Welcome to The Best Movies I’ve Never Seen! This is the part of the blog where I work my way through 100 films I’ve never seen that are generally considered to be great. You’re invited to watch along with me if you can find a copy or find it streaming. So grab some popcorn and let’s get started!

The Circus

1928

Directed by Charlie Chaplin

Quick synopsis… In this silent film, the Little Tramp joins a circus to hide from the police.

• I’m gonna be honest from the start, I’m never a big fan of a silent movie.
• I always feel like silent pictures require an extra level of paying attention that my self-diagnosed ADHD mind can’t really handle.
• Sure, I can handle it if I really force myself.
• But when you have to read the captions that pop up every few minutes, it makes it hard to play Candy Crush in the background.
• Okay… time to focus…
• I just turned up the volume… not sure why I felt that was necessaary.
• Hey! This isn’t entirely silent!
• We open on a girl swinging up high on a trapeze contraption and someone is singing about her.
• It’s possible this was not originally a part of the film, but added for the updated opening credits.
• This is more like it.
• Clowns dancing… always creepy.
• Especially when they’re silent about it.
• The ringmaster is clearly angry at his daughter, a performer who messed up her act.
• He’s super abusive toward her.
• I’m kind of scared he’s gonna use that whip on her… instead he tells her she’s not having dinner tonight.
• Now he’s giving the clowns the evil eye, complaining that they’re not funny.
• Enter Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp over at the side shows.
• A pickpocket sets the Tramp up to look like he stole some guy’s wallet.
• Then the actual pickpocket is caught by the police trying to steal the wallet back from the Tramp.
• But then the actual owner of the wallet sees the Tramp paying for food with his money.
• Both the Tramp and the pickpocket make a mad dash to get away from the police.
• The Tramp winds up in a hall of mirrors for some hilarious hijinks.
• Actually, the funniest part is where Chaplin acts like an animatronic outside the funhouse to fool the police.
• The officer chases the Tramp into the main circus act where they steal the show from the clowns, proving to be more entertaining than what the audience had been experiencing.
• This all leads to the Tramp potentially being hired to be part of the circus.
• The next morning, the ringmaster’s daughter comes out of her trailer still hungry from the day before.
• After a misunderstanding, she and the Tramp share what little food he has.
• For his tryout, the ringmaster tells him to be funny.
• Thing is… he wasn’t trying to be funny when he interrupted the act yesterday.
• He was just living life.
• When it comes to being part of the clown act, he’s not really pulling it off.
• The ringmaster has some serious anger issues and kicks the Tramp out.
• The Tramp encounters the daughter again, who seems disappointed that he’s not sticking around as the show begins.
• During the show, when several of the props guys quit on the spot, the Tramp is hired by the props master to help out.
• More accidental hijinks ensue.
• The ringmaster decides to keep the Tramp on helping with props, but doesn’t clue him in to the fact that he’s the star of the show.
• Which basically means they can get away with paying him nothing for what he does.
• The daughter lets it slip that the Tramp is a hit and it’s a shame they all treat him as horribly as they do.
• But the ringmaster overhears and begins to beat her.
• Tramp tells him if he hits her, he’ll quit.
• Then he manages to negotiate a salary of $100 a week.
• He lets his fame go to his head, though.
• The daughter has her fortune told… she’ll marry a dark, handsome man who is near her.
• Tramp overhears this and assumes it’s him.
• But then we meet a new act that’s joined the circus: Rex, the tightrope walker.
• The daughter seems slightly smitten as soon as she meets him.
• The Tramp overhears her telling the fortune teller that she’s already in love with Rex.
• You just met!
• The Tramp is heartbroken, but the show must go on.
• Apparently, the show didn’t go so well.
• Afterward, he imagines himself beating up Rex.
• Then the daughter introduces the Tramp as her “friend.”
• Poor guy was friend zoned before the term had been coined.
• Time goes by and the Tramp just isn’t funny anymore.
• A broken heart will do that to a guy.
• One day when Rex doesn’t show up to perform, the ringmaster forces the Tramp to do the tightrope or he’s fired.
• He figures out a way to rig himself up to a wire so that, if he falls, he won’t be killed.
• Gets kinda risky when the wire breaks off without him being aware of it.
• Doesn’t help that he’s attacked by a trio of mischievous monkeys while on the rope.
• He still manages to pull off the act, but gets fired anyway when he attacks the ringmaster for attacking the daughter.
• The daughter decides to run away from the circus and follows the Tramp.
• She wants to go with him, but he knows that’s no life for her.
• The Tramp goes back to the circus and finds Rex, convincing him to ask the daughter to marry him so she’ll have a better life.
• They all return to the circus and live happily ever after.
• But when the circus leaves, the Tramp decides to stay behind.
• Don’t feel too bad for him, though. He’s got a whole slew of movies.
• Having now seen The Circus, it currently ranks at 1,232 out of 2,231 movies on my personal Flickchart list.

Is The Circus a movie you’ve taken time to watch? It’s only an hour and 13 minutes long. And, now that I’ve seen it, I would recommend it. Even if you’re not a fan of silent movies, like me, it is entertaining with a lot of slapstick humor. Come back next week for The Invisible Guest.