Circus is a 1936 Soviet melodramatic comedy musical film. It was directed by Grigori Aleksandrov and Isidor Simkov at the Mosfilm studios. In his own words, it was conceived as "an eccentric comedy...a real side splitter."

Plot

Marion Dixon, a popular white American circus artist, is forced to flee for her life with her black baby to escape a lynch mob in a rural American town. The fate of the black father of her child is not mentioned, but it is heavily implied that he was lynched. Dixon is taken under the wing of Franz von Kneishitz, a sinister German theatrical agent whose mustache and mannerisms resemble those of Adolf Hitler. Kneishitz blackmails Dixon into becoming his lover while exploiting her.