> The Circus was Charlie Chaplin's most troubled production and was made during a stressful time in the filmmaker's personal life. Shot intermittently between December 1926 and December 1927, due to various production problems and Chaplin's failing marriage to Lita Grey, the film was not one of Chaplin's favorites and he barely mentions it in his autobiography. Yet it was a popular commercial and critical success and, while it lacks the touching pathos of The Gold Rush, it is still a superb showcase for Chaplin's comedic skills and his artistry as a director. The famous sequence with Chaplin being tormented by three monkeys during his high wire act had to be reshot after the studio's lab scratched the film during processing. Three weeks of work were lost but Chaplin miraculously recreated the episode to his satisfaction.

> Other delays were caused by unseasonably hot weather as well as heavy winds and rain (which damaged the big top tent) and in one case, shooting was halted until a shipment of snakes arrived from Texas that was crucial for a scene. Chaplin was such a perfectionist that he would shoot endless takes of every scene; for one sequence involving lions, he filmed more than 200 takes. Often, after working on a scene for hours with the cast and crew, he would discard it in the editing process. Yet in the end, The Circus was enthusiastically received by an adoring public despite his well publicized marital troubles and scandals. The New York Daily News called the film "a screaming delight from fade-in to fade-out. It is a howling, hearty, happy, slightly slapstick cinema production wherein the inimitable Charlie gets you more often by a laugh than by a tear." The New York Herald Tribute stated, "There are certain ones who declare that Shoulder Arms [1918] was a better picture than The Circus, but we find this newest picture at least as funny as anything Chaplin ever has done." The Academy must have agreed as well because they honored Chaplin with an Honorary Oscar "For versatility and genius in acting, writing, directing and producing The Circus."