FAR IN THE DAY

The mute French mime of Burnish Me Bright (1970) joins up with a tawdry five-man Irish circus for an even more sentimental performance than the one that ended in expulsion from his native village. There's Billy Duffy, a consumptive, motherless child who befriends the wordless waif from his appearance one evening at mealtime, finds him a bed under his trailer next to the aged performing bear, and dies in his arms in the end. Then there's the clown Jimsy who names him Tallow and applauds his inspired mimicry, the evil fat woman who accuses him of the theft she herself has committed, the slow but sympathetic strong man Philip, and Duffy the boss who closes the ailing circus after his son's death, leaving Tallow to ride off and "take the world." Even those who basked in the self-consciously poetical glow of Burnish Me Bright will find Tallow pretty drippy.