Tillie's Punctured Romance (1928 film)

Tillie's Punctured Romance
Tillie's Punctured Romance
	Theatrical poster
Directed by	A. Edward Sutherland
Written by	Monte Brice ; Keene Thompson
Produced by	Al Christie (aka Christie Film Company)
Starring	W. C. Fields ; Louise Fazenda ; Chester Conklin ; Mack Swain
Cinematography	Charles P. Boyle ; William Wheeler
Edited by	Arthur Huffsmith
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	March 3, 1928;
Running time	57 minutes
Country	United States
Language	Silent (English intertitles)

Last updated September 21, 2025

Tillie's Punctured Romance is a 1928 American silent circus comedy film starring W. C. Fields as a ringmaster and Louise Fazenda as a runaway.^[1] Written by Monte Brice and Keene Thompson and directed by A. Edward Sutherland, this film has nothing to do with the 1914 Charlie Chaplin film aside from sharing the same title, but Chester Conklin and Mack Swain appear in both films.

Plot

Tillie is a runaway who goes to Frisbee's Colossal Circus, with lions, a ringmaster that wants to take over the circus from the owner, a strong woman, a girl with "a voice of gold and an arm of iron". The group decides to go to the French trenches during World War I in order to entertain the troops, but they all get caught up in a draft and end up serving the German Army as privates while facing the Allies.

Cast

W. C. Fields as Ringmaster
Louise Fazenda as Tillie, a Runaway
Chester Conklin as Circus Owner
Mack Swain as Tillie's Father
Doris Hill as Heroine
Grant Withers as Hero
Tom Kennedy as Property Man
Babe London as Strong Woman
Billy Platt as Midget (credited as William Platt)
Michael Raffetto as Lion tamer
Baron von Dobeneck as German officer
Alfred Adeline
Tommy Albert
Agnes Allison
Joan Marquis

Preservation

With no prints of Tillie's Punctured Romance located in any film archives,^[2] it is a lost film.

References

↑ Progressive Silent Film List: Tillie's Punctured Romance at silentera.com
↑ "The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: Tillie's Punctured Romance". memory.loc.gov. Archived from the original on March 21, 2023. Retrieved August 24, 2025.

External links

Tillie's Punctured Romance at IMDb

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[1] Progressive Silent Film List: Tillie's Punctured Romance at silentera.com

[2] "The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: Tillie's Punctured Romance". memory.loc.gov. Archived from the original on March 21, 2023. Retrieved August 24, 2025.

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