For some reason I expected this to be a happier film, but often clown stories are sad ones. Tito and Simon have a very entertaining clown show. They find an abandoned young girl and Tito (Lon Chaney) decides to raise her with the show. Simonetta (Loretta Young) grows up and falls for a rich guys who helps her one day and they're married. This saddens Tito, who himself has fallen for Simonetta. That's the part that disturbs me the most. Not only is Tito 30 years older, but he was the one who raised her. It turned me off a bit. Apparently there is an alternate ending that was filmed for this movie that no longer exists. I heard that this was common and the theater could choose which ending to show it's patrons. Based on the rest of the tone of this movie, I think the current ending is the better one. There were a couple serious stunts in this movie and I'm not sure if Lon Chaney did his own stunts, but I was impressed. I was lucky to see this with the musical score composed by H. Scott Salinas in 2002. It was excellent and matched the film well. This may not be one of the great silent films, but I am glad I was able to catch this rarely seen gem on TCM (Turner Classic Movies).
*** (out of 4)
*** (out of 4)