Dir: Charlie Chaplin | Cast: Merna Kennedy, Al Ernest Garcia | US 72’
It was probably inevitable that Chaplin would eventually set a film in a circus and the film that resulted was a typically painstaking job but since has remained one of his least known although it compares well with his earlier work.
It begins with a song sung by Chaplin himself but fortunately the score that follows doesn’t deliver the sentimentally that threatens and a couple of sequences makes good use of a xylophone.
Although we only fleetingly see the pugnacious little runt of earlier days when he imagines he’s kicking his boss up the backside the emphasis is largely on slapstick with Charlie making good use of a hall of mirrors and early doing a memorable impression of a mechanical clown. @RichardChatten