The Golden Clown

The singing clown Joe Higgins (Ekman) travels around the small towns of France with Old Bunding (Féraudy) and his circus. Joe marries Bunding's daughter Daisy (Bell). Joe is hired by a top music-hall in Paris and becomes a great success. Soon, he spends all his time on his art, and Daisy is easy prey for an experienced seducer. Joe discovers their affair and, distraught, allows Daisy to leave with her lover. He soon abandons her when she discovers that she is having a child. Months later, she seeks out Joe in desperation, but instead meets her father, whose sense of honour compels him to drive her away, and she drowns herself in the Seine. Years later, Joe is about to go completely to the dogs when fortune reunites him with his and Daisy's daughter.
A full-blooded melodrama. This glossy remake of one of Valdemar Psilander's most successful films (1916, also directed by Sandberg) is a good example of the international quality films of the 1920s; it could have been made in any important film-producing country. Scenes shot on location in Paris blend seamlessly with scenes shot in Denmark. There are no national particularities here, only cinematic craftsmanship at the highest level, with superb performance from Ekman and the famous French stage actor Féraudy. Klovnen is Sandberg's best film and Nordisk's biggest hit of the 1920s.