Review of The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) by Barbara M — 06 Nov 2009

More Proof the Academy Isn't Always Right.

Oh, the Academy. As we've established, there are years where they're just wrong. Some years, everyone knows they're wrong. In fact, consensus seems to be that, in 1952, they gave the Best Picture Oscar to a film that, bluntly, isn't good. Not even wasn't the best of the year--I mean flatly wasn't good. You'll get much debate as to whether or not all sorts of other winners are good, and obviously people will argue about whether the winner actually was the Best Picture of whatever year--quite often not--but bad? Oh, that's rare. This is not even the Shame of '41. As I said in my review, [i]How Green Was My Valley[/i] wasn't even a bad movie. It's pretty good. Were I able to see it on its own merits, I might even have ranked it higher. Leaving out [i]High Noon[/i] and [i]The Quiet Man[/i], both excellent films of '52, leaving out any other movie of '52 you can name, though, this simply isn't a good movie. At all.

It's the circus! The real one, too. Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey, even. (This the title listed on their website.) Cigar- (and scenery-) chewing Brad Braden (Charlton Heston) is running the show. He's convinced the money people to let the circus keep touring as long as it's running in the black; the original plan had been to run the big cities in the first ten weeks and quit. However, the circus people--mostly real ones--depend on that income, so they go on. In order to fill seats, the brass have hired The Great Sebastian (Cornel Wilde), a big enough star that he doesn't need a last name, just an adjective. He catches the eye of fellow trapeze artist Holly (Betty Hutton), who'd wanted the center ring spot--and Brad--for herself. Now, she wants Sebastian--as does Phyllis (Dorothy Lamour), who hangs from a strap by her teeth. Angel (Gloria Grahame) is interested in Brad, but she is being essentially stalked by Klaus (Lyle Bettger), the elephant trainer in whose act she works. There is also "Buttons" the clown (Jimmy Stewart), whom Netflix describes as "an undercover clown on the lam from the authorities," possibly one of the best character descriptions I've ever read. Also, there's Shady Dealings with a carny and the mob and stuff.

Yeah, I guess the circus parts of this are okay. I've only seen one so long ago that it's just a vague memory, and I haven't felt the urge to go since, but okay, circus. I'm not sure if the flashy dress numbers are a feature of your average circus, but I am sure that the people here would be, shall we say, less than pleased with me for calling it "average." The title's their slogan, after all. Still, trapeze artists and elephants and so forth. It's just that the story is so dull! There are no surprises. (Well, the bit with the elephant's kind of surprising.) The reveal about Buttons is no reveal, because they've practically pointed big red arrows to it from about forty-five minutes in. There are enough women around that you know someone's going to get stuck with Charlton Heston, poor souls. I will say that the brief cameo of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby during one of Dorothy Lamour's musical numbers was worth it.

What about as a Technicolor extravaganza? Well, it is Technicolor. There's no doubt about that. It's extravagant, certainly. However, the model work at the big climax was hilarious. My dad probably could've done a more convincing train with the models he kept in our basement. Most of the circus work didn't even count, given that practically everyone in the movie, as I mentioned, was actually a circus performer. Okay, Cecil B. DeMille--you know, I don't think I've ever seen a Cecil B. DeMille picture before?--made all his stars actually learn how to do what they were doing--easiest for Jimmy Stewart, obviously, and hardest for Cornel Wilde, who was terrified of heights. They never do show Dorothy Lamour hanging from her teeth. But most of it was circus people doing what circus people do. And Gods know it's not as though Dorothy Lamour was unfamiliar with playing a woman who'd, um, been around the circuit a few times.

This is a terrible movie. It really is. There are some funny bits--the place where Angel is hitting on Brad turns out to be just obscene. I mean, DeMille was a past master at getting crap past the censors, but man! She's pretty much telling him that she'll do whatever he wants her to do and learn how to do it better than anyone. It's kind of scary, given that she's talking to Charlton Heston. And of course we know that Buttons can't get the ending he really deserves--it's rare enough that the film even talks about euthanasia! However, we're really in a "words cannot express" place. I just cannot even begin to tell you how overrated this film was at the time. There's too much plot, and not enough of it makes sense. If you're planning to go through and see as many Oscar winners as you can, well, you're going to have to get to this one eventually. But if you're not, do yourself a favour. Go watch [i]High Noon[/i] or [i]The Quiet Man[/i] instead.