Review of The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) by Karem C — 18 Sep 2016

This movie lives and dies on the idea that you will enjoy watching the circus on the big screen. Sure, they try to weave a romantic pentagon in there, but the movie is mostly one big love letter to the circus.

There are entire 30-minute segments where all we're watching is simply circus acts one after another, and rarely are they adding to the plot of the movie. It doesn't help that the plot is so convoluted and stupid, it's kind of painful.

This movie treats women as morons who fall in love with every other man, and they will gladly settle down with whichever one happens to be giving them attention at the time. There's also a strange B-story that is not properly fleshed out about Jimmy Stewart being a man on the run hiding in clown makeup, and an even less fleshed out C-story about corrupt guys taking advantage of people at the circus.

But, hey, don't sweat how poorly-executed these stories are because it's time for another circus parade where everyone just walks in front of the audience in costumes. It's as if someone at Ringling Bros.

thought it would be a great advertising gimmick to simply recreate the circus experience on the big screen, so everyone would want to come and see the real thing the next time they rolled in town. I might be able to tolerate all of that if it didn't drag the movie out to a run-time of two and a half hours.

I'll never understand how The Greatest Show on Earth won the Oscar for Best Picture. This movie is one you can definitely avoid.