The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)

The Greatest Show on Earth won the Oscar for Best Picture of 1952, and it's widely regarded as one of the worst films ever to capture the top prize. You'll often see it cited as one of the examples of how often the Academy "gets it wrong." I don't fully agree that this is a bad movie even though I don't think it deserved to win Best Picture. It certainly isn't better than High Noon, which was also nominated that year and is one of the greatest films ever made. One of the other classic films of that year, Singin' in the Rain, wasn't even nominated for Best Picture, yet we all know what a reputation it has earned over time. No, what you get with The Greatest Show on Earth is simply an entertaining look at life behind the scenes of the Ringling Bros.-Barnum & Bailey Circus. Movies like this are popular for a reason. Cecil B. DeMille's circus movie manages to include romance, intrigue, organized crime, and elephants. It also has a pretty spectacular train wreck sequence that seems childish or amateurish by today's special effects standards but was pretty remarkable for its time.

Here are the basic elements of the plot. Charlton Heston plays Brad, the manager of the circus who wants a full season of money-making shows, so he hires a famous trapeze artist, a risk-taker named the Great Sebastian (played by Cornel Wilde). However, in doing so, he has to displace from the center ring the circus's own Holly (played by Betty Hutton). Further complicating matters is Holly's affection for Brad. He, of course, is far too consumed with making the show successful to realize that he also loves her. Holly manages to find a half-hearted romance with Sebastian, leaving Brad to respond to a silly flirtation from Angel, one of the elephant tamers (played by Gloria Grahame). Dorothy Lamour manages to make an appearance now and then too, apparently so she can crack jokes at the right time and sing a number or two. (Her co-stars in the Road movies, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, make cameos not to be missed.)

If you think this sounds a bit like a soap opera, you'd be right. What distinguishes this from other soap operas then and now is the backdrop of the circus. The film uses actual performers from Ringling Bros.-Barnum & Bailey throughout the movie, and the scenes where they put up the tent or get ready for their performances are a fascinating look at the ways those mid-century spectacles were put together. In its documentary-like approach to those scenes and the ones of the actual circus productions themselves, you can get a glimpse of what made those shows so enticing to the ladies, gentlemen, and "children of all ages."

Hardly anyone in the cast delivers an award-worthy performance here. Heston, who would win Best Actor a few years later for Ben-Hur, is often painfully wooden, a trait he never quite lost throughout his long career, in my opinion. Wilde is shirtless as often as possible in the movie for a reason; he's also clad in tights a lot, and there's a reason for that as well. He certainly didn't seem to be hired for his acting ability. Hutton could be a talented singer and dancer--she has a couple of good numbers here--but as an actress, she wasn't particularly strong. Grahame delivers her lines with some zing, but even she seems to know the hokiness of what she's saying. Of course, she and Sebastian have a past; of course, she still loves him; and of course, she's going to pretend like she hates him now. Much of the story never rises above that level of cliche (and, yes, it was already a cliche in 1952).

I have to mention Jimmy Stewart as Buttons, one of the clowns. (The great Emmett Kelly is one of his colleagues.) He's a doctor who killed his wife and is now wanted by the police, who (naturally) can't find him because he looks like a clown rather than an accused murderer. Buttons has to stay in clown make-up throughout the movie, just one of the little conceits that make you pause and wonder why the script doesn't do a better job of addressing this oddity. Wouldn't the other performers wonder why he walks around made up like a clown all the time? The rest of the clowns don't do that. Wouldn't they wonder why he even seems to sleep in his clown make-up? It must have seemed unhealthy to some of them that he stays "in character" all the time, night and day. How odd that you'd hire Jimmy Stewart, one of the most famous actors of his generation, and hide his recognizable face for the entire movie. Thankfully, his voice is also so distinctive that you don't need to see Stewart's face to know that it's him.

I think what I like best about this movie is the sense of urgency and intensity that all of the circus performers seem to feel. They love the attention they get from the circus-goers. You understand why both Holly and Sebastian want the center ring. In a case like this, who wouldn't want to be the center of attention, both literally and metaphorically? Even when Brad is injured during the train wreck, the rest of the performers (especially Holly) are so desperate to put on a show that they come up with a way to have a circus in the middle of nowhere. To a degree, this film is really about show business in general, the desire that all performers have to connect with an audience, to receive that love and affection from the people who buy tickets. It's as if that's all they need to make them live. Perhaps it's that understanding of show business, that insight into the need to be in the spotlight, that made The Greatest Show on Earth the winner in 1952.