Review of The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) by R.c. K — 26 Nov 2007

Usually spoken of as one of the undeserving Best Picture winners (competition included High Noon and The Quiet Man, as well as some un-nominated like Singin' in the Rain).

What is there to say?

It's true. It's too long, it's a little disjointed, randomly turning from a drama about the characters, a circus picture (i.e., one that displays the acts, animals and so on), a bit of a comedy, a romance--so far everything works all right--and then suddenly Cecil B. DeMille, the director, suddenly reappears in voiceover after half an hour with purple prose exposition about the 'great beast' of the circus tent after we forgot he narrated the beginning of the movie, too, as if he's trying very hard to make it seem like a documentary. It's odd and it doesn't quite mesh.

Now, despite that, Charlton Heston is in fine form as Brad Braden the circus manager, as are Betty Hutton as the torn trapeze artist Holly, Cornel Wilde as the thickly accented "The Great Sebastian"--and most importantly, ol' Jimmy Stewart as Buttons the clown. Braden is trying to keep the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus running for a full season instead of just hitting the big cities, bringing in daredevil and casanova The Great Sebastian in to draw crowds with his fame and reputation. This ruins Holly's original guarantee of center ring, damaging the relationship he has with her, one where she is ignorant of what feelings he has for her.

The plot sort of meanders from there, though, in fairness, it does maintain its pacing and aim clearly, but it just takes too damn long to get there. DeMille films and directs beautifully, though there's some early Technicolor artifice hanging around the edges (the meeting between the money-men behind the circus is uncomfortable in its clearly false setting, clunky line delivery and hammy dialogue) where films were starting to sort of feel out what they could do outside being a purely visual medium or adapting stage works. It's entertaining enough and will probably come off better when I re-watch it eventually, but for now I'm about as impressed as I expected to be by it, which isn't much. Not a film I'd recommend jumping at, but not a bad way to spend your time if you have two and a half (!) hours to kill--though there are better films to spend that much time on.