A couple of silent screen "names" -- Francis X. Bushman and Ethel Clayton -- struggle valiantly with the microphone in this extremely poor melodrama from low-budget producer C.C. Burr. Made for Pickwick Pictures Productions, The Call of the Circus lacks any technical niceties, and is of interest only for historians researching early screen star Francis X. Bushman, whose career had taken a nosedive following a quarrel with studio tsar Louis B. Mayer. The original 1930 release of The Call of the Circus came complete with a theme song, "Life is Just a Circus," penned by screenwriters Maxine Alton and Jack Townley.
Call of the Circus (1930)
Directed by Frank O'Connor
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