"The Devil's Circus" (1926) is a remarkable film starring Norma and Charles Emmett Mack.
The title has a double meaning in that a circus theme runs throughout the movie but it seems the Devil's Circus referred to in the title is in fact humanity, with Satan pulling the strings.
The film opens with creepy imagery of Satan (played by the director of the movie, Benjamin Christensen) overlooking feeble humans whilst wriggling his evil fingers and grinning wickedly.
The story begins as young, handsome petty thief Carl (Charles Emmett Mack) is released from prison, vowing to change his ways.
In an attempt to achieve this, the young atheist joins a circus where he meets Mary (Norma Shearer), a beautiful, virginal trapeze artist whom has strong religious beliefs and Christian morals.
Despite their oposingly different religious views, the two find themselves rapidly falling in love with eachother. However, the seedy (if somewhat dashing) lion trainer, Hugo (John Miljan) begins to regularly sexually harrass terrified Mary.
His jealous wife, fellow circus performer Yonner (Carmel Myers) finds the two of them locked in what appears to be a passionate embrace. She is unaware that in actuality, she has walked in on a sexual assault and as such, believes that Mary is the one attempting to steal her husband.
She strikes out at Mary and warns her away from Hugo as the dismayed girl cries silently, taking comfort from her pet dog.
Despite having been warned by a fellow circus employee about Hugo's wiley ways and unhealthy interest in Mary, Carl remains unaware of the true extent of the situation and continues to spend time with his young girlfriend as they make plans for their future.
They both have desires of leaving the circus to start out anew together, but realising that they simply don't have the money to get started, Carl reluctantly decides to join an old criminal pal on a robbery.
The whole thing goes wrong and pursued by the police, he dashes back to Mary to confess his crime and beg her forgiveness. Deeply upset, Mary tells him that if he truly regrets his actions, God will forgive him. Carl informs her that it isn't God he's concened about, but rather her whose forgiveness he desires.
The two lovingly hold eachother tightly as the police arrive and take Carl away in handcuffs.
Sobbing Mary proclaims her undying love as he is carted away, telling him that she will wait for him.
She keeps in touch by letters as Carl serves his term, and the prisoner takes great comfort in knowing that she remains true to her word.
However, things take a very grave turn one night whilst she is in the process of writing to Carl. Hugo enters the petrified young lady's room and proceeds to rape her.
Mary is devastated and abandons the letter, feeling that Carl will no longer wish to be with her following the attack.
As the weeks go by, Carl becomes very distressed in prison as he watches the postal deliveries come and go with no sign of a letter from his beloved.
Back at the circus, Hugo's increasingly jealous wife loses control and during Mary's trapeze act, unties the rope that suspends the trapeze way up high in the big top.
Mary falls from a great height into the lions cage and is mauled by lions. Lion trainer Hugo, despite his evil nature, comes to her rescue and manages to control the big cats with his whip, but Mary is already seriously injured.
The disturbing imagery of Satan returns, grinning over images of trench warfare as 1914 arrives and with it, the Great War.
Exchanging his prison uniform for military attire, Carl is called to the front line where he conducts his duties with a heavy heart and forlorn thoughts of his seemingly lost love, whose old letters he keeps close to his heart at all times.
As time passes by, the now disabled Mary finds herself begging in the streets, selling dolls which she has made in order to survive.
The seemingly endless array of evil things that have happened to her render the once deeply religious girl an atheist.
When Carl is wounded and sent home, he finds Mary and the two are overcome with love and embrace. Mary is deeply touched by the fact that Carl is unperturbed by her requirement of crutches to help her walk and delighted when he speaks of his plans for marriage.
Suddenly, the rape returns to the forefront of her mind and she pushes him away. He begs to know what is wrong with her and with deep regret, she tells him what has happened.
Carl is beside himself with rage and vows to find and kill Hugo. He leaves Mary, distressed and sobbing, and spends the coming days searching the town until he is told where to find the former lion trainer.
When he approaches Hugo, he is confused to find that recognition doesn't register in his enemies face. Slowly, the truth of the situation sinks in and Carl realises that Hugo has also been to war and has been blinded in action.
The sightless, pitiful figure of a man meekly asks Carl what the business of his call is. Carl simply tells him it doesn't matter.
Feeling that all the evils of the past few years have been somehow balanced out, he suddenly finds himself believing in God for the first time in his life.
Returning to Mary, he restores her long lost faith and the two finally begin their lives together with the Devil defeated.
There are some very powerful views expressed in this touching and quite dark story. The direction is startlingly good and there are some wonderful moments of acting from the whole cast.
The rape scene is particularly harrowing, expertly executed by cutaways to Norma's struggling feet, John Miljan's hands grabbing at her and finally his finger switching out the light before proceeding with the vile act.
Young Charles Emmett Mack would surely have gone onto greater things in the coming sound era if he had not succumbed to his art the following year, dying in a tragic car accident whilst driving to the movie set to ironically film a race scene in "The First Auto". He was only 26 years old.
Norma is in fine form, beautifully radiating her emotions and looking entirely adorable in the process.
The trapeze scenes are breathtaking and clever editing makes it impossible to see where Norma and her stunt double's frames switch over.
Simply put, "The Devil's Circus" is one of the finest silent films of the era and a movie which remains with you once you have watched it.
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