The Greatest Show on Earth **** (1952, Betty Hutton, Charlton Heston, Gloria Grahame, James Stewart, Cornel Wilde, Dorothy Lamour) – Classic Movie Review 2456

Cecil B DeMille carried off the Best Picture Oscar for The Greatest Show on Earth (1952). Gloria Grahame had to let an elephant rest its foot an inch from her face. 

Big, bigger, biggest seems to have been the game plan for this grand, double Oscar-winning 1952 circus production from producer-director Cecil B DeMille, who conjures up top stars, a cast of thousands and as much sawdust, sparkle and sentiment as he could muster.

At 152 minutes it’s a mite long, but the pace rarely lets up and the result is compulsive viewing. This has everything, from stunning circus stunts to romance with trapezist Holly (Betty Hutton) and circus boss Brad Braden (Charlton Heston); from glorious Gloria Grahame as the elephant lady Angel to James Stewart, who plays the entire movie in his makeup as Buttons, a white-faced clown with the tear-jerking confession that he’s on the run for murder. It also stars Cornel Wilde as The Great Sebastian and Dorothy Lamour as Phyllis.

Producer-director DeMille explores every big-top cliché under the sun (there’s even a fantastic rail smash that spills out the animals) and carried off his first Best Picture Oscar to reward his impressive achievement as the film’s ringmaster.

When the going gets tough, Hutton gets going: ‘I said we’d give ’em a show and we’re goin’ to!’ Though more showbizzy and Hollywood – it’s very studio-bound – than smelling of sawdust, this is still the big top film to top them all. Emmett Kelly, William Boyd (Hopalong Cassidy) and John Ringling North appear as themselves.

The Greatest Show on Earth was also the Oscar winner for Best Motion Picture Story for Fredric M Frank, Theodore St John and Frank Cavett.

Also in the cast are Lyle Bettger, Henry Wilcoxon, Lawrence Tierney, John Kellogg, John Ridgley, Frank Wilcox, John Crawford, Lane Chandler, Milton Kibbee and Syd Saylor.

Hutton really learned the trapeze and Grahame had to let an elephant rest its foot an inch from her face. Though he was afraid of heights. Wilde portrayed a high-wire artist.

Academy members voted for this instead of the anti-Joseph McCarthy Western High Noon (1952), whose screenwriter Carl Foreman had just been blacklisted from Hollywood.

The production bought the rights to use of the title motto and the Ringling Bros-Barnum and Bailey’s facilities and performances for $250,000.

It was Steven Spielberg’s first movie, taken by his father at the age of six.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2456

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