O Circo

The Mexican film El circo (1943) was shown in the U. S. with the translated title The Circus. It was co-written and directed by Miguel M. Delgado.

As I wrote in my review of an earlier Cantinflas movie, the plot is ridiculous, but you don't watch a Cantinflas movie for the plot. You watch it for Cantinflas.

Cantinflas is part Charlie Chaplin, part Lucille Ball, and part Chico Marx. Everything he touches ends up in mayhem. Slapstick is the key to his humor, and it really works. You just sit back and watch Cantinflas stumble from failure to success and back again. He's a brilliant comedian, and it's a pleasure to enjoy his style of humor.

We saw this movie on the small screen, where it worked well. El Circo has an anemic 6.9 IMDb rating. I thought it was better than that, and rated it 8.