Circus (1936 film)

Orlova plays an American circus artist who, after giving birth to a black baby (played by James Lloydovich Patterson), immediately becomes a victim of racism and is forced to stay in the circus, but finds refuge, love and happiness in the USSR.

Marion Dixon, a popular American circus artist is forced to flee for her life with her son, to escape a lynch mob in a provincial American town. The fate of the father is not mentioned, but it is implied that he was lynched. Dixon is taken under the wing of Franz von Kneishitz, a sinister German theatrical agent whose mustache and mannerisms resemble those of Adolf Hitler. Kneishitz blackmails Dixon into becoming his lover while exploiting her and in one scene beats her quite savagely.

Dixon is only kept alive by her love for her son Jimmy, and when she plays in Moscow as a guest performer, she is portrayed as spiritually broken. At the Moscow circus, the circus director Ludvig hires the Arctic explorer Ivan Petrovich Martinov to design a new circus act to top Dixon's "Trip to the Moon" act. Ludvig's fiery daughter Rayechka has a tempestuous relationship with her boyfriend Skameikin. Despite his mission to design an act better than her act, Martinov and Dixon fall in love, which attracts Kneishitz's rage. Dixon wants to stay in Moscow with Martinov, saying she has found happiness again. Kneishitz diverts a love letter from Dixon meant for Martinov to Skameikin, which throws the circus into romantic chaos as Rayechka is furious with Skameikin while Martinov is heartbroken. To escape Rayechka, Skameikin accidentally runs into a lion cage and has to calm the lions with a bouquet of flowers. When Martinov does not respond to her love letter, Dixon nearly leaves Moscow with Kneishitz. By this time, Rayechka has learned the truth and she helps Dixon escape Kneishitz. Martinov and Dixon are late to the circus, forcing Ludvig to perform the top act of 1903, the chudo tekhniki ("miracle of technology"), to amuse the impatient audience. Finally, Martinov and Dixon arrive and perform their "Trip to the Stratosphere" act together.

Kneishitz interrupts the act to tell Dixon to come with him or else he will reveal her secret. When she refuses, Kneishitz delivers a Hitler-like rant about how Dixon has a black son Jimmy, only for the audience to laugh at him. Ludvig tells Kneishitz that the Soviet peoples do not care about racial purity or race at all. Dixon's black son is embraced by friendly Soviet people. Kneishitz tries to seize Jimmy, but the audience unites to save him. Finally, a group of burley Red Army soldiers in the audience block Kneishitz, who cowers in fear and leaves. The movie climaxes with a lullaby being sung to the baby by representatives of various Soviet ethnicities taking turns.[1] The lyrics of the lullaby to Jimmy are sung in Russian, Ukrainian, Yiddish, Uzbek and Georgian. One of the members of the audience is a black American man dressed in a Soviet naval officer's uniform with a Russian wife. The lyrics of The International Lullaby declare: "Son prikhodit na porog/Krepko, krepko spi ty/Sto putei, sto dorog/Dlia tebia otkryty" ("Sleep comes to your doorstep/Sleep very,very soundly/A hundred paths, a hundred doorways/Are open to you").[5] Dixon and Martinov declare their love for one another while Rayechka and Shameikin become engaged. The film ends with Rayechka and Dixon marching together in the annual May Day parade under banners depicting the faces of Lenin and Stalin. Much of the footage of the May Day parade used in the film was taken from the actual May Day parade of 1935.[6]

The film was digitally colorized in 2011 in Russia.

• Lyubov Orlova as Marion Dixon, American actress and circus artist.[7] Her name is a tribute to the actress Marlene Dietrich.[8]
• James Patterson as Jimmy, Marion's baby
• Sergei Stolyarov as Ivan Petrovich Martinov, Soviet performance director
• Pavel Massalsky as Franz von Kneisсhitz, 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
• Solomon Mikhoels as Cameo

• The movie was the most commercially successful Soviet film. Two weeks after the release, it was viewed by 1 million people in Moscow alone.[9]
• In Russia, Solomon Mikhoels's murder in 1948 by the order of Stalin was perceived as a failed movie's message about the danger of chauvinism and anti-Semitism. American researcher Herbert Eagle said: "The scene in the Circus is intended to show that the Soviet people are devoid of racial prejudices. Of course, it was an attack against America and propaganda, but on the other hand, Aleksandrov probably sincerely called for reconciliation, for harmony, hoping that in these terrible times he would awaken conscience in the audience with the means available to him."[9]
• In early 1953, the verses from the lullaby, sung in Yiddish (which were performed by Solomon Mikhoels) were removed. After Stalin's death the verses were restored.
• The well known animal trainer Boris Eder substituted for Aleksandr Komissarov in Skameikin's flower fight with the lions.[1]
• The "Flight to the Moon" stunt coordinated and performed by three Kharkiv inventors where the extreme sports athlete Vera Buslaeva substituted for Lyubov Orlova for the cameras.[1]
• As one of Joseph Stalin's favourite movies Circus was the last film he saw before his death.[10]
• The movie has an in-joke about Mikhail Lermontov's death at the hands of Nikolai Martynov, at that time in the 1930s it was officially revised as a planned political murder ordered by the secret police.[11]
• The movie with an American Catholic protagonist was released one month before the 1936 anti-abortion law.[12] Just after that, America and Americans disappeared from Soviet cinema.[13] Lyubov Orlova had to participate in the anti-abortion law promotion company: "I myself want a child, and I will certainly have one. And it is natural. Life is getting more and more joyful and more fun. The future is even more wonderful. Why not give birth?".[14] In 1941, she adopted Douglas (b. 19 May 1925), Grigori Aleksandrov's son by his first marriage to actress Olga Ivanova (she died during childbirth in June 1941, being married to a famous actor Boris Tenin). He was named after Douglas Fairbanks, he and Mary Pickford visited the Bolshevik state back then and were admired by Grigori and Olga.[15] In 1952, Douglas Aleksandrov was arrested by OGPU on false treason claims and, at 26 in a prison, had suffered his first heart attack before being forcefully renamed to 'Vasilii'. OGPU unsuccessfully wanted him to testify about his father being an American spy.[16] He was released shortly after Stalin's death in 1953.[17][18]

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

External video
Circus with English subtitles, released by the official Mosfilm YouTube channel

• Circus at IMDb
• Circus at AllMovie
• Site-museum of Lyubov Orlova Orlova
• Yuri Nikulin on the film Circus