The Greatest Show on Earth
The Greatest Show on Earth
NR | 21 February 1952 (USA)
The Greatest Show on Earth Trailers

To ensure a full profitable season, circus manager Brad Braden engages The Great Sebastian, though this moves his girlfriend Holly from her hard-won center trapeze spot. Holly and Sebastian begin a dangerous one-upmanship duel in the ring, while he pursues her on the ground.

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Reviews
Dotbankey

A lot of fun.

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Lachlan Coulson

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

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Mandeep Tyson

The acting in this movie is really good.

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Billy Ollie

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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digitalbeachbum

I went to the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus three times in my life. I saw it twice when I was much younger then one more time when I was an adult. I had seen this movie three times before also and always thought it was a good movie. I also have been to the Ringling Bros. Museum in Sarasota.This is a grand movie for its time. It is a gigantic, costly production, much like Ben-Hur or Cleopatra. There are literally thousands of cast members who are in the movie, but are real life Ringling Bros. or some other circus performers. It is amazing to see them work together to put on such a grand performance.The movie is filled with drama, love triangles, jealousy, accidents and conflict. It shows the real life life of how a circus functions all wrapped up in a 152 minutes of run-time. It has one of the most complex productions I know of since Gone with the Wind.However, the movie does not show the dirty side of the circus. While it is all fun and games for the townsfolk who come to see the circus, this move lacks the fundamental truth. It does touch on a little bit of the evils of these circuses, Cecil B. DeMille keeps the viewer from becoming frightened of the circus.Charleston Heston plays the lead role of Brad Braden who is the circus manager. Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde, James Stewart, Dorothy Lamour, Gloria Grahame, Lyle Bettger all play supporting cast members. If you watch the opening credits you see several hundred "acts' being given credit for their performances.As time passes, this movie loses its flavor. I dislike it for what it represents in the story, but support it for the amazing production.

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cadenney-65017

I've see this movie at least 100 times and thoroughly enjoy every time I watch it. Tonight on cable I watched it again and during the big scene when the circus train arrived to raise the Big Top canvas I noticed 2 buildings in the background. It was then I realized those 2 buildings were part of the old Navy hospital complex in Philadelphia. The buildings have since been torn down, I believe back in the 80's. So this means the tent would have been raised in the FDR park adjacent to the hospital. Just off of broad street. The train would have arrive on the tracks that ran along side the Philadelphia Navy yard...Funny after all these years to finally realize this was filmed ,at least partially in Philadelphia.

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gavin6942

The dramatic lives of trapeze artists, a clown, and an elephant trainer against a background of circus spectacle.These days (2015), circuses have fallen out of favor. Kids are not as interested in them as they used to be, and they have taken on a lot of criticism from animal rights groups. (And, you know, some of that criticism is more than fair.) I have to have a little bit of pride in the circus, though, especially the one focused on here: Ringling. These guys came from Baraboo, Wisconsin and until relatively recently have kept that as their headquarters. This is barely more than an hour from home for me, so circus history is something very local.

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tavm

After first watching this on commercial TV 20 years ago, I just viewed this again on DVD just now. This is still pretty entertaining with some of the melodrama and especially that train crash near the end. Musical numbers by Dorothy Lamour-in which a couple of her famous co-stars from other movies make an audience appearance-and Betty Hutton with Jimmy Stewart joining the latter on a trampoline also are fun to watch. And some of the actual circus acts are pretty entertaining though they're better viewed in person than on film. But this is a bit overlong and somewhat old-fashioned and doesn't really deserve the Best Picture Oscar it got for 1952. That should have gone to the really creative Singin' in the Rain which wasn't even nominated in that category (nor was it for writing which TGSOE won for Original Story). Besides the stars I mentioned above, there's also Cornel Wilde, Charlton Heston, and Gloria Grahame to look forward to. Stewart appears in clown makeup throughout for a reason revealed near the end. Only a photo of him shown on screen has his more-familiar face. And producer-director Cecil B. DeMille's narration may be a little corny, but it still works for me. So on that note, I partially recommend The Greatest Show on Earth. P.S. While this film marked a reunion for a couple of stars from my favorite movie-It's a Wonderful Life, Jimmy Stewart and Gloria Grahame-they hardly have any scenes together and rarely have dialogue between them.

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