The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)

I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

Absolutely Brilliant!

The first must-see film of the year.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

"The Greatest Show on Earth" is Producer/Director Cecil B. DeMille's ode to the big top circus. He takes us inside the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus showing us life under the big top. Most of the circus' performers are showcased in one way or another. Several cameos are included mostly Paramount contract employees enjoying the performances from the stands.The rather limp love story begins when Manager Brad Braden (Charlton Heston) hires The Great Sebastian (Cornel Wilde) to prop up attendance and allow the circus to play a full seasdon rather than a limited one which the Board of Directors , including John Ringling North, Prefer. The hiring of Sebastian, a noted womanizer, means that current center ring performer Holly (Betty Hutton) has to give up the center ring and move to ring one.A competition between the two begins with each performing death defying stunts much to the chagrin of Braden. Other sub-plots include the mysterious clown Buttons (James Stewart) who never takes off his makeup, jealous Elephant trainer Klaus (Lyle Bettger) and his love Angel who has her eyes on Braden. Also along is gum chewing Phyllis a showgirl who gets to perform a spectacular show tune number. Ganster Henderson (Lawrence Tierney) and his cohort Harry (John Kellogg) are trying to muscle in on the games.Holly and Sebastian continue their competition with each other until Sebastian performs a difficult stunt after having cutting the safety net. He plunges to the floor and winds up with a paralyzed arm. Holly pleads with him to stay with the circus and he does so much to the dissatisfaction of Braden. Braden discovers that Sebastian has movement in his arm and offers him hope of a full recovery.After an incident with an elephant and Angel, Klaus is fired. He then hooks up with Harry to rob the circus train of the Box Office receipts. The train is stopped but the second train is speeding towards an unavoidable collision and.................................................................................The romantic entanglements eventually sort themselves out, Buttons, who is a doctor, saves Braden's life and is taken prisoner by Agent Gregory (Henry Wilcoxen) and the show goes on as it always must.The dilemma of Buttons the Clown kind of foreshadows a similar situation where Dr. Richard Kimble would go into hiding in TV's "The Fugitive" 15 years after this film was released. And we never learn what ultimately happens to Buttons after he is taken away. James Stewart looks like he is enjoying playing a clown along with veteran clown Emmett Kelly.Betty Hutton's career was in decline after this movie and she made only a few more before retiring from the screen around 1957. Similarly, Cornel Wilde had been a rising star to this point but soon began a series of costume drama with his wife Jean Wallace that were moderately successful. Charlton Heston was just emerging as a major star and soon would appear in DeMille's "The Ten Commandments" as Moses. If I have a complaint, it is those phony contrived looking closeups of fans enjoying (on cue) the circus."The Greatest Show on Earth" was awarded a controversial Best Picture Oscar for 1952.

The film that inspired Steven Spielberg, this grand DeMille drama set against the thrills and spectacle of a 50s circus gives us a behind the scenes peek at the unlikely bunch that put on all sorts of shows for the public. These include the under pressure manager (Heston) his girlfriend/wannabe starlet (Hutton), world class trapeze artist The Great Sebastian (Conrel Wilde) and Buttons, the clown with a mysterious past (Stewart).Corny, melodramatic and cliché though it may be, this circus tale from, fittingly, one of Hollywood's greatest showmen is not without charm or a sense of fun. A game cast all embrace their larger than life roles well, with Stewart shining as both the funny yet poignantly tragic Buttons. And as expected of DeMille, the film offers tons of great, large scale spectacle (including but not limited to elephants, aerial acrobatics and the famous train crash that actually still holds up okay as a tense action scene), all set to some very cheery, smile-inducing songs to create an old fashioned type of charm and warmth that carry the picture over its weaker points.The disdain against the film's win back in 1952 stems from being seen more as an arbitrary honouring of the aging DeMille, and 'Show's' sketchy plot, stretched to over two hours, and stock characters don't do it any favours in trying to defend its title. It's all very routine soap opera that, were it not for all the wonderful sights and osmosis surrounding it, would be really by the numbers and uninspired. Plus, there is some shoddy 'early greenscreen/keying' done for some stunts which stick out painfully, However, in spite of all that, I was left with a smile on my face by the film's end. Films like this define terms like 'feel-good' and 'they just don't make 'em like this anymore'.

The DVD release for The Greatest Show On Earth plays down its Best Picture win. Hang on, isn't this supposed to be the highest accolade in the film world? Why would you downplay that your film won the award? Probably because the Academy Awards are a farce. Yeah, total shocker. I normally have a rule when reviewing movies not to mention the Oscars because I feel it is so redundant to do so. "How did this beat 'x' picture?", "Why didn't 'x' get an Oscar nomination?", such tiring statements. Best Picture winners attract viewers to a film which they would unlikely watch otherwise and because of this many films get a bad reputation as the film which beat such and such for Best Picture.The Greatest Show On Earth is one such film, made out to be worse than it is due to attracting an audience who would otherwise never watch it if it wasn't for its Best Picture win. The Greatest Show On Earth is tons of fun; at times I had a care free feeling that I was at an actual circus, minus the smell of elephant dung. There is even an appearance of people wearing costumes of Disney characters; good luck trying to put that in a non-Disney film nowadays! The acrobatic scenes are suspenseful and you really get a sense of the scope and awe; the whole thing even feels like it has weight to it, so I can forgive the odd jumpy edit. You could look at it cynically and say it's a commercial for Barnum and Bailey, well it's a very entertaining commercial at that and a very informative one offering a documentary like look at how the circus operates. It's not an easy job, therefore someone as commanding as Charlton Heston is perfect for the role as the person who runs the operations and pulls the strings behind the scenes. The movie packs a lot of material into its run time and I felt like I got my money's worth.When your movie stars James Stewart (albeit a supporting performance), isn't any surprise he's the best aspect of the film. I believe his role of Buttons is an underrated performance of his and one of his most tragic. He has a permanent smile on his face (really, his make-up never comes off at any point), yet has a dark, troubled past. OK its obvious symbolism but you can feel his pain throughout thanks to his quiet, subtle performance. As the movie progresses it takes a surprisingly dark turn, not only with the shockingly intense train wreck sequence, but also the implication that Buttons assisted his wife to kill herself, surprising that a mainstream blockbuster would have an assisted suicide subplot in an era controlled by censorship.

After first watching this on commercial TV 20 years ago, I just viewed this again on DVD just now. This is still pretty entertaining with some of the melodrama and especially that train crash near the end. Musical numbers by Dorothy Lamour-in which a couple of her famous co-stars from other movies make an audience appearance-and Betty Hutton with Jimmy Stewart joining the latter on a trampoline also are fun to watch. And some of the actual circus acts are pretty entertaining though they're better viewed in person than on film. But this is a bit overlong and somewhat old-fashioned and doesn't really deserve the Best Picture Oscar it got for 1952. That should have gone to the really creative Singin' in the Rain which wasn't even nominated in that category (nor was it for writing which TGSOE won for Original Story). Besides the stars I mentioned above, there's also Cornel Wilde, Charlton Heston, and Gloria Grahame to look forward to. Stewart appears in clown makeup throughout for a reason revealed near the end. Only a photo of him shown on screen has his more-familiar face. And producer-director Cecil B. DeMille's narration may be a little corny, but it still works for me. So on that note, I partially recommend The Greatest Show on Earth. P.S. While this film marked a reunion for a couple of stars from my favorite movie-It's a Wonderful Life, Jimmy Stewart and Gloria Grahame-they hardly have any scenes together and rarely have dialogue between them.