The Circus

"The Circus is Here!"

1928 1h 12m EN

🙌

7.9

BANGER

🔥

97%

CERTIFIED FRESH

💯

METACRITIC

⭐

8.1

IMDB

★7.9TMDB · 922🍅97%Rotten Tomatoes●90Metacritic★8.1IMDB · 38,179

ComedyDramaRomance

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Charlie, a wandering tramp, becomes a circus handyman - soon the star of the show - and falls in love with the circus owner's stepdaughter.

“The Circus is Here!”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Charlie Chaplin
A Tramp
Al Ernest Garcia
The Circus Proprietor and Ring Master
Merna Kennedy
The Proprietor's Step-Daughter Merna, a Circus Rider
Harry Crocker
Rex, a Tight Rope Walker
George Davis
A Magician
Henry Bergman
An Old Clown
Tiny Sandford
The Head Property Man
John Rand
An Assistant Property Man

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Charlie Chaplin
Writers: Charlie Chaplin
Languages: No Language
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 7

RUNTIME

Did you know

Tight 72-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 7

ERA

Did you know

98 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Charlie Chaplin, shot by Roland Totheroh. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Charlie Chaplin shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 7

CAST

Did you know

Charlie Chaplin and Al Ernest Garcia and Merna Kennedy carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 7

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "The Circus is Here!".

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 7

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0018773 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Charlie Chaplin directs. Roland Totheroh behind the camera. Charlie Chaplin cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in No Language.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Tight 72-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.
298 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
3Directed by Charlie Chaplin, shot by Roland Totheroh. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Editor Charlie Chaplin shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Charlie Chaplin and Al Ernest Garcia and Merna Kennedy carry the top of the cast.
6Marketing tagline: "The Circus is Here!".
7IMDB entry: tt0018773 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography: Roland Totheroh
Editing: Charlie Chaplin
Runtime: 72 min · 1h 12m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $9,000,000
Original language: EN
Certification (US): G
IMDB: The Circus (1928)
Rotten Tomatoes: 97% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 90/100
IMDB rating: 8.1/10 · 38,179 votes
MPAA: G

Awards

3 wins total

Also by

Charlie Chaplin

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

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Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

talisencrw2016-04-13
★ 10/10
When I'm faced with challenges in my life, I am somewhat heartened by something I learned as a child, that an oyster has to be irritated by a grain of sand in order to eventually make a pearl. That knowledge always made the load I was carrying seem less significant, and helped me to see the light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. Cinematically speaking, at least in the fine age of silent movies, one of the most difficult gestation periods for the birth of a great film was the highly traumatic 11 months of production for one of Sir Charles Chaplin's masterpieces, 'The Circus'. I love both silent cinema and early filmic comedies, and though I prefer Buster Keaton to Chaplin, I always enjoy his great works, up to and including 'The Great Dictator'. Particularly close to my heart is 'The Circus'. Considering all of the brutal disasters Sir Charles Chaplin was facing during the movie's elongated production (ruined film negative, studio burning down, Lita Grey's divorce papers [and the related sex-scandals hitting the papers], nervous breakdown, mother dying, IRS demanding a million in back taxes, one of the circus wagons being stolen, just to mention a few), it's miraculous that a film was released at all, let alone one as gracefully hilarious yet contemplatively mature as 'The Circus', and that he was able to both recover and rebound from this bad spell to have a superlative career as one of the greatest actor/directors ever to grace cinema. His life was basically a three-ring circus, and he was still able to retain his dignity and escape virtually unscathed. Because of the aforementioned trials and tribulations he endured in those eleven months of the film's making (which IMHO would be worthy of a fine film itself, in its documentation and chronicling), though it may not be as side-splitting in its hilarity as 'The Gold Rush' or 'Modern Times', it will probably hold the closest place to my heart of Chaplin's films.
CinemaSerf2025-10-10
★ 7/10
This is definitely my favourite Charlie Chaplin outing for the “Tramp” as he alights at the circus and discovers that he has quite a penchant for entertaining the crowds. Of course, we only discover this after a few mishaps with the police who think he’s a vagrant trained by “Fagin” lead him to the big top where his antics cause ructions of laughter. The boss of this enterprise knows he’s onto a winner, but not to a performing seal. This “Tramp” doesn’t rehearse or perform any standard routine, he can only improvise as events dictate! With some careful manipulation, this soon makes the shows a success and sees our newly successful entertainer become smitten with his boss’s daughter (Merna Kennedy). Needless to say, the owner (Al Ernest Garcia) isn’t so impressed, but then he has a habit of mistreating his daughter anyway so maybe the “Tramp” might be able to offer her some protection from his abuse. Just when things look to be rosey, the debonair tightrope walking “Rex” (Harry Cracker) arrives and begins to steal his thunder. How to compete? Well fight fire with fire, of course - metaphorically and fifty feet above the ground! Chaplin delivers effortlessly here with a comedic timing that is skilfully disguised as chaotic and slapstick but in reality is so perfectly choreographed as to look simple and natural. The love story adds a little extra substance to the characterisations as he and Kennedy clearly understand how to perform with each other, and it also serves as a reminder of just how crucial these travelling circuses were to a small town America where family entertainment was thin on the ground. It also illustrates just how frugal life was as these “acts” travelled from town to town living as subsistence an existence as many of their mangy and malnourished beasts that fascinated the audiences. A finer example of less being more you’ll probably never see, and on a big screen with a live pianist this is cinema at it’s finest, and funniest.