Barry Norton (left), Nancy Drexel, Janet Gaynor and Charles Morton.     Photograph: Silent Era low-res collection.

Cast: Janet Gaynor [Marion], Charles Morton [Charles], Barry Norton [Adolf], Nancy Drexel [Louise], Anders Randolf [Cecchi], Michael Visaroff [the circus director], J. Farrell MacDonald [a clown], Claire McDowell [mother], André Cheron [old Roué], George Davis [the mean clown], Mary Duncan [the lady], Wesley Lake [old clown], Jack Parker [Charles, as a boy], Dawn O’Day [Marion, as child], Philippe de Lacy [Adolf, as a boy], Anita Fremault (Anita Louise) [Louise, as child], The Four Cordonas [trapeze stunt players]

Fox Film Corporation production; distributed by Fox Film Corporation. / Scenario by Berthold Viertel + [Carl Mayer and Marion Orth], from the novel De Fire Djaevle (The Four Devils) by Hermann Bang. Art direction by William Darling, with assistance from Robert Herlth and Walter Röhring. Staging by A.F. Erickson and A.H. Van Buren. Assistant director, A.F. Erickson. Cinematography by L. William O’Connell and Ernest Palmer. Sound by Harold Hobson. Edited by Harold D. Schuster. Music by S.L. Rothafel, with songs by Erno Rapee (music) and Lew Pollack (lyrics). Presented by William Fox. / Premiered 3 October 1928 in New York, New York. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.37:1 format. Western Electric Movietone sound-on-film sound system. / Murnau’s second Hollywood film. Circus drama suffers from studio-imposed restrictions. The film was rereleased in the USA by Fox Film Corporation, with new sound sequences (with dialogue written by John Hunter Booth), at 8800 feet on 15 June 1929. / Silent film, with sound sequences.

Drama: Circus.

Survival Status: The film is presumed lost.

Keywords: Circuses - Synchronized sound film

Listing updated: 5 January 2009.

References: Best-Those p. 56; Brownlow-Parade p. 232; Everson-American pp. 310u, 328; Lloyd-Seventy p. 34; Mottram-Danish p. 103; Thompson-Lost p. 263 : Cinemonkey-16 p. 15 : Website-IMDb.