The Greatest Show on Earth
THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTHÂ (U)
D:Â Cecil B. DeMille
Paramount (Cecil B. DeMille)
USA 🇺🇸 1952
153 mins
Drama
W: Fredric M. Frank, Barre Lyndon & Theodore St.
John
DP: George Barnes, Peverell Marley & W. Wallace
Kelley
Ed:Â Anne Bauchens
Mus:Â Victor Young
PD: Hal Pereira & Walter Tyler
Cos: Miles White, Edith Head & Dorothy
Jeakins
Betty Hutton (Holly), Cornel Wilde (The Great Sebastian),
Charlton Heston (Brad Braden), Dorothy Lamour (Phyllis), Gloria Grahame (Angel), James Stewart (Buttons the Clown)
Monotonous melodrama set at a circus, where various
personal dramas come to a head.
Cecil B. DeMille's profligate white elephant may have won
the Best Picture Oscar, but it is perhaps the worst film to ever achieve the accolade. The dialogue is stilted, the acting is unremarkable and the whole thing is a bit of a train crash. It
has some effective moments, but not very many.
If you're still of a generation when the excitement of the
circus fills you with joy, it's probably more enjoyable, but looking back on it from a modern point of view, it's a hugely overrated extravaganza.
6/10
