Circus (1936 film)

Circus
Film poster
Directed by	Grigori Aleksandrov Isidor Simkov
Written by	Grigori Aleksandrov
Starring	Lyubov Orlova Vladimir Volodin Sergei Stolyarov Pavel Massalsky James Lloydovich Patterson
Music by	Isaak Dunayevsky
Cinematography	Vladimir Nilsky Boris Petrov
Studio	Mosfilm
Release date(s)	1936
Running time	94 min.
Country	Soviet Union
Language	Russian

Circus (Russian: Цирк; translit. Tsirk) is a 1936 Soviet melodramatic comedy musical film. It was directed by Grigori Aleksandrov at the Mosfilm studios. In his own words, it was conceived as "an eccentric comedy...a real side splitter."

Starring the glamorous and immensely popular Lyubov Orlova (Aleksandrov's wife), the first recognized star of Soviet cinema and a gifted singer, the film contains several songs which instantly became Soviet classics. The most famous is the "Song of the Motherland" (Широка страна моя родная).

Song of the Motherland Film music

Plot

Closing scene of the movie: Marion hugs tight her Russian husband Ivan and son Jimmy.

The film opens with the following headline of Sunnyville Courier: “Marion Dixon, Human Bombshell, is Center of Sensational Scandal” with a large photo, captioned: “Marion Dixon, perpetrator of the history’s sinister crime!”.

The next scene opens with an American man shouting “Beat her up! Beat her up!” and the whole crowd rushing towards tiny woman, carrying a bundle in her arms. The woman manages to jump aboard a moving train and to avoid lynching, while she is about to be stomped by the relentless crowd. In the train she encounters a German compère, who has just read the same headlines of Sunnyville Courier, while it’s turned out that the bundle is actually a swaddled infant, who starts crying, thus revealing himself. The first phrase the German says to the woman is “Was wollen Sie?” (German for "What do You want?"), but the woman seems to be so tired from the chase that she falls unconscious.

The woman is Marion Dixon, an American circus artist who, after giving birth to a black baby (played by Jim Patterson), immediately becomes a victim of racism in the United States. The German on the train turns out to be a theatrical agent named Franz von Kneishitz who recruits her to his concert program across the Soviet Union.

Marion leaves the United States on a circus tour across the USSR. At first Marion wants to leave the circus, but being blackmailed by her manager von Kneishitz, she is forced to continue her circus career. While traveling on the tour, Soviet circus authorities propose that she engage in a recently created performance and there she meets Soviet performance director Ivan Martynov, with whom she quickly falls in love. The new performance brings the house down and Dixon is welcomed to stay in the USSR for good.

Together with her new Russian husband she finds refuge, love and happiness in the USSR. Her black son is treated very well by friendly Soviet people. The movie ends with a lullaby being sung to the baby by representatives of various ethnicities, inhabiting the Soviet Union.

Cast

• Lyubov Orlova as Marion Dixon, American actress and circus artist
• Jim Patterson as Jimmy, the Marion's baby
• Sergei Stolyarov as Ivan Petrovich Martinov, Soviet performance director
• Pavel Massalsky as Franz von Kneishitz, corrupt theatrical agent
• Vladimir Volodin as Ludvig, Soviet circus director
• Yevgeniya Melnikova as Rayechka, the director's daughter
• Aleksandr Komissarov as Skameikin
• Nikolai Otto as Charlie Chaplin

See also

• List of musical films
• List of racism-related films

External links

• Цирк / Circus on YouTube
• Circus at the Internet Movie Database
• Circus at AllRovi
• Site-museum of Lyubov Orlova Orlova