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The Circus poster

Movies that feel likeThe Circus (1928)

Charlie, a wandering tramp, becomes a circus handyman - soon the star of the show - and falls in love with the circus owner's stepdaughter.

If you loved The Circus, the closest films we have are Limelight (1952), Modern Times (1936) and City Lights (1931). All three share The Circus' witty and playful feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is I Know Where I'm Going! (1945).

🍅 97% Rotten Tomatoes★ 8.1 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Charlie Chaplinwittyplayfulcontemplativeromantictender
6 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Amazon Prime Video · Criterion Channel

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If The Circus hit the spot, these will too

Limelight poster
Limelight
1952 · dir. Charlie Chaplin
🍅 88%★ 8romance · drama · comedyMax

The same hand behind both of them: Charlie Chaplin

The difference: 24 years apart, and the 1950s show

A fading music hall comedian tries to help a despondent ballet dancer learn to walk and to again feel confident about life.

Modern Times poster
Modern Times
1936 · dir. Charlie Chaplin
🍅 98%★ 8.5comedy · drama · romancePrime VideoMax

Charlie Chaplin directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

A bumbling tramp desires to build a home with a young woman, yet is thwarted time and time again by his lack of experience and habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time...

City Lights poster
City Lights
1931 · dir. Charlie Chaplin
🍅 95%★ 8.5comedy · drama · romancePrime VideoMax

The same two preoccupations: tramp, and black and white

A tramp falls in love with a beautiful blind flower girl. His on-and-off friendship with a wealthy man allows him to be the girl's benefactor and suitor.

The Cameraman poster
The Cameraman
1928 · dir. Edward Sedgwick
🍅 100%★ 8comedy · romance · drama

One thread runs through both: black and white

A photographer takes up newsreel shooting to impress a secretary.

The Shop Around the Corner poster
The Shop Around the Corner
1940 · dir. Ernst Lubitsch
🍅 99%★ 8comedy · drama · romance

Witty where it counts, playful underneath

Two employees at a gift shop can barely stand one another, without realising that they are falling in love through the post as each other's anonymous pen pal.

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans poster
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
1927 · dir. F. W. Murnau
🍅 98%★ 8.1drama · romance

Both are built on the same subject: silent film

The difference: Easier on the wit than The Circus

A married farmer falls under the spell of a slatternly woman from the city, who tries to convince him to drown his wife.

Holiday poster
Holiday
1938 · dir. George Cukor
🍅 100%★ 7.7comedy · romance · drama

Contemplative and romantic in the same breath

Johnny Case, a freethinking financier, has finally found the girl of his dreams — Julia Seton, the spoiled daughter of a socially prominent millionaire — and she's agreed to marry him. But when Johnny plans a holiday for the two to enjoy life while they are still young, his fiancée has other plans & that is for Johnny to work in her father's bank!

I Know Where I'm Going! poster
I Know Where I'm Going!
1945 · dir. Michael Powell
🍅 100%★ 7.4romance · drama · comedy

Tender comedy, and it commits to that

Plucky Englishwoman Joan Webster travels to the remote islands of the Scottish Hebrides in order to marry a wealthy industrialist. Trapped by inclement weather on the Isle of Mull and unable to continue to her destination, Joan finds herself charmed by the straightforward, no-nonsense islanders around her, and becomes increasingly attracted to naval officer Torquil MacNeil, who holds a secret that may change her life forever.

L'Âge d'or poster
L'Âge d'or
1930 · dir. Luis Buñuel
🍅 89%★ 7.1romance · comedy · drama

Drama with a pulse of wit, in both cases

The film consists of a series of tightly interlinked vignettes, the most sustained of which details the story of a man and a woman who are passionately in love. Their attempts to consummate their passion are constantly thwarted, by their families, by the Church and bourgeois society in general.

The Gold Rush poster
The Gold Rush
1925 · dir. Charlie Chaplin
🍅 98%★ 8.1adventure · comedy · dramaPrime VideoMax

The same preoccupation in both: silent film

The difference: Takes it somewhere less tender than The Circus does

A gold prospector in Alaska struggles to survive the elements and win the heart of a dance hall girl.

Grand Hotel poster
Grand Hotel
1932 · dir. Edmund Goulding
🍅 85%★ 7.3drama · romance

Romance built on stillness, twice over

Guests at a posh Berlin hotel struggle through worry, scandal, and heartache.

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town poster
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
1936 · dir. Frank Capra
🍅 90%★ 7.8comedy · drama · romance

Both lean on play more than on comedy

Longfellow Deeds lives in a small town, leading a small town kind of life. When a relative dies and leaves Deeds a fortune, Longfellow moves to the big city where he becomes an instant target for everyone. Deeds outwits them all until Babe Bennett comes along. When small-town boy meets big-city girl anything can, and does, happen.

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The best-reviewed films that share The Circus’ defining feeling.