Greatest Show On Earth - 1952
Cats: Set Your Recorders, Drama|What Cecil B. DeMille did for the Bible, Cleopatra and the North West Mounted police he also did for the circus. The Greatest Show On Earth is the story of circus people, their hardships and their meshugas, and the inner workings of a circus. The circus in question is the actual Ringling Brothers / Barnum and Bailey Circus. The picture follows the circus from it’s winter quarters as it makes it’s way on its circus train across the country bringing circus joy where ever they go.
As Mr. DeMille received cooperation from God when he made The Ten Commandments this picture had the total cooperation of the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey. The list of actual circus performers who appear as “themselves” is endless. The real and original sad clown Emmett Kelly is featured. Some of the stars actually did their own circus acts. Cecil B. insisted. Betty Hutton had to learn the trapeze and Cornel Wilde had to learn who to walk the high wire (even though he was afraid of heights). So C.B. got cooperation from his actors too.
In addition to the story of the day to day operations there are some subplots. There is the romance thing between Cornel Wilde almost every woman in the show, Brad the manager (Charlton Heston in his third picture) and his girlfriend Holly (Betty Hutton), a clown with a mysterious past and is hiding from the law and hoodlums trying to move in on the games of chance business. The cameos, however, are abundant. Mostly among the spectators, the camera will pan through the crowd and a glimpse will be caught of a certain comedy team for example.
With one of the best train wrecks ever filmed and winner of the Best Picture Oscar for 1952, The Greatest Show on Earth is great deal of fun and while we have a restrained (but effective) performance from Mr. Heston, Ms. Hutton is as usual over the top, but it is a circus picture and she is playing a circus performer so she is forgiven.
3:00 PM on Thursday March 27th on Turner Classic Movies.
