STRAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 326, 11 April 1928, Page 15

STRAND

CHARLIE IN “THE CIRCUS” Charlie Chaplin wrote, directed, and produced “The Circus,” now being screened to packed houses daily at the Strand Theatre, and if it is not his very greatest picture it yet remains that rare thing in the cinema world — a picture of genuine artistry, for the rather important reason that he is also its star. And the star, as always, is an anonymous little tramp, with a ridiculous little cane, silly hat. a pair of flopping ill-proportioned feet, and the art of that high comedy which is ever and hauntingly on the border line of tragedy. A picture in which Charlie Chaplin has some part, even if you could identify it in no oth*»n wm- n-miM be one that started out of nowhere, ended for no particular reason, and was completely enthralling. There is no exposition of what has gone before. And the conclusion attempts nothing more than to send Charlie Chaplin ambling down a dusty road toward —one must believe it inevitable —just such another chain of events as has consumed' one's hour or so kt the Strand. Charlie Chaplin In "The Circus” he is that same wistful little person who bobs frantically along on a stream of crazy events, now victorious, now humiliated. and always quick to assume a false dignity that is the heart of his comedy. "The’ Circus” concerns a tramp who becomes a clown while still under the impression that he is tho property man’s assistant, who falls in love, is a tight-rope walker, and finally a matchmaker for the girl who, not strangely, has shifted her affections. Eve Bentley and her Strand Symphony Orchestra play "Pot Pourri,” a delightful medley of musical airs, as an overture*, and render pleasant incidental music.