The Circus is not Charlie Chaplin’s best work, but it has two important things going for it. One, the film stars the Tramp, and it’s just impossible for any human being from any culture to ever get enough of the Tramp and all of his problems. Two, it was released the year after Al Jolson said to the world from the screen in The Jazz Singer: “Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain’t heard nothin’ yet.” This finally and irreversibly broke the silence of cinema. When watching The Circus, you are seeing the last gasp of silence on the screen. (Paramount Theatre, 911 Pine St, stgpresents.org, 7 pm, $10, all ages)

Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory...