The Circus (1928) on Netflix
Taken for a pickpocket, a hungry Tramp is chased into the ring during a circus show and becomes a hit. The proprietor hires him, and he befriends Merna, a rider.
- Netflix4.5/5
- IMDb8.1/1038,926 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes97%
Trailer
Plot summary
The Tramp, penniless and hungry, wanders a circus midway, where the police mistake him for a pickpocket and chase him. The real thief has slipped a stolen wallet and watch into his pocket. He runs into the ring during a performance, and the crowd thinks he is one of the clowns. The circus proprietor, whose show is in trouble, hires him as a property man and keeps him in the performance area. There the Tramp amuses the audience without meaning to. He befriends Merna, a rider whose stepfather is the ringmaster.
Cast
- Eugene Barryas Cop
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Circus (1928)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Chaplin called The Circus the hardest production of his career: a studio fire, the death of his mother, his divorce from his second wife Lita Grey and IRS back-tax claims stalled filming for eight months.
- After the first month of shooting, Chaplin found the film negative had been scratched, and a major fire at his studios that September halted production for a month.
- Lita Grey served Chaplin with divorce papers in December, and the litigation that followed pushed back the film's release by another year.
- Chaplin was nominated for three Academy Awards for The Circus, but the Academy dropped him from the running and gave him a Special Award for writing, acting, directing and producing it instead.
- Hanns Eisler worked on music for the film in 1947, then reused that material as his Septet No. 2 ("Circus"), scored for flute, piccolo, clarinet, bassoon and string quartet.
