The Circus

It's a brilliant combination of light and darkness, tenderness and violence and, yes, laughter and tears.

There's an edge to The Circus that suggests a man gazing deep into the void, laughing at the darkness and urging us to do the same.

Innovative and timelessly hilarious.

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.

sort of B-grade alternative to City Lights

The Circus may be the film that most definitively silences critics who claim that Charlie Chaplin's movies aren't cinematic.

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 slapstick comedy worked to great effect.

Chaplin's most underrated, consistently hysterical, and imaginative picture.

Receiving his first Best Actor Oscar nomination, Chaplin is brilliant in this slapstick comedy, set in a milieu that fits him like a glove.

It's a beautiful film and perhaps more personal that anyone might have suspected at the time.

most overlooked film . . . contains some of the Tramp's best comic moments