The Tramp finds work and the girl of his dreams at a circus. The ringmaster of an impoverished circus hires Chaplin's Little Tramp as a clown, but discovers that he can only be funny unintentionally, not on purpose.
In some ways The Circus is Chaplin's Stardust Memories, his reflexive self-observation in which Woody Allen's line, 'We like your earlier, funny movies,' flashes subliminally among the frames.
Chaplin's most underrated, consistently hysterical, and imaginative picture.
Examiner.com
August 17, 2011
It is the political subtext and discussion of capitalism vs. communism that is the saving grace of The Circus, since the surface material, comprised of frantic slapstick mixed with maudlin and melodrama, is very standard for Chaplin.
