THE CIRCUS (1928)

From any other screen comedian, THE CIRCUS would be hailed a masterpiece, a one-stop ticket to Film Pantheon status: Silent Slapstick division. But, this being Charlie Chaplin, it lies between THE GOLD RUSH/’25 and CITY LIGHTS/’31 and must live in their shadow. That, plus a misery-making two-year production (divorce; set destroyed by fire; ruined camera negative on the climatic tightrope sequence), kept this gem from receiving its due. It was four decades before Chaplin returned to it, adding a score for re-release along with an opening song & prologue. And for its first two reels, you can only marvel; as blissfully conceived & executed silent slapstick as you could dream of. Charlie on the run from pickpocket and police at a SideShow; stealing bites of a hot dog from a baby; lost in a House of Mirrors; turning into an automaton figure to evade the law . . . and get a bit of revenge. Stupendous stuff! But then, three impossible traps in our story. Traps he almost gets away with. First is the matter of place: The Circus. Like The Marx Brothers in AT THE CIRCUS/’39, where better could Charlie land?* Hard to be the eternal outsider in your natural habitat. Even tougher, the main comedy stems from Charlie stumbling into the Big Top and accidentally getting big laughs. But once hired to be funny, this new clown can’t get a laugh. He’s only funny when he doesn’t know he’s being funny. Yet, even purposefully unfunny shtick needs to put up laughs inside the movie. A conundrum inside a conundrum. Chaplin being Chaplin, he does manage to thread the needle, even if the crowd’s eruptive response seems overblown. Then most impossible of all, Charlie, pushing 40, had to learn to walk the tightrope. And not just walk it; walk it funny! Twice as hard as learning to do it straight. Needless to say, he triumphs at this physical act, even as the film’s romantic triangle, and his predetermined renunciation is left barely sketched in. Still, enough to make the film’s circular ending almost unbearably moving. Brusque sentiment before he’s off to life’s next adventure. Chaplin in second gear? Perhaps, but you’d be fool to miss it.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *The Marx Bros. would have been just as comfortable at the racetrack in A DAY AT THE RACES/’37, but that film is just as much A DAY AT THE SANITARIUM . . . where they’d also fit in!