Cast: Lon Chaney, Bernard Siegel, Loretta Young, Cissy Fitzgerald, Nils Asther
Tonight TCM is showing circus movies. Fun. Good to be doing this one featuring the great Lon Chaney.
PLOT: In spring, the traveling circus comes to Italy. The day after a show, Tito (Lon Chaney. Who the hell names a clown Tito?) finds an abandoned girl (Loretta Young) and tells Simon (Bernard Siegel. Now that one I can believe) that he will keep her, against Simon's wishes. Simon reluctantly agrees. Tito makes her laugh and she soon warms up to him. He decides to name her Simonetta, after Simon, who, having his heart warmed by the friendly gesture, gives her a kiss and befriends her.
Simonetta grows up with the circus and Tito and Simon train her. When Tito decides that to make her a woman, she needs a rose in her hair, she goes to look for one and runs into Count Luigi Ravelli (Nils Asther). He becomes smitten with her and again, you can tell how pre-code this is when he kisses her feet and pretty much strokes her boobs. Lucretia (Gwen Lee) who appears to be his girlfriend, gets pissed and tells him to send her away, which she does go away, on her own accord.
Back at the circus, Simon is still being sexist and claiming that he will leave the act if Simonetta joins, claiming that women bring bad luck. Simonetta shows up, dressed elaborately and Tito proclaims that she is a woman. Unfortunately, Tito suffers a stroke and needs a doctor.
Three years later, at a Roman neurologist's office, Luigi seems to be suffering from laughing attacks. And they said laughter is the best medicine. Tito comes in, haggard and depressed, causing Luigi to laugh. Damn punk rich kid with no respect for his elders. Anyway, the doctor thinks Tito may be suffering from some sort of suppression of love and tells him to find the right lady. When Tito claims that it wouldn't be right to tell her, the doctor tells him to find something that will make him laugh, and points him to a clown called Flik (again played by Chaney). Tito claims he can never make him laugh because he himself is Flik. Because of this, I will now refer to Tito as T-Flik.
Out on the balcony, Luigi and T-Flik strike up a friendship and try to cure each other. Simonetta comes to see her mentor and pampers him as per the doctor's orders. One night after a show, T-Flik confesses his love for Simonetta to Simon, who then tells him that Luigi has been using him to get to Simonetta. Tito confronts Luigi, who of course decides to act like an ass until he sees how affected T-Flik is by this problem. T-Flik confesses his love for Simonetta and the look on Luigi's face is priceless. However, he plays the bigger man and will not stand in T-Flik's way. However, T-Flik implores him to ask her if she loves him first.
Coming back from his performance, T-Flik sees Luigi kissing Simonetta. It is here that Simon delivers the famous lines: "Laugh, clown, laugh! Even if your heart is breaking!" Luigi and Simonetta are engaged and Simonetta wants T-Flik with them. Luigi agrees.
Simon comes up with a new idea for the act, but T-Flik says he cannot continue, claiming that his "heart's not in it." In probably one of the saddest scenes I've ever seen, Simonetta shows up and repeats the joke that T-Flik taught to her as a child, but he is too mentally unstable to notice she's there. Simonetta pleads T-Flik to admit his love for her and she admits she loves him. They admit their love for each other and Simonetta tells Luigi. However, T-Flik turns to Mary and professes that that whole time, Simonetta was lying.
Simon shows up to rehearsal that night to find Tito made up for some reason. He tries to coax out the old T-Flik, the funny one, but no can do. Finally T-Flik convinces himself that Simonetta is going to marry him and begins to laugh again. When he proceeds to do his signature trick, the Death-Defying Slide, he falls off mid-trapeze and needs to be carted off stage and tended to. His last words are "The comedy...is...ended!" He dies in Simon's arms.
REVIEW: Well, now I know why teenage girls think it's fun to sleep with men twice their age. Fun fact: fans of SINGIN' IN THE RAIN will know who says ridi pagliacci at the beginning. I know I picked up on that!
I thought this film was a bit odd and twisted, but it was great to see Lon in a non-horror role, as always; he never really got to show the world what he was about. 4 out of 5 stars. I really enjoyed this film, but I thought the ending was a bit too sudden.
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