The Circus

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.