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Movies / On DVD / The Greatest Show on Earth
The Greatest Show on Earth

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The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)

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39 %
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Reviews Counted: 23

Fresh: 9

Rotten:14

Average Rating: 5.2/10

Consensus: The Greatest Show on Earth is melodramatic, short on plot, excessively lengthy and bogged down with clichés, but not without a certain innocent charm.

Runtime: 2 hrs 32 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH is a dazzling, only-by-DeMille spectacle of life behind the scenes with Ringling Bros.-Barnum and Bailey Circus, the best three-ring circus in the land. The great showman... THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH is a dazzling, only-by-DeMille spectacle of life behind the scenes with Ringling Bros.-Barnum and Bailey Circus, the best three-ring circus in the land. The great showman Cecil B. DeMille produced and directed this splashy, colorful look at life under the big top. Charlton Heston stars as Brad Braden, the beloved circus manager who runs a tight ship with integrity and a big heart. In an effort to bring in enough money to guarantee a full tour, Brad hires the Great Sebastian (Cornel Wilde), a daredevil trapeze star, to replace his girlfriend, Holly (Betty Hutton), a beautiful and talented trapeze artist who had been promised the coveted center-ring spot. Sebastian, a suave ladies' man, instantly takes a liking to Holly despite their jealous rivalry. Holly and Sebastian carry on their feud high in the air, with an audience watching, performing a dangerous show of one-upmanship. While the two duel in the air, sparks fly on the ground, and Brad is too busy running the grand show to notice. This gutsy star-studded spectacle was produced in cooperation with Ringling Bros.-Barnum and Bailey circus and filmed in a semidocumentary style, with frequent cuts from the full-scale grandiose circus acts and larger-than-life costumes by the legendary Edith Head to real footage of the daily life on the road for the full-scale traveling operation. Jimmy Stewart costars in a gem of a role, as Buttons the clown, who is hiding from a mysterious past. This cavalcade of jaw-dropping visual splendor, complete with lions, elephants, and an action-packed train wreck of a finale, is DeMille at his grandiose best. Look for many small guest appearances from circus stars and celebrities, including Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. [More]

Starring: Betty Hutton, Charlton Heston, Cornel Wilde, Dorothy Lamour

Starring: Betty Hutton, Charlton Heston, Cornel Wilde, Dorothy Lamour, Gloria Grahame, James Stewart, Henry Wilcoxon, Lyle Bettger, Lawrence Tierney, Emmett Kelly, John Kellogg

Director: Cecil B. DeMille

Director: Cecil B. DeMille
Screenwriter: Fredric M. Frank, Barre Lyndon, Theodore St. John
Story: Fredric M. Frank, Theodore St. John, Frank Cavett
Producer: Cecil B. DeMille
Composer: Victor Young

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Apr 6, 2004

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Reviews for The Greatest Show on Earth

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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The movie's plot does not quite hold all this pageantry together, but De Mille's scripters and actors enter into the thing in the proper flamboyant spirit.

Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | comment Comment
02/18/09
TIME Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

This is the circus with more entertainment, more thrills, more spangles and as much Big Top atmosphere as RB-B&B itself can offer. It's a smash certainty for high-wire grosses.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
01/28/08
Herb Golden
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Middling circus backstage drama.

Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | comment Comment
01/24/07
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

It's big, it's garish, it's loud, and most of all, it's wonderful.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
12/12/06
TV Guide's Movie Guide
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It won best-picture Oscar for 1952, but God (De Mille's favorite walk-on, strangely absent here) only knows why.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
12/12/06
Pat Graham
Chicago Reader
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A Soap Opera under the big top, The Greatest Show on Earth features little in the way of a plot and more in the line of a hollow spectacle.

Full Review Source: Oscar Guy | comment Comment
10/31/06
Wesley Lovell
Oscar Guy

Fun DeMille full of spectacle and flashy stars...and a great train wreck.

comment Comment
07/21/06
Steve Crum
Dispatch-Tribune Newspapers

Characteristically elephantine Big Top epic from DeMille, thumped across with a winning brashness and garnering the veteran showman his first Best Picture Oscar.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment 1 Comment
06/24/06
Derek Adams
Time Out

One of the worst films to ever win the Best Picture Oscar, Cecil B. DeMille's melodramatic circus adventure starring Jimmy Stewart and Charlton Heston inexplicably won the writing award (the called Motion Picture Story).

Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
12/22/05
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

No review available.

comment Comment
07/17/05
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

Clumsy, innocent, awkward, to be sure, but it’s never skimpy on the fun.

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
03/04/05
David Cornelius
eFilmCritic.com

The Academy Award for Best Picture has been bestowed on any number of unworthy candidates over the years, but you'd be hard-pressed to find one less deserving than The Greatest Show on Earth.

Full Review Source: PopMatters | comment 2 Comments
11/19/04
Jesse Hassenger
PopMatters

It's an entertaining film, but it's certainly no masterpieceand doesn't really stand up to the year's other offerings.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
05/08/04
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

No review available.

comment Comment
03/17/04
Jake Euker
F5 (Wichita, KS)

A shoddy Best Picture.

comment Comment
11/05/03
John Urbancich
Sun Newspapers of Cleveland

A great big lumpen mass of a movie that won a couple of Oscars (including one for Best Picture) and is studded with stars, but ultimately collapses under the weight of the clichés it carries round with it.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
05/24/03
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Two American institutions have combined to put out a piece of entertainment that will delight movie audiences for years.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
05/20/03
Bosley Crowther
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Heston is a bit huffy and bombastic, the train crash is amazing (for its time), but it's just like the circus -- too much to see and not enough of any one good thing.

Full Review Source: Zap2it.com | comment Comment
10/25/02
Michael Szymanski
Zap2it.com

It's so deliciously retro.

Full Review Source: Flick Filosopher | comment Comment
10/23/02
MaryAnn Johanson
Flick Filosopher

Big, long, ultimately tedious

comment Comment
08/21/02
Ken Hanke
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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Latest News for The Greatest Show on Earth

April 07, 2008: Charlton Heston: 1924-2008
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