Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

The Circus (1928)

Often overlooked, this Charles Chaplin confection was produced and released between his benchmark films The Gold Rush (1925) and City Lights (1931). Written, directed and produced by Chaplin, The Circus (1928) stars Chaplin and Merna Kennedy, with able support by Allan Garcia, Harry Crocker, Henry Bergman, John Rand, Steve Murphy and Albert Austin.

This Blu-ray Disc edition features a new 4K digital restoration of Charles Chaplin’s 1969 rerelease version of the film.

The film is accompanied by an original score by Chaplin, presented in an uncompressed monaural soundtrack.

The supplementary material includes new audio commentary featuring Chaplin biographer Jeffrey Vance; an interview with Chaplin from 1969; a new interview with Chaplin’s son Eugene Chaplin; In the Service of the Story, a new program on the film’s visual effects and production design by film scholar Craig Barron; Chaplin Today: The Circus, a 2003 documentary on the film featuring filmmaker Emir Kusturica; an excerpted audio interview from 1998 with Chaplin musical associate Eric James; the café sequence outtake, with new score by composer Timothy Brock, and related outtakes with narration by comedy choreographer Dan Kamin; newly discovered outtakes featuring the Tramp and the circus rider; excerpts from the original recording session for the film’s opening song, “Swing Little Girl”; footage of the film’s 1928 Hollywood premiere; rerelease trailers; and an essay by critic Pamela Hutchinson.

This is our recommended home video edition of The Circus.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.
This Region A Blu-ray Disc edition is also available directly from . . .

The film is presented with the established music score composed by Charles Chaplin.

The disc’s supplemental material includes an introduction by David Robinson, outtakes from The Circus, and a photo gallery.

Other than its HD transfer, and this edition being nearly identical in content to the 2004 Warner Home Video edition noted below, owners of that edition may not feel the need to acquire this Park Circus edition. This edition, currently the only high-quality edition in print, is recommended for those who want to add the film to their collection now.

North American collectors will need a Region B or region-free Blu-ray Disc player and/or a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

United Kingdom: Click to buy this Region B Blu-ray Disc / Region 2 PAL DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.

The film is accompanied by an original score by Chaplin, in glorious monaural sound.

The supplementary material includes new audio commentary featuring Chaplin biographer Jeffrey Vance; an interview with Chaplin from 1969; a new interview with Chaplin’s son Eugene Chaplin; In the Service of the Story, a new program on the film’s visual effects and production design by film scholar Craig Barron; Chaplin Today: The Circus, a 2003 documentary on the film featuring filmmaker Emir Kusturica; an excerpted audio interview from 1998 with Chaplin musical associate Eric James; the café sequence outtake, with new score by composer Timothy Brock, and related outtakes with narration by comedy choreographer Dan Kamin; newly discovered outtakes featuring the Tramp and the circus rider; excerpts from the original recording session for the film’s opening song, “Swing Little Girl”; footage of the film’s 1928 Hollywood premiere; rerelease trailers; and an essay by critic Pamela Hutchinson.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.
This Region 1 NTSC DVD edition is also available directly from . . .

This DVD edition from Warner Home Video is sanctioned by the Estate of Charles Chaplin and was digitally restored from excellent 35mm materials held by the estate. However, we have had problems with the disc displaying properly to a 16:9 high-definition television when played from one of our DVD players. The picture fills the 16:9 monitor in width (already wrong for a 4:3 format picture) and crops the top and bottom of the picture to do so. No amount of manipulation of the picture settings ideally resolves the issue. Other DVD players will not have this problem.

The disc’s supplementary material includes outtakes from The Circus, studio visitor footage, 3D test footage shot by Chaplin’s long-time cameraman, A-B camera footage comparisons, and more.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 1 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

It appears that the masters from the 1993 Chaplin: A Legacy of Laughter laserdisc series were utilized for this and other year 2000 Chaplin DVD releases. The disc is now contractually out-of-print to make way for the Warner edition noted above.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 1 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .