Trivia / The Circus

• Acting for Two:
  • Harry Crocker plays Rex, A Tight Rope Walker, a disgruntled property man and a clown.
  • John Rand plays An Assistant Property Man and a clown.
• Creator Backlash: Due to the film's stressful production, Charlie Chaplin doesn't mention it at all in his autobiography. He felt that the reshot footage wasn't as good as the original, particularly the tightrope scene.
• Creator Breakdown: See below.
• Enforced Method Acting: Charlie Chaplin was in a cage with a real lion and his look of terror is real. Plus, he was really tightrope walking.
• Method Acting: Charlie Chaplin practiced tightrope walking for weeks before filming. He actually performed on a rope 40 feet in the air. However, the footage was lost when the negative was scratched during processing, so he had to do it again.
• Old Shame: It was this for Chaplin for most of his life
• Recycled Script: Charlie Chaplin drew on similar themes and ideas from his earlier film The Vagabond.
• Troubled Production: It took 11 months to film, an eternity in those days (remember, it was a Silent Film, so they didn't even have sound to worry about).
  • A month into production, it turned out the negative print had been scratched. Eventually it was restored, but at some cost, and it took a while to be sure they wouldn't have to reshoot it. Then a fire destroyed most of the set, delaying production for a month. Then the circus wagons were stolen.
  • During production, Charlie Chaplin's mother died. And then his wife Lita Grey filed for divorce, dragging his sex life into the media with sensational claims in the court documents that severely tarnished Chaplin's image. Then the IRS got involved, claiming Chaplin owed a million in back taxes. He spent a good deal of time in New York and/or London with the print of what had been completed, trying to stave off a nervous breakdown. The stress was so great that his hair, graying when production began, went completely white by the time filming resumed and had be dyed to match.
  • Chaplin left this film out of his autobiography altogether and kept it out of circulation for almost 40 years.
• What Could Have Been: Charlie Chaplin wanted to include a scene involving a flea circus, but he couldn't justify putting it into the plot. It eventually resurfaced in Limelight.