Made between two masterpieces, The Gold Rush and City Lights, Charlie Chaplin's The Circus features The Little Tramp at the top of his game with ample amounts of slapstick genius on display. Frenetically paced (71 minutes) Chaplin sacrifices character development in favor of going for the laughs and while it fails to achieve the touching sentimentality of City Lights it does have its heart tugging bittersweet moments to go along with some classic Chaplin sight gags.
Attending a traveling circus Charlie is mistaken for a pickpocket and pursued about by cops and the real thief. Stumbling into a performance The Tramp is a comic sensation and hired on the spot by the cruel, daughter abusing, cheapskate circus owner. Charlie falls for the girl and protects her with his leverage as the shows biggest act. Just as hints of romance between the two begin to take form tall, dark and handsome Rex the wire walker arrives on the scene and sweeps her off her feet. The Tramp goes into a funk, his performance suffers and he is fired but then volunteers to to sub for the AWOL Rex on the high wire.
Chaplin's scenes on a high wire with a monkey biting his nose, climbing into a lion's cage and a chase through a fun house that culminates in a hall of mirrors is as good as Charlie (ie: all of twentieth century film) gets in the slapstick acrobatic poetry department. He also does a wonderful job of conveying his melancholy in a variety of moods.
Chaplin's overall direction however seems distracted with little attention payed to detail outside his outstanding performance as he works within the confines of three or four rotating sets in which design and compositions are dull and sparse, the editing and continuity a touch ragged. Nothing however can get in the way or surpass the comic brilliance of The Little Tramp and The Circus offers up some of his best.
Attending a traveling circus Charlie is mistaken for a pickpocket and pursued about by cops and the real thief. Stumbling into a performance The Tramp is a comic sensation and hired on the spot by the cruel, daughter abusing, cheapskate circus owner. Charlie falls for the girl and protects her with his leverage as the shows biggest act. Just as hints of romance between the two begin to take form tall, dark and handsome Rex the wire walker arrives on the scene and sweeps her off her feet. The Tramp goes into a funk, his performance suffers and he is fired but then volunteers to to sub for the AWOL Rex on the high wire.
Chaplin's scenes on a high wire with a monkey biting his nose, climbing into a lion's cage and a chase through a fun house that culminates in a hall of mirrors is as good as Charlie (ie: all of twentieth century film) gets in the slapstick acrobatic poetry department. He also does a wonderful job of conveying his melancholy in a variety of moods.
Chaplin's overall direction however seems distracted with little attention payed to detail outside his outstanding performance as he works within the confines of three or four rotating sets in which design and compositions are dull and sparse, the editing and continuity a touch ragged. Nothing however can get in the way or surpass the comic brilliance of The Little Tramp and The Circus offers up some of his best.