The Clown and the Kids (1967) User Reviews

I grew up on the songs.

[pmtelefon · 5/10 · 12 November 2019]

I listened to the LP of "The Clown and the Kids" a million times when I was growing up. I loved the songs and I still like them when I here them now. The movie is not nearly as good. It's poorly dubbed and kind of strange looking. I don't want to be mean but there isn't any real acting going on. The circus footage is kind of interesting in a Cold War Eastern Europe kind of way but it's not very entertaining. At the end of the day, "The Clown and the Kids" is a real test of wills between my finger and fast-forward button.

Emmett Kelly's last movie is a real pipping charmer!

[Stanbabe · 13 August 2003]

In his last movie.Vetrain clown:Emmett Kelly creates a charming fantsy that is heartwarming,thrilling and funny.The story has Kelly, his two kids and their circus troupe traveling thru Europe to find some small towns to perform in.One town,where they find that they're not welcome is the one runned by an evil mobster:"Jonathan Scragg".Who controlls and abuses everyone in the small village..including the kids.It's to Mr.Kelly's"Weary Willie The Tramp Clown"and his other alter ego"The Piper"to charm the kids into seeing the circus.And then overthrowing the evil "Mr.Scragg"and putting an end to the depressing atmosphere that has linger over the town for years.The story is good and so is Mr.Kelly's acting abilities.The only damper are the songs..which are neither charming,funny,heartfelt or even nessicary.Why songs were added to this film is still unclear? But despite this flaw.."The Clown & The Kids!"is still a happy fairy tale and a happy ending to the long and successful career of one of the entertainment industries most beloved clowns.

A Surrealist International Mash-Up

[MeowMix007 · 10/10 · 23 November 2008]

This is the kind of movie they don't make anymore: the fundamentally weird kind. Kelly is the hangdog proprietor of a traveling circus, along with his hilariously strange offspring. There's a whole pied piper angle, except instead of killing all the kids in town, he's trying to save them; inexplicably, the bad guy simply owns enough land and businesses to run the mysterious, unmapped town of Scragsville, to the extent that he commands its inhabitants to abuse their children and keeps fake birth certificates stating that all citizens are over the age of 18. I have no idea what's even going on with that last bit, it's buried in the middle of a song the kids in town sing about their miserable lives. The movie is a musical, as you immediately realize in the opening, and thank goodness...the songs are as weird as the rest of the movie. The kids become an army for Kelly's piper to wage war on Scrag, successfully. Kelly doesn't change out of piper persona or costume for the entire end of the movie, and the circus montages are so long that you can tell the editor just couldn't bear to part with all of the great footage they got, not even the parts where stuff screws up or people look at the camera. I had a barrel of laughs with this movie, I love how strange cobbled-together international ventures are.