Polly of the Circus 1932

In a small town, a traveling circus rolls in and the bold trapeze artist Polly Fisher is furious to discover posters that have been clothed to hide her skimpy costume. She tracks down the man she wrongly suspects, the Reverend John Hartley, who denies any censorship but their first encounter sparks a tense, prickly connection rather than a simple confrontation.

During a performance, a heckler distracts Polly and she plummets fifty feet to the ground. The doctor warns that she must not be moved, so Hartley has her taken to his nearby house for care. As she recuperates, the two grow closer, and what begins as a shaky alliance deepens into love. Polly makes a conscious choice to leave the circus and marry the man she has come to care for, giving up her former life to be with him.

John’s uncle, Bishop James Northcott, doubts the wisdom of this union, and the congregation resents having an ex-circus performer as their minister’s wife. Consequently, Hartley loses his position and cannot find another church gig because of his marriage.

Seeing how unhappy her husband is, Polly goes to plead with the bishop for help, but Northcott remains unmoved. When she confesses that she would consider leaving John, he bluntly tells her that a divorced minister would be unacceptable as well. Polly contemplates a grim option: disappear as a widow so John could return to the church. She temporarily returns to the circus, planning a fatal accident to free him from a life he cannot have. Yet Northcott undergoes a change of heart, and before he can tell the couple, Polly has already left. He and John race to the next circus stop, arriving just in time to intervene and save Polly from walking into a deadly trap.