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IMDbPro

The Circus

Original title: Tsirk
  • 19361936
  • Not RatedNot Rated
  • 1h 30m
IMDb RATING
6.6/10
665
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
108,783
30,300
Lyubov Orlova in The Circus (1936)
ComedyMusical
US - Vaudeville dancer Marion Dixon is with her German manager von Kneischitz on tour - in Moskau. Her act includes a gun shooting her to the trapeze, the stage director there wants a copy o... Read allUS - Vaudeville dancer Marion Dixon is with her German manager von Kneischitz on tour - in Moskau. Her act includes a gun shooting her to the trapeze, the stage director there wants a copy of this act for the USSR. She falls in love with a Soviet enginer, but von Kneischitz black... Read allUS - Vaudeville dancer Marion Dixon is with her German manager von Kneischitz on tour - in Moskau. Her act includes a gun shooting her to the trapeze, the stage director there wants a copy of this act for the USSR. She falls in love with a Soviet enginer, but von Kneischitz blackmails her with her dark spot in her life, she has a colored baby, to leave Moskau.
IMDb RATING
6.6/10
665
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
108,783
30,300
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Directors
      • Grigoriy Aleksandrov
      • Isidor Simkov
    • Writers
      • Grigoriy Aleksandrov
      • Isaak Babel(dialogue)
      • Ilya Ilf(screenplay)
    • Stars
      • Lyubov Orlova
      • Yevgeniya Melnikova
      • Vladimir Volodin
    Top credits
    • Directors
      • Grigoriy Aleksandrov
      • Isidor Simkov
    • Writers
      • Grigoriy Aleksandrov
      • Isaak Babel(dialogue)
      • Ilya Ilf(screenplay)
    • Stars
      • Lyubov Orlova
      • Yevgeniya Melnikova
      • Vladimir Volodin
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 22User reviews
    • 2Critic reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
    • Awards
      • 1 win

    Photos29

    Jim Patterson and Coretti Arle-Titz in The Circus (1936)
    Coretti Arle-Titz in The Circus (1936)
    Jim Patterson in The Circus (1936)
    Jim Patterson in The Circus (1936)
    Lyubov Orlova and Jim Patterson in The Circus (1936)
    The Circus (1936)
    The Circus (1936)
    Grigoriy Aleksandrov, Isaak Dunaevskiy, Yevgeniya Melnikova, Lyubov Orlova, Yevgeni Petrov, Sergey Stolyarov, and Vladimir Volodin in The Circus (1936)
    The Circus (1936)
    The Circus (1936)
    Lyubov Orlova in The Circus (1936)
    Lyubov Orlova in The Circus (1936)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Lyubov Orlova
    Lyubov Orlova
    • Marion Dixon
    • (as L.P. Orlova)
    Yevgeniya Melnikova
    Yevgeniya Melnikova
    • Rayechka, the director's daughter
    • (as E. Melnikova)
    Vladimir Volodin
    • Circus Director - Ludvig Osipovich
    • (as V. Volodin)
    Sergey Stolyarov
    Sergey Stolyarov
    • Martinov - Ivan Petrovich
    • (as S. Stolyarov)
    Pavel Massalsky
    Pavel Massalsky
    • Kneishitz - Entrepreneur
    • (as N. Massalskij)
    Aleksandr Komissarov
    • Skameykin - Amateur Designer
    • (as A. Komissarov)
    N. Otto
    • Chaplin
    Jim Patterson
    • Jimmy, Marion's son
    • (as Dzh. Patterson)
    Fyodor Kurikhin
    Fyodor Kurikhin
    • Captain Borneo, animal tamer
    • (as F. Kurikhin)
    Sergei Antimonov
    • Circus Presenter
    • (as S. Antimonov)
    Solomon Mikhoels
    • Lullaby Singer
    • (as S. Mikhoels)
    Pavel Geraga
    • Lullaby Singer
    • (as P. Geraga)
    Lev Sverdlin
    Lev Sverdlin
    • Lullaby Singer
    • (as L. Sverdlin)
    Vladimir Kandelaki
    • Lullaby Singer
    • (as V. Kandelaki)
    Robert Ross
    • Pilot - Lullaby Singer
    Coretti Arle-Titz
    • baby Jim's nanny
    • (uncredited)
    Vladimir Durov
    • Clown
    • (uncredited)
    Emmanuil Geller
    Emmanuil Geller
    • Circus Orchestra Conductor
    • (uncredited)
    • Directors
      • Grigoriy Aleksandrov
      • Isidor Simkov
    • Writers
      • Grigoriy Aleksandrov
      • Isaak Babel(dialogue) (uncredited)
      • Ilya Ilf(screenplay) (uncredited)
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      In the scene where people sing a lullaby in various languages to the black child, the bit sung in Yiddish by Solomon Mikhoels was cut out of the film for distribution in the USSR, for a time when a state-backed anti-Semitism campaign was unleashed.
    • Alternate versions
      A colorized version was released on Blu-ray in Russia in 2012.
    • Connections
      Featured in Komediya davno minuvshikh dney (1980)
    • Soundtracks
      Hello, Good-Bye

    User reviews22

    Review
    Review
    Top review
    This is definitely not Eisenstein
    We rented this movie for my Russian grandmother; she's seen it, she says, 17 times. Scary. This is a saccharine romance in which an American actress, impregnated by a black man, escapes to Russia and starts a new life. She loves one man; the heavy, however, threatens that if she doesn't marry him, he will reveal her secret. This continues for a long time until the end, when he does so; indignantly, the masses at the circus rise and say that it doesn't matter what color the baby is, this is tolerant Russia! Then, for no reason whatsoever, the actress and her new lover are marching at the head of a huge parade singing about the freedom that Soviet Russia provides.

    This is one of those knock-off comedies that Aleksandrov made after returning from Hollywood. It even features a Chaplin impersonator. It's not that great, and anyone who masochistically feels they simply must learn about Soviet film in the 1930s would be advised to stick to Eisenstein and The Three Songs Of Lenin.
    helpful•4
    25
    • edwartell
    • Oct 12, 2000

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • May 25, 1936 (Soviet Union)
    • Country of origin
      • Soviet Union
    • Languages
      • Russian
      • English
      • German
    • Also known as
      • Cirkus
    • Production company
      • Mosfilm
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 30 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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