THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH (1952)
Directed by Cecil B. Demille
On DVD April 6
(**)
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Written By: John H Foote
 Alongside The Sound of Music (1965) and Rebecca (1940), this is the worst film tot ever win an Academy Award for best picture of the year. The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) defeated such masterpieces as High Noon (1952) and The Quiet Man (1952) for the award, which shocked the critics of the time, and remains a surprise to historians that a film such as this could have ever won the Oscar. In fairness to the fickle Academy, let’s bear in mind that the award was won at a time when the studios controlled a great chunk of voting, meaning that studios could order their employees to vote for a particular film. That may or may not have happened here, and in fact it could be that the more deserving split the vote and allowed The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) to slip in with the leftover votes.
  
Bad movies win Oscars. Bad movies get nominated for best picture, it is simply a fact of movie life.
  
The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) is not an atrocious film, just a weak one. Essentially a soap opera set in a circus, the film traces the lives and actions of a group of circus folks, from the manager portrayed by Charlton Heston, through to the entertainers who vie for centre ring, through to a doctor masquerading as a clown to escape charges of murder. At times they are at one another’s throats, others they comfort and care for one another in a manner that is touching. We watch as they go through their everyday lives of taking down the tents after a show, moving to another town and putting up the big top to entertain their adoring fans. The American circus, entertainment under the big top is as grass roots as you can get, and Demille’s attempt to pay homage to a lost form of entertainment is admirable. I just wish he had made a better film.
  
All of this unsubtle bombast was directed by master showman Cecil B. Demille, one of the leading figures in American cinema from the early silents through to his final film, The Ten Commandments (1956) a remake of his silent film of the same name. Demille was more showman than filmmaker, but he knew how to put on a great show. The Ten Commandments (1956) remains his crowning achievement, the film he is best remembered for, and which endures to this day. Sadly he was bypassed for a best director nomination for that film, though he was nominated for an Oscar for The Greatest Show on Earth (1952). Demille, as usual handles the large scenes with great skill and a bold command of the medium, but when things get all too human, his skills leave him and he becomes heavy handed and melodramatic. Demille is at his best when the spectacular train wreck happens, as we watch actors and animals thrown about in the brutal violence which happens during such a disaster.
  
The film is full of fine performances beginning with square jawed Charlton Heston who admittedly owes his career to Demille, who later cast him in the role of a lifetime, Moses, in The Ten Commandments (1956). James Stewart gives the film a solid anchour as the doctor on the run from the law in clown make-up he never takes of, and Betty Hutton is all energy and vinegar as the high wire act who wants centre ring and Heston. None of the love triangles work, most of the film is forgettable, but damned if it is not watchable while it is on.
 
 Paramount has released the film in a sparkling new print for DVD which restores the film to its widescreen and colour glory.
 
  As a curiosity piece, The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) is worth a look for those who have not seen it. The title is mis-leading, because clearly, it was not.










 
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