The Circus
The Tramp finds work and the girl of his dreams at a circus. The ringmaster of an impoverished circus hires Chaplin's Little Tramp as a clown, but discovers that he can only be funny unintentionally, not on purpose.
19 November 1871, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
16 April 1889, Walworth, London, England, UK
2 July 1893, San Francisco, California, USA
1 August 1894, Eau Claire, Wisconsin, USA
23 February 1868, San Francisco, California, USA
7 September 1908, Kankakee, Illinois, USA
26 February 1894, Osage, Iowa, USA
September 14, 1907 in Brooklyn, New York, USA
7 November 1889, Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
25 December 1876, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
July 16, 1886 in San Francisco, California, USA
11 March 1887, San Francisco, California, USA
April 14, 2006
In some ways The Circus is Chaplin's Stardust Memories, his reflexive self-observation in which Woody Allen's line, 'We like your earlier, funny movies,' flashes subliminally among the frames.
November 16, 2004
Chaplin's most underrated, consistently hysterical, and imaginative picture.
May 26, 2010
Innovative and timelessly hilarious.
July 20, 2004
It's a beautiful film and perhaps more personal that anyone might have suspected at the time.
July 15, 2010
sort of B-grade alternative to City Lights
July 14, 2010
There'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.
July 11, 2010
The Circus may be the film that most definitively silences critics who claim that Charlie Chaplin's movies aren't cinematic.
August 17, 2011
It 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.
December 11, 2005
Chaplin's slapstick comedy worked to great effect.
March 12, 2004
most overlooked film . . . contains some of the Tramp's best comic moments
July 14, 2010
It's a brilliant combination of light and darkness, tenderness and violence and, yes, laughter and tears.
November 05, 2004
Receiving his first Best Actor Oscar nomination, Chaplin is brilliant in this slapstick comedy, set in a milieu that fits him like a glove.
