The dramatic lives of trapeze artists, a clown, and an elephant trainer are told against a background of circus spectacle.
Circus life has always been intriguing. With so many acts going on and 1400 people to make it all work, it appears inevitable that there would be some type of conflict that makes its way from underneath the showmanship into the big tent. Cecil B. Demille’s “The Greatest Show on Earth,” which debuted in 1952, shows that it isn’t all fun and games for Circus Manager Brad Braden (Charlton Heston) to keep his crew intact in a post-war economy.
When the film opens, Brad is dealing with the issue of converting to a 10-week season rather than face the prospect of losing $25,000 a day due to the constraints of the economy. While he thinks he can pull it off with his normal crew, his investors have decided there is a need to bring in a well-known trapeze artist known as the Great Sebastian (Cornel Wilde) in order to increase sales. Although this may seem like a great idea, Brad has a conflict of interest in that his girlfriend Holly (Betty Hutton) is currently in command of the center ring and is not happy at all that she must relinquish her role in order to accommodate Sebastian. Brad, who is madly in love with Holly, thinks they can lay low and work through it, but when Sebastian enters the picture, things get crazy as the competition between Holly and Sebastian turns into a disaster when Sebastian is seriously hurt from a fall in which he removed the netting in order to prove a point. To complicate matters even worse, Holly gets feelings for Sebastian creating havoc between Brad, Sebastian, and Holly.
While Sebastian is healing, Holly takes over and has no time for Brad. While Brad nurses those wounds, lots of other troubling issues are going on with Buttons the Clown (James Stewart) as well as the circus doctor (Frank Wilcox). No one would ever guess that a local gangster also has his hand behind the curtain making deals and gaining underhanded profits. If this isn’t enough to make the big top spin, a huge accident that injures performers and animals alike threatens to end Brad’s reign before it all comes back together in the end with Brad and Holly trying to work it out with each other.
Producer and Director Cecil B. DeMille did an excellent job of bringing to the forefront, the reality of putting on an enormous production while dealing with the human aspect of its performers in the midst of economic stressors. Each character played an awesome role in trying to remain together while everything else was falling apart. Knowing the history of the circus and the role it played in providing wholesome family entertainment, it took a lot of preparation to delve into the unattractive side of a major attraction. His work was definitely rewarded with the production, winning two Academy Awards as well as several Golden Globes. While it has been many years since the film was first produced with the cooperation of Ringling Bros Barnum & Bailey Circus, it still is a hit with the Technicolor enhancement and the ability to draw a diverse crowd that will always have a love affair with clowns and all the action under the Big Top.
Now available on Paramount Presents Blu-ray
