Circus (1936) on Netflix
Circus artist Marion Dixon flees America with her son Jimmy. Franz von Kneishitz, a German agent, becomes her manager. In Moscow, Ivan Petrovich Martynov is asked to design a rival act.
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- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb6.6/10828 votes
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Plot summary
Marion Dixon is a popular American circus artist. To save her baby son Jimmy from a lynch mob in a rural town she runs for her life, and Franz von Kneishitz, a German theatrical agent, takes her under his wing and exploits her, blackmailing her into becoming his lover. Her love for Jimmy is what keeps her going. In Moscow, the circus director Ludvig recruits Ivan Petrovich Martynov, an Arctic explorer, to build an act that can surpass her Trip to the Moon number, and she and Martynov fall in love. Ludvig's daughter Rayechka has a stormy relationship with her boyfriend Skameikin.
Cast
Show all 20 cast
- Robert Rossas Pilot - Lullaby Singer
- Vladimir Durovas Clown(uncredited)
- Jim Pattersonas Jimmy, Marion's son(Dzh. Patterson)
- Coretti Arle-Titzas baby Jim's nanny(uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Circus (1936)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film was adapted from Under the Circus Dome, a Moscow music hall comedy by Ilf and Petrov and Valentin Kataev that Aleksandrov liked. The writers left for America during shooting; on returning they disliked his interpretation, quit after a conflict, forbade their names in the credits, and Isaac Babel finished the plot.
- In early 1953 the lullaby's Yiddish verses, performed by Solomon Mikhoels, were cut from the film; they were restored only after Stalin's death.
- Soviet censors, who disapproved of any signs of sexuality, surprisingly allowed the circus scenes where young women dance around and longingly touch phallic cannons, although those scenes were subsequently censored.
- The murder of Solomon Mikhoels in 1948 by the order of Stalin was perceived in Russia as a rejection of the film's message about the danger of chauvinism and anti-Semitism.
- Circus became the most commercially successful Soviet film, and within two weeks of its release it had been seen by a million people in Moscow alone.
