THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH

'''The Greatest Show on Earth''' is an Academy Award-winning 1952 drama film set in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The film was produced, directed, and narrated by Cecil B. DeMille.
The film stars Betty Hutton and Cornel Wilde as trapeze artists competing for the center ring, and Charlton Heston as the circus manager running the show.

Contents

Plot

Awards

Controversies

Main cast

Trivia

Plot

The three main characters are also involved in a romantic triangle. Other subplots involve performers played by Dorothy Lamour and Gloria Grahame, and a clown who never removes his makeup, played by James Stewart. Bob Hope and Bing Crosby played cameo roles as circus spectators, and Edmond O'Brien has a similar unbilled appearance.
Behind-the-scene melodrama is interwoven with almost documentary-style scenes of realistic circus performances in lavish costumes (by Edith Head and others), and towards the end, a spectacular scene involving the two trains that carry the circus from town to town.

Awards

The movie won an Academy Award for Best Picture. It also won an Oscar for Best Story.

Controversies

The film was a huge success at the box office, which might account partly for its Oscar wins, but despite its awards, ''The Greatest Show on Earth'' has often been cited by film historians and movie buffs as one of DeMille's lesser motion pictures. Many critics and film fans consider this film among the worst to have ever won the Academy Award for Best Picture. The American film magazine ''Premiere'' placed the movie on its list of the 10 worst Oscar winners [1] and the British film magazine ''Empire'' rated it #3 on their list of the 10 worst Oscar winners.[2]
Erik Lundegaard of MSNBC stated that "[''The Greatest Show on Earth''] was a dull, bloated romance."[3]
Taking it one step further film historian Jonathan Lapper called it "One of the worst Best Picture recipients ever...bloated, overlong and mind-numbingly boring." He adds, "It almost (almost) makes ''Cimarron'' and ''The Broadway Melody'' look good by comparison."[4]
Other 1952 movies of high critical acclaim include ''High Noon'',''The Quiet Man'' and ''Singin' in the Rain'', which are often offered as alternative winners.
There have been allegations that the film's Best Picture Oscar was due to the political climate in Hollywood in 1952. Senator Joseph McCarthy was outing so-called Communists at the time, and Cecil B. DeMille was one of his supporters; moreover, the most highly praised film of the year, ''High Noon'', was produced by Carl Foreman, who would soon be blacklisted. ''The Greatest Show on Earth'' 's win is seen by some as an effort to appease McCarthy.

Main cast

★ 'Betty Hutton' as Holly

★ 'Cornel Wilde' as The Great Sebastian

★ 'Charlton Heston' as Brad Braden

★ 'James Stewart' as Buttons the Clown

★ 'Dorothy Lamour' as Phyllis

★ 'Gloria Grahame' as Angel

★ 'Henry Wilcoxon' as FBI Agent Gregory

★ 'Lyle Bettger' as Klaus

★ 'Lawrence Tierney' as Mr. Henderson

Trivia

During a song by Dorothy Lamour, the camera pans through the audience. Among the members of the audience are Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. Dorothy Lamour was the frequent co-star of Crosby and Hope in the "Road to..." movies.
To her great delight, Lucille Ball was offered a part in the picture by DeMille and wanted very much to sign on for the project, but ruled it as too much of a burden between her pregnancy with her second child, Desi Arnaz Jr., and her I Love Lucy commitments.
A barker, kept anonymous until the very end, is heard in the closing moments of the film. The voice is finally revealed to be that of Edmond O'Brien.