Alicia I love this movie so much

Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

JohnHowardReid Casting director for circus performers: Allan Garcia. Continuity girl: Della Steele. Laboratory supervisor: William E. Hinkley. Music for sound version composed by Charles Chaplin. Producer: Charles Chaplin.Copyright 6 January 1928 by Charles Chaplin. Released through United Artists. New York opening at the Mark Strand, 7 January 1928. 7 reels. 6,700 feet. DVD available from Warner Home Video.SYNOPSIS: Charlie inadvertently joins a circus. NOTES: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave a Special Award to Charles Chaplin, "for versatility and genius in writing, acting, directing and producing The Circus." Chaplin was also nominated for Best Actor (the award was won by Emil Jannings) and Best Comedy Director (Lewis Milestone received the award). The movie itself was voted number six in The Film Daily's 1928 poll of American film critics.COMMENT: Although, disappointingly, it is not one of his funniest films (some of the jokes, especially the horse pill and some similar experiments, now seem extremely old, tired and totally worn out), "The Circus" still carries more than enough Chaplin magic to make it extremely watchable. It's absolutely impossible to go past Chaplin for his mastery of comic timing, and here in "The Circus", such inspired timing is as deft as ever. Fortunately, Chaplin's brilliantly neat footwork is also just as fancy, and remarkable as ever. And as for performance wise, Chaplin has it all over the rest of the cast. In my opinion, whilst I found some of the other players to be totally forgettable, Chaplin's own performance registered strongly enough that I still remember it, even though it is at least twenty years since I saw the movie in a theater. My memory is that Chaplin did actually win an acting nomination for his performance in this movie. He fully deserved it!

LenaAndBarry I'm in utter disbelief at the fact that the first time I watched this film, I barely liked it. My only conclusion would be that I saw it at the wrong time, as it's taxing for me to uncover its blemishes. The tight rope scene stalls a bit, and...um...well that's all.A feeling of sheer and absolute elation overwhelms me whenever I set my eyes upon that (unreasonably) hoity-toity, jealous, hopeful, and altruistic little tramp. And my heart, it shatters(!) the moment I see him in pain; when I see him constrained, watching the dropped-from-heaven sole bright spot of his life, being taken from him; or when he cowers away, out of fear of being seen for what he actually is; or when he's lonely. Which brings me to what I wanted to discuss — I wish I could say it was Chaplin, but I can only stretch out the compliments "he's funny" and "his physical comedy is the best I've seen, bar none" (Keaton has him beat in the gag department though) so far — the ending.Conflicted, conflicted, conflicted am I. One hand: I LOVE different. I was actually thinking about this days before; about how most of the silent comedies I've seen end with their protagonist, figuratively or literally, in the arms of a woman — and if not that, at least on a happy note. Which is why I appreciate The Circus' ending. To an extent. Because, on the other hand: I want the character, that I love so dearly, to be happy. I was teary-eyed at the sight of him all alone in that abandoned circle. I mentioned that I've seen this once before, and halfway through, while filled with joy, I was reminded of the not-so- happy ending that awaited me...and I didn't want it to be true. I hoped that I was mistaken, or that there was a clue, that I had previously missed, insinuating that he wouldn't be so alone. But, unfortunately...you know. Thankfully, it isn't too somber, as we get a glimpse of the Tramp's well-known optimism, but still...damn.

Eric Stevenson Nowadays, silent movies are simply forgotten. While I wouldn't encourage people making more of them now, I still love watching the truly great ones. This isn't one of Charlie Chaplin's most famous films, but definitely deserves to be mentioned. This may in fact focus on comedy more than any other film he made at the time. The only spoken audio is some recorded voice at the beginning. It was made one year after the first talkie "The Jazz Singer". Boy, did it take a short time to every movie to have sound! The best parts are probably the opening bits. You can get so much humor out of the bizarre funhouse the Tramp is caught in. The best part is easily when he imitates an animatronic and then hits a guy with a billy club over and over. This is comedy that holds up. Another great part is near the end with the tightrope walking. It's great to see how this scene escalates in slapstick. For such a goofy movie, it actually does have a pretty heartfelt ending. The story makes sense too.I was watching this film hoping to see this scene where a woman is using a large machine that some people thought was a cell phone, meaning that the woman was a time traveler. It turns out this was only in the DVD version. I only saw the TCM one. This probably sets a record for oldest video used as an Internet meme. I eventually found out that no, she's not a time traveler. She was just using a large hearing aid. Our wild minds! ****

m-meehan-28239 When watching the circus I was really expecting to be bored. I was very surprised when I was able to watch and be interested at this film. Some parts even made me laugh and I found it shocking that after almost 100 years the jokes still worked today. I felt that the cut scenes with writing were a little unnecessary. The things being said to the audience were really short and simple and were already being conveyed by the actors. Also they were written like how I imagine a caveman would talk. The film would have been fine without them or with slightly more complicated text. That being said by the end I was enjoying the movie and saw how these films influenced people making films up to present day. P.S. Charlie Chaplin is very creepy looking.