This Tuesday’s daytime theme on TCM is Under the Big Top. Yes, the circus is coming to town with 12 hours of chronological carnival fun from 1928 through 1959, and I can’t help but feel that some mischievous TCM programmer purposefully lined up these goodies as a warm-up for the presidential debates happening later that evening. But, who knows? Maybe it was wholly serendipitous. Either way, let’s see who all got stuffed into the classic-movie clown car coming our way.
The Circus (Charles Chaplin, 1928)
The Under the Big Top theme starts off with Chaplin as his Little Tramp joins the circus to hide from the police. This was his last truly silent film and nets a critic’s approval rating of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Not bad for a film beset by production problems, major personal issues (divorce, mother’s death, nervous breakdown, etc.), but the results stand the test of time. A few years ago some people even thought it had evidence of time-travel because it showed a woman walking past a zebra talking on what looked like a cell phone, but this was later debunked as a 1924 Siemens hearing aid.
Laugh, Clown, Laugh (Herbert Brenon, 1928)
The other side of the theatrical clown mask brings us the tragic clown of Lon Chaney, a traveling circus performer who finds an abandoned child. The film features Loretta Young in her first big role. Offscreen, Chaney found himself protecting Young from Herbert Brenon’s ridicule, earning from her some very strong praise: “I shall be beholden to that sensitive, sweet man until I die.” MGM delayed the release of Laugh, Clown, Laugh to give it some space from an earlier film that featured Chaney in the stunning and highly recommended He Who Gets Slapped (Victor Sjöström, 1924), where he played a similarly tragic clown role.
Polly of the Circus (Alfred Santell, 1932)
Speaking of MGM here’s another Pre-Code title from that studio, this one a modest success about a racy trapeze artist Polly Fisher (Marion Davies) who gets into a tangle with Reverend John Hartley (Clark Gable). The two are later brought together by a mishap and their relationship runs them afoul of church. The film was originally slated to have Tod Browning at the helm and star Norma Shearer.
The Circus Clown (Ray Enright, 1934)
A journeyman director who got his start working on two-reelers at Mack Sennett’s Keystone Studios, Ray Enright would eventually be known for his mid-budget westerns at Warner Bros. The amusing premise here introduces us to Happy Howard (Joe E. Brown), a character anxious to follow in the funny footsteps of his ex-circus clown father – and this despite his father’s protestations. Joe E. Brown did his own stunts and acrobatics, getting himself 6 stitches from a lion’s swipe in the process. He certainly got off light compared to the cast of Roar (Noel Marshall, 1981).
At the Circus (Edward Buzzell, 1939)
The Marx Brothers bring in another classic, and shares with Chaplin’s The Circus another 100% approval rating by critics at Rotten Tomatoes. Can Groucho, Chico, and Harpo keep a circus from going bankrupt? More importantly, can they keep Chico Marx from going bankrupt in real-life? That was the main reason they made this film. Sadly, the answer is “no,” but Chico’s gambling habit did result in another Marx Brothers film being made for his benefit: A Night in Casablanca (Archie Mayo, 1946).
The Wagons Roll at Night (Ray Enright, 1941)
Another one from director Ray Enright, this time with Humphrey Bogart and Sylvia Sidney. Eddie Albert (Bogart) is a circus manager and Flo (Sidney) his girlfriend. When a newcomer falls for Flo things get dicey. Based on a 1936 novel that was also the basis for Kid Galahad (Michael Curtiz, 1937), also starring Bogart but under a different premise framed as a boxing drama. From this film forward Bogart would always get top billing.
Carnival Story (Kurt Neumann, 1954)
Shot in Germany and Austria, the story follows an American carnival that opens in Munich. Billed as “The Story of a Woman’s Shame!” one can infer plenty of sinful melodrama as we follow a barker who befriends an attractive pickpocket. When Joe, the carnival high diver, also gets involved, things get sticky. Although originally meant to be shot in 3-D those plans were scrapped, but the film was simultaneously shot in a German language version called Circus of Love with cameos by the actors from the English version (and vice versa).
Billy Rose’s Jumbo (Charles Walters, 1962)
Nominated for an Oscar (Best Music) and featuring the talents of Doris Day and Jimmy Durante, here’s the story of The Wonder Circus and their main attraction, an elephant named Jumbo. But the circus is in debt thanks to the clown owner’s gambling problems (paging Chico Marx), so in steps the owner of another circus with an offer to buy the operation. The offer is refuted, and the circus hires a Jack-of-all-trades who proves to be an excellent aerialist and handyman – but one with a hidden agenda. This film marked the end of an era, being both the end Busby Berkeley’s movie career as choreographer and featuring Doris Day’s last appearance in a lavish full-on musical.
The Big Circus (Joseph M. Newman, 1959)
The Under the Big Top theme ends with another circus owner struggling with financial troubles and the machinations of a third party acting in bad faith (to put it kindly). Produced and co-written by Irwin Allen, who would later be known for his big-budget disaster films, this film starring Victor Mature sees a lion let loose at a party meant to celebrate the start of the season. And that’s only the beginning, more death and high drama follow. Keep an eye out for Red Buttons, Vincent Price, and one particularly eye-catching clown to end the Under the Big Top series: Skeeter, as played by Peter Lorre.
