'24 Hours In The Life Of A Clown (1946)' is a short film that looks at, well, 24 hours in the life of a clown. Starting and ending at 11.50pm, the film chronicles a day in the life of a circus performer. It starts just as he's about to finish his shift, follows him home, sees him wake up and go about his daily business, before it finishes with a showcase of his evening performance. All the while, the inky noir narration gives us little insights that the visuals do not, more or less communicating the central character's backstory and relationship with his craft. Despite a few humorous moments and a generally fairly charming vibe, the overall affair is actually rather dull. The filmmaking is fairly straightforward, although there are a handful of scenes that are more artfully presented, and the scripting is very matter-of-fact. It's almost as if the flick is trying to seem like a typical documentary, but most of it is clearly staged and there are some jokes sprinkled throughout the otherwise dry narration. I don't think much of it could be considered 'fly on the wall', but it's unclear to what extent it has been manufactured. Ultimately, this is a fairly uninspiring effort. It isn't bad, but there just isn't all that much to it. It's fine.
