to always be in the Bigtop at showtime. Unaware of this exploitation, the Tramp... (Full plot summary below)
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The Tramp finds himself at a circus where he is promptly chased around by the police who think he is a pickpocket. Running into the Bigtop, he is an accidental sensation with his hilarious efforts to elude the police. The circus owner immediately hires him, but discovers that the Tramp cannot be funny on purpose, so he takes advantage of the situation by making the Tramp a janitor who just happens to always be in the Bigtop at showtime. Unaware of this exploitation, the Tramp falls for the owner's lovely acrobatic stepdaughter, who is abused by her father. His chances seem good, until a dashing rival comes in and Charlie feels he has to compete with him.
Leave your thoughts about The Circus.
| Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertCharlie Chaplin was a perfectionist in his films and a calamity in his private life. These two traits clashed as he was making The Circus, one of his funniest films and certainly the most troubled. |
| Time OutKeith UhlichThere’s an edge to The Circus that suggests a man gazing deep into the void, laughing at the darkness and urging us to do the same. |
| Slant MagazineChristian BlauveltIt is Chaplin’s great elegy to the lost art of music-hall pantomime and, for that matter, the soon-to-be lost art of silent-film comedy. |
| Salon.comAndrew O'HehirMixing sweetness, darkness, violence and delirious gags, this 1928 must-see showcases film's greatest comic. |
| Combustible CelluloidJeffrey M. AndersonIt's a beautiful film and perhaps more personal that anyone might have suspected at the time. |
| LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenMostly the movie registers as a comedy flag being planted, a claim being made. Anything your average clown could do, Chaplin could do better. |
| Examiner.comAdam LippeIt is the political subtext and discussion of capitalism vs. communism that is the saving grace of The Circus, since the surface material, comprised of frantic slapstick mixed with maudlin and melodrama, is very standard for Chaplin. |
| The SpectatorCelia SimpsonThe Circus is a magnificent film -- a mental tonic and a good hour's physical exercise. No one should miss it. |
| eCinemaCenter.comGabe LeibowitzChaplin's most underrated, consistently hysterical, and imaginative picture. |
| The New York TimesMordaunt HallThere are passages in The Circus that are undoubtedly too long and others that are too extravagant for even this blend of humor. But Chaplin's unfailing imagination helps even when the sequence is obviously slipping from grace. |
