Charlie Chaplin - The Circus - Criterion Collection Blu-Ray

In the last film he made during the silent era, Charlie Chaplin revels in the art of the circus and pays tribute to the acrobats and mimes who inspired his virtuoso slapstick. After being mistaken for a pickpocket, Chaplin's tramp flees into the ring of a traveling circus and soon becomes the star of the show, falling for the troupe's bareback rider along the way. Despite its notoriously troubled production, this comedy is full of some of Chaplin's best gags, thanks to some of the most daring scenes in the director and actor's career, including a close encounter with a lion and a climactic tightrope walk with a flock of monkeys. The Circus, re-released in 1969 with new music by Chaplin, is a thrilling balancing act that showcases silent cinema's most popular entertainer at the height of his comedic powers.SPECIAL FEATURES New digital 4K restoration of Charlie Chaplin's re-released version of the film from 1969, with original music by Chaplin, featuring uncompressed mono audio on Blu-rayp>

New audio commentary with Chaplin biographer Jeffrey Vance

Interview with Chaplin from 1969

New interview with Chaplin's son Eugene Chaplin

In the Service of the Story, a new program on the film's visual effects and production design by film scholar Craig Barron

Chaplin Today: "The Circus," a 2003 documentary about the film with filmmaker Emir Kusturicap>

Excerpts from a 1998 audio interview with Chaplin's musical collaborator Eric James

Unused café sequence with new music by composer Timothy Brock, and related outtakes narrated by comedy choreographer Dan Kamin

Newly discovered outtakes featuring the Tramp and the circus rider

Excerpts from the original recording of the film's opening song, "Swing Little Girl"

Film clips from the film's Hollywood premiere in 1928

Trailers from the re-release

PLUS: An essay by critic Pamela Hutchinson

New cover by Mark Chiarello