The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) User Reviews

Highly entertaining and informative

[Elizabeth-328 · 7/10 · 24 March 2000]

I've never been to the circus, so I think of this movie as my trip to the circus. Charlton Heston is great as Brad, the all business manager of the circus. But my favorite character is James Stewart as Buttons the Clown. It's a very different role for him, but it's great.

The Best Picture of 1952, "The Greatest Show on Earth" is wonderful, especially if you've never experienced it. I think this is one of Cecil B. De Mille's finest movies, and I recommend it to everyone. So I give it a 10 out of 10!

Hey, doesn't anyone remember Last Emperor?

[sharkey197 · 8/10 · 28 December 2005]

It constantly amazes me that people carp that this won best Picture, as though no movie before or since ever won when maybe they shouldn't have. It was a big picture, it had a great story, it gave a lot of bang for the buck and that has always been a factor in grabbing the Oscar. It does seem a bit dated to us now, used to high flying special effects, different acting styles, and quick cut editing, instead of letting the scene play out as it so often does here, but it's such a great story. The circus itself is a character and the way Demille used the audience to make them seem so individual is wonderful. And I'm not just referring to the Hope/Crosby cameo. Remember the fat guy with the kid scarfing down the ice cream laughing his head off while the kid looked confused? You could tell he was reliving his childhood and he became EveryMan to us with only seconds of screen time. That's mastery. The integration of the real circus people with the actors was seamless and if nothing else this movie captures a time when the circus was really a circus. Carp all you want, guys. But I think you may be too spoiled by ultra realism to appreciate the subtler gems in this very respectable film.

I like this one

[wade1555 · 8/10 · 7 November 2006]

I have seen this film several times and each time I am more impressed. I don't look at a film to rate the acting, but rather I look at a film for its entertainment qualities. This film shows a behind-the-scenes look into circus life that most people would never have a chance to see. The circus acts shown are typical and entertaining, the characters have some qualities that are not always seen in a movie of this magnitude. I am always interested in special effects and how they are used in a film. The train wreck is obviously done with models but it is so well done, it rates mention. There are many considerations in making special effects seem real and all of those are carefully used in this film. Of course, the circus acts were NOT done with special effects and are very entertaining. If you have not seen this picture, please do so with an open mind and expect to be impressed.

Great show and story

[Graceland316 · 1 October 2002]

I know that some people are down on this movie, but I absolutely LOVE it. It has great ideals and good (not great) acting. It tells a story about the circus in a pseudo-documentary. The story has love, action, and humor. Three things that are missing from much of today's movie. I also love the color and the dramatic "feel" of the film for that era. It's a wonderful, wonderful, piece of 'Americana'.

An entertaining picture, just not the Best Picture

[AlsExGal · 7/10 · 21 November 2009]

"The Greatest Show on Earth" is a good movie and it's entertaining enough, it's just not an Oscar-winning caliber movie. As other reviewers have noted, this film was probably given its Best Picture Oscar as a kind of life-time achievement award to Cecil B. DeMille. It wasn't that the Academy felt that they had unjustly snubbed DeMille in the past for any specific film, it was just that he had always made those kind of epic cast-of-thousands types of pictures that drew in the audiences but that rarely won Oscars. Plus, a large body of DeMille's work had been done before the Academy Awards even came into existence in 1927. The whole thing seems especially unjust when you look at the competition that year. Two of the other nominees - "High Noon" and "The Quiet Man" are considered unique and classic to this day. Also, there is a film in the top 10 of AFI Best Films from that year that didn't even get nominated for best picture - Singin' in the Rain - which is arguably the best musical film ever made. It's rather ironic that just four years later the Academy could have probably awarded DeMille more legitimately when he made his last movie, the epic "The Ten Commandments", in 1956.

This movie is basically a documentary on how the Ringling Brothers circus operated in the early 50's, and large chunks of film are taken up showing how the Big Top was assembled, the manual labor involved, how the entire circus - including wild animals - was transported via rail, and basically just all of the hard work that went on behind the scenes. There is also a pretty spectacular scene near the end of the film involving the two trains as they are transporting the circus from one town to another. I say "was" because the circus as it is portrayed in this movie closed down and ceased to exist in 1956. The truth is that the Ringling Brothers circus never fully recovered financially from the double whammy of the Great Depression and a fatal fire that killed over 100 people in Hartford, Connecticut in 1944 and thus was in the process of failing even when this movie was made. The plot of the movie is very thin, the main thread being an uninspired love triangle involving the two stars of the trapeze act, Holly and the Great Sebastion, played by Betty Hutton and Cornel Wilde respectively, and the managing boss of the traveling show, Brad Braden, played by Charleton Heston. The subplots include an elephant trainer who is obsessed over a girl in the show who doesn't care for him, some small-time mobsters whose crooked games get thrown off the lot by Brad, and "Buttons" the clown, played by Jimmy Stewart, who never takes off his makeup and who seems to have a mysterious past. All of these plot lines are just there to hold the documentary part of the film together and also as a backdrop for all of the circus acts that are numerous and quite spectacular to behold, especially the acrobatic acts. Quite honestly, one-fourth into the movie you can see the outcome of the dramatic portion of the movie coming at you from a mile away. This makes the fact that this movie won Best Motion Picture Screenplay an even odder decision than the Best Picture award.

There is some interesting trivia involving the film. Famous clown Emmett Kelly can be seen at one point in the film without makeup - a fact that Mr. Kelly was not happy about. Also, Dorothy Lamour has a supporting role in this film, and during one of her musical performances in the show the camera pans to the audience -as it often does in this film - but this time you get a brief glimpse of Bing Crosby and Bob Hope enjoying the show. The inside joke here is that Lamour, Crosby, and Hope were the costars of the popular series of "Road to ..." movies of the 40's and 50's.

An impressive spectacle

[cricketbat · 6/10 · 11 October 2018]

For basically being a two-and-a-half hour advertisement for the circus, The Greatest Show on Earth isn't bad. Is it the best film of 1952? Probably not. But it's still better than some other Best Picture winners I've seen. Part fiction and part documentary, this movie is an impressive spectacle. The dialogue may be corny and the performances may be over the (big) top, but this is a fun way to experience the magic of the circus.

Amusing and and entertaining film about circus world for children of all ages

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 24 June 2011]

Spectacular and overlong story of a traveling three circus combined show , plenty of diverse characters as a tough manager (Charlton Heston) , a swaggering ringmaster , and a mysterious clown (James Stewart ) with a dark secret who never takes off his disguise . Furthermore , it includes the aerialist acrobat girlfriend (Betty Hutton) , a French somersault artist rival (Cornel Wilde) , and an evil elephant trainer (Lyle Bettger) , among others .

Cecil B. DeMille is an expert in realization of high-budget films with glamour where the greatness does not lack even a moment , here gets to make a nice tribute to the circus world and its surroundings . This hugely agreeable film is a faithful reflection of the title . This is tone of the best Cecil B. De Mille, here in all his epic glory , he is the great director of the greatness. It has a fantastic scenario, great mass movement, and even spectacular scenes for the time, as a car driving toward a train on the railroad tracks and subsequently crash. The story is fine , wrought with romance , love stories , and impressive scenes with enormous pedigree. The film is a melodramatic and romantic tale with the classic triangular love story between Heston-Hutton-Wilde and meshing drama with events offstage along with some scenes in documentary style . The movie is wrought with romance and glamour but is a simple , and also contains an intriguing story about a doctor pursued by the justice . It packs some patently faked ones with players in front of obvious blue real projection. This colorful and dramatic flick packs amazing shows and exciting final . Extraordinary cast and good performances , especially from Charlton Heston and James Stewart as likable clown , both of whom are top notch under Cecil B De Mille's correct direction . Furthermore , some scenes the actors perform their own stunts . Some surprising guest-star cameos as Bob Hope , Bing Crosby watching their usual partenaire , Dorothy Lamour . Lavishly produced Henry Wilconson who plays a police , he's Cecil B. De Mille's usual . Unfortunately the circus at present time , in total downfall, is far from the magic in which they lived in that time. Here are united the Ringling Bros , Barnum and Bailey in combined shows and three-ring circus with colorful parades . The movie deservedly won two Oscars as Best Picture and Story , however the complaints of reviewers and moviegoers ever since , who don't believe it worthy of the honor . Although long-term, it becomes very entertaining and does not superfluous nor a minute. It's a fantastic and spectacular film that achieved big success at Box office . There are frames that children may never forget as the train wreck and an aerialist falling to the soil . Rating : Better than average . Worthwhile seeing .

"Ladies and Gentlemen and Children of All Ages.........."

[bkoganbing · 9/10 · 18 September 2005]

The Greatest Show on Earth is a Cecil B. DeMille extravaganza, maybe the best one he ever produced and directed. Unlike his religious films or his historical films, this film is a nice tribute to an American institution, the Ringling Brothers&Barnum&Bailey Circus and as such it does not attract the controversy of some of his other films.

The Best Picture Oscar for 1952 that this film won was more of a tribute to a Hollywood institution. Cecil B. DeMille in fact directed the first Hollywood made film, The Squaw Man, forty years earlier and this Oscar was essentially a tribute to him for the work of a lifetime. Not the first time or the last time the Motion Picture Academy has done that.

This is DeMille spectacle at it's best. The circus as a cinema subject, so full of color and life, is ideal for a DeMille production. Wonderful camera work marks this film, both of the circus acts and the reaction shots into the crowd of the children of all ages.

Cecil B. DeMille himself narrates portions of the film showing the work involved in putting on the Greatest Show on Earth. His was a familiar voice to the American public because for 10 years DeMille came into American households via radio narrating the Lux Radio Theater. In fact until Alfred Hitchcock got his own anthology TV series, DeMille's voice was probably the most known to the American public of a film director.

And only his name and that of Walt Disney's of people behind the camera were guaranteed box office in the days of the Hollywood studio system.

Spectacle was his thing and DeMille was the master. As a director of players and a judge of good modern writing, DeMille left a lot to be desired. Because of the nature of the subject, no great historical or religious events, the grandiloquent dialog present in so many DeMille films is kept to a minimum here.

This was Charlton Heston's first big break as a star and his second film under a Paramount contract. He had done a film called Dark City, a good noir thriller that got good reviews, but did little for him personally. DeMille saw the six foot two Heston walking on the Paramount lot one day and just said to himself that this was to be the circus ramrod for this film.

But Heston was fourth billed behind Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde, and Gloria Grahame, all better known than him at the time. Wilde and Grahame were independents as was James Stewart who played a clown with a hidden past.

Stewart in fact had always wanted to play a clown and took this supporting role with smaller billing just for the opportunity. At the time he agreed to do this, his wife Gloria was pregnant with their twin daughters. Stewart had it in his contract a clause that gave him permission to leave the film temporarily to be with Gloria when her time was near. In fact Gloria McLean Stewart had a rough time with the birth and Jimmy exercised that option and totally enraged DeMille who had to shut down production for a few days. He and DeMille did not get along after that though Stewart finished the film and was great in it.

Gloria Grahame may not have been the most beautiful woman in Hollywood, but she was the most seductive operating in 1952. That was a banner year for her. She got a Best Supporting Actress for The Bad and the Beautiful on top of this DeMille film. As the elephant girl she attracts the unwanted attentions of Lyle Bettger who plays an elephant trainer.

Bettger was a great player at that time who played a lovely variety of psychopaths on the screen. He pulls out all the stops here and its his unwanted attentions to Grahame that set up the final scenes.

Dorothy Lamour was here also in a supporting part and she gets to sing Lovely Luawanna Lady in sarong and the reaction shots of the crowd focus on a couple of familiar faces who panted after her in a few Paramount films.

The story itself is a standard four sided triangle involving Heston, Hutton, Wilde, and Grahame with Bettger horning in. You have to see the film to find out who winds up with who.

However the high point of the film involves a circus train wreck. DeMille got a lot of notice for wrecking a train in Union Pacific back in 1939. So he doubles the excitement and wrecks two trains here with circus animals pouring out of busted cages. Great stuff.

Betty Hutton was coming close to the end of her film career. This and Annie Get Your Gun would be her biggest triumphs. Given DeMille's limitations on directing players, Hutton is surprisingly subdued here and effective. She also sings a couple of nice songs here as she bids adieu to Paramount in her next to last film for them.

When The Greatest Show on Earth came out and was doing great box office, Charlton Heston related a story that DeMille came over to him on the Paramount lot and gave him a newspaper clipping and said he would never get a better notice ever, no matter how long a career he had. Heston read the thing and the critic from some small town paper praised all the actors like Stewart, Wilde, Hutton, Grahame, and Lamour said they were great, but that C.B. DeMille must be the greatest director in the world to get a performance out of that circus ramrod.

For all of DeMille's faults here, he created a circus picture that set the standard for any to follow.

A Truly Good Film

[gata86 · 7/10 · 27 April 2011]

This film has the reputation of being the least deserving of the "Best Film" Academy Award winners, and that may be true (though I personally think "Oliver!" deserves that designation). However, don't conclude from that that this is a bad movie. In fact, it is a very good movie.

At the end of the day, "The Greatest Show on Earth" succeeds primarily because it's good entertainment. Cecil B. DeMille knew how to do spectacle, and there is plenty here to please the senses: fun songs and costumes abound and the circus tricks bear up even by today's standards.

The film's many solid casting choices don't hurt either. Charlton Heston is perfect as the brusque workaholic circus manager, succeeding in remaining likable and sympathetic. Betty Hutton tackles the extremely difficult task of being girlish, enthusiastic, and breezy without being annoying. Both Hutton and Gloria Grahame provide some good drama and are thoroughly convincing as circus performers. Dorothy Lamour provides some nice comic relief, and James Stewart is (of course) right on target, giving a melancholy aspect to the tale. It's a pity the creators thought it necessary to have Cornel Wilde fake a French accent; otherwise, his performance is quite good.

It's also refreshing to see actors (especially from this time period) doing their own stunts, actually touching the animals, and otherwise throwing themselves into their roles.

While the romantic subplots flirt dangerously with cheesiness, they do succeed in building genuine romantic tension.

My biggest complaints are the stock villains and the deus ex machina resolution of one of the love triangles.

Still, this is good solid entertainment. Movie lovers will find plenty to interest them including Jimmy Stewart shown exclusively in clown makeup, Charlton Heston's first star role, and cameos from Bob Hope and Bing Crosby.

The Greatest Circus Movie on Earth

[ozthegreatat42330 · 10/10 · 9 April 2007]

Epic director Cecil B. DeMille manages to direct the greatest filming of a circus movie in the history of motion pictures. This film, like so many others shows that he was not just another director but a craftsman as well. Charton Heston's third film and first major leading role gives a hint of the long and illustrious career to follow. You really get the impression that he knows, loves, lives and breathes the circus. Cornell Wilde, Betty Hutton and Dorthy Lamour live up to their roles as well, along with Gloria Graham, all of them were required to actually perform the stunts that their characters did in the film. Of course Jimmy Stewart helped make the picture memorable even though hidden beneath the clown make-up all the way through. But the real stars were the hundreds of people from the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus and their endless dedication to making it truly "The Greatest Show on Earth."

A good film if you like circuses or have an interest in classic films

[slthompson2 · 6/10 · 24 April 2005]

This film does a good job of showing the behind-the-scenes lives of circus performers, as well as showing circus performances. It is not filled with thrills and constant excitement, but it is an entertaining film that leaves one feeling sentimental for the days when the circus really was the "greatest show on earth." I would recommend this film to circus fans, Betty Hutton fans, and Jimmy Stewart fans (Jimmy is really charming in this as "Buttons the Clown"). Also, it is fun trying to spot the cameos in this film. Look closely during one of the show scenes and you'll see Bob Hope and his favorite adversary watching Dorothy Lamour.

I Can See How This Has Earned Its Notorious Title of Worst Best Picture Winner

[alexkolokotronis · 4/10 · 30 January 2009]

This may not be the worst movie to ever win best picture but its up there. Well on second thought this is probably the worst film to ever win best picture. Still though you would expect it to be a worth while film. That in fact though if questionable as well. The film contains almost no depth and is just "fun" after "fun" if you want to call it that. At first its very interesting but it seems as if everything is exaggerated on so many levels.

The acting was not spectacular to watch but it was quite interesting seeing Charlton Heston in his first lead role. I found many of the characters like the tone of the movie annoying after awhile. Who I did like a lot was James Stewart as the philosophical clown. He to me saved the film in that he gave it a much needed extra layer. Sadly though after Stewart there was not much else.

The directing of the much respected Cecil DeMille was non existent to me. I found the movie corny at times and his use of Betty Hutton was a mistake. The look of the movie was very good at times but it did not generate that magical feeling that classics need to have. The writing was actually pretty good considering how shallow much of the movie was.

From movies like this did the term "Hollywood Trash" come up. There is no depth, no valid attempt at drawing emotions out of the audience and simply no artistic value to the film. Then of course the many holes in the plot throughout. This movie was consistently annoying and frustrating. I even had a sense through this film that much of what I was watching was not only and inaccurate depiction of circus life but instead the opposite of how it really is. Why this won best picture is beyond me but its not like the first or the last time the Oscars will and have made a mistake.

Entertaining from start to finish!

[sjtom49 · 19 July 2001]

An All Star Cast, Director of epics and of course the many circus scenes make this Best Picture film of 1952 well worth watching. For the most part this movie shows a part of Americana that's, sadly, long gone. 10 out of 10!

Overblown De Mille malarkey, but Stewart & Wilde are great

[JimB-4 · 6/10 · 10 June 2005]

Most everything that needs to be said about this film has been said: that it is typical Cecil B. De Mille hokum, that it is wondrously undeserving of the Best Picture Oscar it nabbed for 1952, that it manages to capture a world that doesn't exist anymore, etc., etc. And a great deal has been said about James Stewart's fine understated performance in perpetual clown makeup. Charlton Heston has been a fine, sometimes brilliant actor, but here he was very early in his career and hadn't quite worked out the use of nuance in the tough leading man role, and in the nuance department, not many people compete with Jimmy Stewart. Stewart makes every moment real, even though his character takes some suspension of disbelief. (Years in the circus without ever taking off his makeup and he has aroused neither suspicion nor terminal eczema?) But seeing this thing again after many years, I was quite surprised to see how Cornel Wilde absolutely leaps off the screen. Though I've long been a fan of his, nothing prepared me for the charisma that he radiated in every frame. He's not the actor Stewart is -- maybe not even that Heston is -- but if he had been an unknown when he made this film, it would have made him a star the way "Thelma and Louise" made Brad Pitt a star. Though some have quibbled with his accent, apparently not aware that Wilde was fluent in French, German, Hungarian, and several other European languages, it is the sheer dazzling quality of his presence that is now for me the most memorable part of this movie. As the movie started, I was surprised to realize that Wilde has top billing among the male actors. But moments after his entrance, I realized why.

Definitely not Best Picture material.

[cutter-12 · 6/10 · 24 December 2001]

The movie which criminally took the Best Picture Oscar of '52 when John Ford's The Quiet Man and some other notable entries were much better and are better remembered now. Cecil B. De Mille, along with producer David o. Selznick, was the most brash showman and the worst artist in Hollywood. I've never been a fan of his movies which always offset impressive spectacle with contrived and cheesy fluff. Here it is no different, though of all DeMille's pictures this is probably his most entertaining and fitting. Some eye catching circus acts and detail highlight a bloated epic which degenerates in the last hour, climaxing with a disastrous Lionel Train pile-up. In the aftermath everything but Mickey Rooney and Ronald Reagan is thrown at us in an attempt to get the show up and running on time. Because of the highly realistic dearth of ambulances, firefighters, and police getting in the way this goal is accomplished with a maximum of DeMillian hokum. A shame as the picture could have been much better if a real director had taken it on.

Acting wise, Chuck Heston is quite solid as the Boss man in an early role looking like Indiana Jones in his fedora and leather jacket and walking capably around like a young John Wayne. Betty Hutton on the other hand gives a terrible performance aside from her well done trapeze antics. Cornel Wilde is hit and miss with a one dimensional character and Jimmy Stewart fools no one, then or now, under all that clown make-up he wears throughout the movie.

Dorothy Lamour never was a very good actress, all her best moments were with Hope and Crosby and here they drop by to get a laugh in a brief cameo.

A watchable picture well worth the time invested to watch it but a semi-classic at best and FAR from being the best picture of the year!

Maybe it didn't deserve an Oscar but it's still a classic

[Okonh0wp · 9/10 · 1 June 2007]

I am entirely unfamiliar with Cecille B. DeMille's work or even what the public reaction was to his career although I've heard a few negative things, and I've heard a lot more negative things about this picture's Best Oscar win (since it won over such AFI top 100 entries as High Noon and A Place in the Sun).

The film is somewhat metacinematic: It brings the joys of the circus to the viewer in the same way that it does for the audience in the film. With authentic circus acts thrown into the mix, these scenes are very exciting. But the film extends beyond just bringing footage of the circus to a movie audience as it effectively captures the drama backstage and brings you into a unique world.

The film is slightly more spectacle than story, in the sense that it sometimes feel like the story is secondary to the lions, tigers, and other circus acts. The plot bobbles through multiple story lines, but mainly centers around circus manager Brad (Charlton Heston), trapeze primadonna Holly (not much of a circus name, I know), and a womanizing Frenchman named Sebastian who becomes the circus' new headline trapeze artists and hopes to steal the heart of the woman she stole the spotlight from. Also featuring heavily into the story are Angel (Gloria Grahame), a past flame of Sebastian; Klauss, an elephant tamer with an obsessive desire for Angel; and Jimmy Stewart as a wise old clown who has been hiding a couple of secrets.

Among the cast, Heston, Grahame, and Stewart really stick out for excellent performances. Heston's circus manager is a man of very strong character who you come to empathize with because he's got the careers of thousands of people on his backs and is willing to sacrifice his personal relationships, his health, and his ego (when dealing with cocky people like Sebastian) to see to it that the show is a success. Gloria Grahame brings such wit and sass to one-line jabs and insults that it makes a convincing character out of what would otherwise have been a two-note shill. Lastly, Stewart is classic Stewart but he delivers that Midwestern persona underneath a veneer of make-up and in a supporting role.

The film would be vastly improved by cutting the plot entirely...

[CubsandCulture · 6/10 · 20 October 2018]

I guess I ultimately like this film but boy does the story keep getting in the way. The pseudo-documentary of how that dying industry of the 3 ring circus worked as well as footage of the various circus acts is a really stellar entertaining stuff. The film is at its best when DeMille is just letting the circus spectacular fill up time. And a lot of the circus stuff is really fun and very colorful. It makes for a great evening of campy pleasures.

Unfortunately, DeMille felt the need to structure the circus footage around 3 different plots, each more melodramatic and sillier than the last. The main one is an awful love triangle and the battle for the center ring. It is pitched, stilted and highly predictable. Betty Hutton turns in a very annoying performance and what the weak writing does not kill she does. The weirdest one is the Button's story, through this is one of few slightly morally ambiguous characters Stewart played. His performance is charming but feels like it should be in a much better film. Finally the elephant trainer/mob (?) story is wholly unnecessary and has by far the silliest scene in any best picture winner.

This is often cited as the worst best picture winner. I am actually mostly good with it winning best picture. For all its faults it is very much a DeMille film and that Oscar is a good way to honor his legacy. However, someone must have sold their soul to win a writing Oscar (Best Story). It is utterly inexplicable that happened.

The Greatest Snooze on Earth

[kenjha · 4/10 · 21 November 2009]

In a year when "Singin' in the Rain" and "High Noon" were released, this overstuffed turkey somehow won the Oscar for Best Picture. Half the film is nothing more than circus performances. The other half is soap opera and melodrama. Heston and Wilde both overact, although they are models of restraint compared to the annoying Hutton. Playing a self-centered trapeze artist, Hutton acts like an overzealous high school student in a badly produced school play. Grahame is the only cast member to turn in a decent performance. DeMille has no interest in telling a good story, only in creating an overlong spectacle, no matter how dull.

The Greatest Show On Earth

[StevenKeys · 9/10 · 28 June 2021]

Brad: "Women are poison; Angel: It's a wonderful death"

This one's got it all. Even as Show's top competition, The-Quiet-Man, is a personal favorite, I take no issue with the Academy's choice for Best-Picture of 1952. The guts are glorious in their colorful pageantry, charming odditites, romantic wrangle, heroic animals, clever dialogue, subtle to serious humor, cute crowd vinettes, strong sentiment, terrific action (a train wreck so exciting it makes The-Fugitive's "Casey Jones" almost pale in comparison) and moral message on mercy (Dr Buttons) that doesn't feel moralizing. Maybe the greatest director on the planet, Cecil B. DeMille provides narration throughout, opening wide a window into the joy, drama, tireless teamwork and sheer enormity that was the circus, truly the greatest show on earth (3.5/4).

From an English view

[gray-39 · 7/10 · 24 February 2005]

An English guy of a 'certain age'. I am exploring the movies my sister took me to see at a very tender age. Train mad, I remembered the wreck; a huge steamer with streamlined coaches ramming the fancy Yankee car and then ploughing into the back of the stationary train. A model? Who cares, I still enjoy it. More though. I agree with am earlier comment about the 'raising of the top' sequence (the only black people in the whole film)and the street sequences as 'Americana' of a very precise period.

However from my perspective now, the animal sequences - especially, the elephants, sickens me.

Absolutely Horrible!

[druid-spam · 1/10 · 30 June 2008]

Not only did this picture not deserve to win the best picture Oscar, no human being should be forced to sit through this 2.5 hour monstrosity.

In a vain attempt to create an over the top spectacle Cecil B. DeMille fills half the movie with circus acts and parades. As a boy I loved the circus as much as anyone, and even now I have great respect for the amazing athletic ability of circus performers, but if I wanted that I would watch Cirque de Soleil.

Granted, Charlton Heston does a fine job playing circus boss Brad, but comes nowhere close to saving this mess.

Jimmy Stewart definitely drops a few pegs in book for his boxy portrayal of Buttons The Clown.

With such legendary movies as High Noon and Singin' In The Rain also made that year, The Greatest Show On Earth had no business even being nominated.

It sure is.

[DrezenMedia · 5 May 2004]

This is my favorite Cecil B. DeMille picture and it rightfully deserves it's title. The cast is well cast. Heston makes a fine circus manager and a perfect "don't take nothing from nobody" type of guy when it comes to dealing with local gamblers. Cornell Wilde is perfect as the typical heart-throb of a trapezist. Betty Hutton is good as the daring young star fighting for the center ring. Last, but certainly not the least, James Stewart is wonderful as the lonely clown with a terrifying secret (I will not give it away!!! See the movie!!!). Cecil was a man of tremendous persona with a hunger for showcasing spectacle by means of careful, intense, and thorough research. He achieves amazing success in portraying (to the best of his ability of the times) the most realistic circus acts without the use of raw footage, and covering the stories behind the characters involved. The thing that really moves everything along though, is the musical score. Two words on that GOOD GOD!!! The music will make you want to go to the circus, even if you didn't like this picture. For those of you who didn't like this picture, why not go to the circus instead? You may be entertained to the point that you'll end up silencing your bad reviews. I'm not saying you have top like this picture, but if you haven't seen it yet, and it's because of the certain bad reviews it got from some people, you're really going to miss something.

Not quite as great as its title suggests, but I don't think it deserves the maligning it gets

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 6 January 2011]

When I see a discussion about best Picture winners, I can't count the number of times the Greatest Show on Earth has been headlined as one of the worst. I am going to be honest, I do not think this movie deserved Best Picture over The Quiet Man, High Noon and the un-nominated(???) Singin' in the Rain. However, I do not think it is a bad movie, and as far as best Picture winners go while it was for me undeserved it is better than Braveheart, Cimarron, Crash and The Hurt Locker.

The Greatest Show on Earth does have its flaws. The film does have some uneven dialogue, some is good but some is very corny, the story is a little overstuffed with a lot going on and with so many stories going on with its length and purposefully done pace it could have been better developed too, and Betty Hutton overdoes it a bit.

That said, it does look wonderful. The costumes, scenery and cinematography are wonderfully lavish. The music is a plus, it isn't heard all the time, but when it does play it's quite nice. I liked the rousing number at the end, though it did take some time to get accustomed to the singing. The direction was good, quite corny but efficient all the same, the trapeze work is excellent and the pacing while mannered is fine. The acting is good enough, aside from Hutton. Charlton Heston is interesting here, and Cornel Wilde is quite nice. The most memorable performance comes from James Stewart, he has been better and he has been in better movies than this, but he does do a great job as Buttons, the film's most interesting character. On a final note, the last half-hour was quite riveting.

All in all, far from a masterpiece but it isn't awful either. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Not the greatest script on Earth...

[moonspinner55 · 7/10 · 19 May 2007]

High-flown malarkey under the Big Top! With the cooperation of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey behind him, director and showman Cecil B. DeMille delivers a colorful circus-spectacular full of animals and acrobatics, however the overripe screenplay (worked on by four credited scenarists) combines "stardust and sawdust" of the most melodramatic kind. Trapeze artists Betty Hutton and Cornel Wilde vie for the center ring--but when Wilde is suddenly injured, his spotlight isn't dimmed for too long (DeMille glosses over the rough stuff; he's not a filmmaker interested in details and he likes a happy ending). Charlton Heston is the financial manager and boss of the traveling tent-show, yet, aside from some monetary disputes at the beginning, we aren't told very much about the money-end of the show or how the performers spend their checks on their down time (do they have off-season lives at all?). DeMille is also uninterested in the freaky end of carny life--to him it's all in the family--though he does touch upon the corruption of the midway and some of the back-biting amongst the starlets. A little trimming might've made the picture more immediate (some of the parades go on too long, and I would've cut Dorothy Lamour's Hawaiian number, though it contains a surprise cameo which gets a big laugh). Betty Hutton, who sings like a brick, must be the most masochistic trapeze chanteuse who ever defied death, but Gloria Grahame is fun as a wisecracking elephant assistant and Heston strikes an appropriately no-nonsense stance which, while largely wooden, works for this picture. As for James Stewart as Buttons the Clown, he's supposed to be a little mysterious, a question mark, but DeMille and his editor cut to Stewart far too often and he's on-screen far too much (they want to make sure we don't miss a trick, such is the way the unsubtle drama is mechanically laid out). This Oscar-winning Best Picture is big-big-big, but like all epics this one has its peaks and valleys. It's really corny, but like the man said, "You can shake the sawdust out of your shoes, but not out of your heart!" *** from ****

Lusty triumph of circus showmanship and movie skill

[JamesHitchcock · 7/10 · 26 July 2013]

Watching "The Greatest Show on Earth" recently I was struck by a sense of déjà vu as I realised just how close the plot is to that of another circus drama, "The Big Circus". Both films feature the following elements:-

An opening scene in which the circus management meet with the show's financial backers and it emerges that the business is in trouble.

A tough and unsentimental but honest and decent circus manager as the main character (played here by Charlton Heston in one of his earliest starring roles, and by Victor Mature in "The Big Circus").

A clown whose smiling face hides a tragic or guilty secret. (The character is played here by James Stewart, who is never seen without his make-up).

A mysterious saboteur intent on ruining the circus. (His motives are, however, different in the two films. In "The Big Circus" he is in the pay of an unscrupulous business rival. Here he is a dishonest sideshow operator bent on revenge after being sacked for defrauding customers).

A train crash.

A stoical the-show-must-go-on philosophy, taken to absurd lengths in both films.

We might today bemoan Hollywood's inability to come up with original story lines, but things were not necessarily any better in the fifties. I should, however, point out that "The Greatest Show on Earth" was the earlier of the two films by several years, so the responsibility for any plagiarism lies with the makers of "The Big Circus", not with Cecil B. DeMille.

The story of "The Greatest Show on Earth" is a relatively simple one; much of the responsibility for the film's long running time lies with its lengthy documentary sequences describing how real-life circuses operated. The circus featured in this film, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, is a real one, and many of their acts are featured. ("The Big Circus", by contrast, was about a fictitious circus). DeMille himself acted as narrator for these sequences, describing the circus's operations in some rather purple prose. ("A fierce, primitive fighting force that smashes relentlessly forward against impossible odds: That is the circus").

The main plot line involves a love-triangle between the circus manager Brad Braden, his girlfriend Holly, one of the show's trapeze artists, and another trapeze artist, The Great Sebastian, who has a reputation for arrogance and for being a successful womaniser. At first Holly and Sebastian, who are competing for top billing, loathe one another, but later an attraction grows up between them, and Holly finds herself torn between Brad and Sebastian. The triangle becomes first a quadrilateral then a pentagon when Angel, a female elephant trainer, also falls in love with Brad, arousing the passionate jealousy of her boyfriend Klaus. There are subplots involving the mysterious Buttons the Clown and Harry the dishonest showman who is in league with gangsters.

The film was a huge success at the box office and was popular with many critics; Bosley Crowther called it a "lusty triumph of circus showmanship and movie skill" and a "piece of entertainment that will delight movie audiences for years", Its reputation, however, has declined over the years, largely because it was a victim of its own success. Film buffs have been unable to forgive it for winning the Academy Award for Best Picture ahead of revered classics like "High Noon" or "Singin' in the Rain", and it is regularly voted among the contenders for "Worst Ever Best Picture".

"The Greatest Show on Earth" is not in my view a film in the same class as "High Noon", "Singin' in the Rain", or some of the great "Best Picture" winners from the fifties such as "From Here to Eternity", "On the Waterfront" or "Bridge on the River Kwai". "High Noon" was a victim of politics- its producer and screenwriter Carl Foreman's communist sympathies had alienated the more conservative elements in Hollywood- and of the Academy's long-standing dislike of Westerns. (1952 was also the year in which John Ford won his record fourth "Best Director" Oscar; not one of those awards was for a Western, the genre with which he is most closely associated). As for "Singin' in the Rain", that is a film whose reputation has grown over the years; it was very much under- appreciated in its day and was not even nominated for "Best Picture" in 1952.

And yet I would not really regard this as a serious contender for "Worst Ever Best Picture"; the horribly mawkish "Terms of Endearment" would be my nominee for that particular accolade, with the likes of "Gentleman's Agreement" (winner for reasons of political correctness, or its forties equivalent) and "Mrs Miniver" (winner for reasons of patriotic sentiment) also in the running. "The Greatest Show on Earth" certainly lacks any great acting performances- Heston, Stewart and Gloria Grahame were all much better elsewhere than they are here- and the plot is not particularly original. As a spectacular piece of film-making, however, it is really rather splendid. DeMille is able to endow a film on a modern subject with something of the grandeur he brought to his Classical and Biblical epics. To my mind Bosley Crowther's verdict still rings true today. 7/10