Circus [Criterion Collection]

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The Circus, Charlie Chaplin's last truly silent film, is perhaps his most underrated feature and certainly one of the funniest. It was made during a difficult period for Chaplin -- his divorce from Lita Grey, his mother's death and a near-nervous breakdown, and was beset by production problems -- ruined footage and a studio fire. Under the big top of a travelling circus and side show, a bareback rider jumps through a paper hoop. The show is on, lead by a stern Ring Master, the stepfather of the star equestrienne, Merna. Her act over, Merna receives a berating and some rough treatment for missing a hoop. When the clowns come off they receive similar remarks. Out on the midway, a crowd is gathered in front of a fun house. Near the back of the crowd we see hungry and broke Charlie from the rear. A pickpocket is at work nearby, and noticing a nearby cop he deposits his booty, a watch and wallet, into an unknowing Charlie's pocket. The cop gives chase to the pickpocket as Charlie makes his way to a hot dog stand, where he cajoles a toddler into sharing his hot dog. Along comes the pickpocket who attempts to relieve Charlie of the goods but is caught by another cop, who returns the valuables to Charlie, who promptly orders lunch. As he eats, the pickpocket's original victim arrives and spots his watch and wallet when Charlie pays for his food. Another cop is summoned, and Charlie takes to his heels. When the pickpocket shakes his cop the two pursuees meet on the run and Charlie scurries into the fun house and ends up in the hall of mirrors. The crook soon catches up to him and in an ingenious scene Chaplin uses the mirrors to confuse him and momentarily escape. At the entrance to the funhouse, the pickpocket grabs Charlie, but observed by two cops, Charlie transforms into an automaton like the others adorning the attraction and repeatedly strikes the crook with his own blackjack in clockwork style. The chase renews when the third cop emerges from the funhouse and seeing the crook collapse, takes him into custody. Charlie flees back into the hall of mirrors and there confounds the cop who had followed him. Pursued by the cop, Charlie flees into the big top and becomes the hit of the show, as the chase takes center stage. He evades the cop, hiding in a magician's cabinet and further delights the audience by messing up the magic act. Chased out of the big top, and evading his own pursuer, Charlie encounters the arrested thief and hands over the watch and wallet to the unsuspecting cop, before sitting down to rest on a small cart. The audience in the circus is displeased with the antics of the regular clowns and demands to see more of "the funny man", who at that moment is asleep in the cart. Meal time after the show finds Merna sitting outside her wagon, gazing at the clowns eating. She has been forbidden food by her stepfather as punishment for missing her hoop. A clown (Henry Bergman) tries to give her part of his meal but is stopped by the mean Ring Master, who soon discovers Charlie sleeping in the cart. He offers Charlie a tryout as a clown the next day. The next morning Charlie boils a can of water just outside Merna's wagon and chases after a chicken, returning a moment later with an egg. Merna, emerging from her trailer, see Charlie's bread laying there and hungrily begins to eat it. Returning with firewood, Charlie discovers her and after a scolding, shares his bread with her. As they get acquainted, the boss comes along and slaps Merna for eating and sends her back to the trailer. He then leads a piqued Charlie off to his tryout, but Charlie flips Merna the boiled egg before he follows. Charlie gleefully watches the other clowns perform their routines, but is inept himself, accidentally pasting the boss with soap during a barbershop sketch. He's unceremoniously thrown out and meets Merna outside, where he explains that he and the boss "couldn't come to terms." The show is starting and Charlie watches through a hole in the tent. The stagehands go on strike and Charlie is drafted by the head hand (Tiny Sandford). He has to set up some juggling plates, but he's chased by a circus mule onto center stage, tumbling and delighting the crowd. He's told to help the magician set up and accidentally pushes a secret button on his table, causing all manner of things to emerge from it. The audience goes wild watching Charlie's struggles, and the ringmaster realizes that Charlie's a hit only when he's not trying to be funny. He instructs Tiny to keep Charlie on as a property man. He's kept busy doing chores, including blowing a pill down the throat of a horse, who blows first. Reeling from this, he's chased by the mule straight into a lion's cage, the door locking behind him. A noisy dog adds to Charlie's obvious discomfort. Merna finds him there and promptly faints, but Charlie revives her by sprinkling water from the lion's trough. Charlie feigns courage, but as Merna lets him out, the lion's roar scares him enough to send him up a pole, from which he descends in a most balletic way. Merna tells Charlie that he's the hit of the show; he says he knew it all along. Overhearing the conversation, the ringmaster, angered over her revealing the truth to Charlie, strikes Merna. Charlie threatens to walk if Merna is hit again and then demands his true worth. The ringmaster offers to double his first bid of $60 a week, but Charlie won't take less than $100! Before the next performance, Charlie overhears Merna having her fortune told and assumes himself to be the dark, handsome man about whom she's foretold. He buys a ring from the fat clown, but going to find Merna, he observes her meeting with Rex, a tightrope walker, just added as a new attraction. He then overhears Merna excitedly telling the fortune teller that she has fallen in love with the tightrope walker. The news causes Charlie to give a lacklustre performance. As he watches Merna and Rex in conversation, his jealous, alter-ego spirit rises from the seated Charlie and gives Rex a sound thrashing, but it's just a daydream. Merna spots Charlie and introduces the two men, then makes Charlie sit and watch Rex's act with her, despite his dislike for high-wire acts. The next days bring a flowering of Rex's and Merna's romance, while Charlie tries to compete by learning to walk the wire, albeit from only a few feet above ground. As a clown however, he's a failure, and the boss threatens to fire him if he gets no laughs the next show. The show's about to start and Rex is missing. The ringmaster, having observed Charlie's tight-rope practice, and knowing he has Charlie insured, demands he go on in Rex's place. In order to impress Merna, Charlie accepts. In trying to find Rex's costume, Charlie unwittingly releases a bunch of monkeys from a trunk and, dressing in Rex's breakaway tails, forgets to don the leotard that goes underneath. He bribes a stagehand to operate a wire from which Charlie is tethered by a harness. Unaware of this, Merna begs Charlie not to risk going on, but Charlie's wire gets caught in a power generator and his shocked reactions makes Merna think he's rebuking her. At first the high wire act goes well, Charlie amazing the crowd with his acrobatics. But soon the harness slips off and Charlie is just trying to make his way to the end of the wire. Now the monkeys make their way up to the rope and create havoc, climbing all over Charlie, biting his nose and tearing away his pants. He finally makes his way to the bicycle at the end of the wire and does the "ride for life" -- straight out of the tent and into a nearby grocery. The ringmaster, annoyed at Charlie's survival, beats Merna for knocking over a props table into which he had pushed her. Coming into the tent Charlie knocks the boss down and lays into him. He's removed by the burly head stagehand and fired by the boss. That night, Charlie sits by a campfire out in the country. Merna finds him there and tells him she's left the circus. She begs to be taken along with him, but he realizes that would be no life for her. Leaving her there, he goes to see Rex and suggests that he marry her, giving him the ring he'd bought earlier. Rex obviously agrees because the next morning sees them exiting a church with Charlie along throwing rice and celebrating. The circus is leaving town. When the trio show up at the caravan, Rex prevents another berating of his new wife, presenting the ringmaster with the marriage license. The stepfather relents and shakes Rex's hand as the couple decides to stay with the circus. Charlie is also forgiven but declines to ride in the newlywed's wagon, saying that he'll ride in a wagon behind. Charlie has no such intention however, realizing that there's no place for him there. In a moving and exquisite scene, he sits in the stark morning sunlight, watching the wagons pull away. Picking up a torn piece of paper from the bareback rider's hoop, he stands, crumples it up and back kicks it away, before jauntily walking off to his next adventure. Chaplin won a special Academy Award in 1928 for his "versatility and genius in writing, acting, directing and producing The Circus" and was also nominated for "Best Actor" and "Best Comedy" director. Show more