The Circus

The Circus (1928) is Charlie Chaplin's silent tragicomedy, and you can watch it online on iFILM. A wandering tramp stumbles into a traveling circus, lands a job as a handyman, and accidentally becomes the funniest act under the big top.

Here's the catch: the Tramp only kills with the crowd when he isn't trying to be funny. The moment he performs on purpose, the laughs dry up. Behind the scenes he falls for the owner's stepdaughter, a half-starved girl bullied by her stepfather. Chaplin directed, wrote and starred, as he nearly always did. The tightrope sequence, with escaped monkeys clawing at him high above the ring, is a small masterpiece of comic nerve.

The film earned Chaplin a special honorary award at the very first Academy Awards in 1929, cited for his versatility and genius. Underneath the slapstick runs a quiet sadness about a man everyone adores on stage and nobody waits for offstage. It plays best for viewers who love silent cinema and don't mind laughing and aching at once. Stream The Circus (1928) online on iFILM.