The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error The Greatest Show on Earth ( 1952 ) Not Rated | The dramatic lives of trapeze artists, a clown, and an elephant trainer are told against a background of circus spectacle. Director: Famous Directors: From Sundance to Prominence From Christopher Nolan to Quentin Tarantino and every Coen brother in between, many of today's most popular directors got their start at the Sundance Film Festival . Here's a list of some of the biggest names to go from Sundance to Hollywood prominence.

a list of 25 titles created 14 Jun 2011 a list of 22 titles created 01 Aug 2011 a list of 45 titles created 16 Dec 2011 a list of 42 titles created 14 Dec 2014 a list of 29 titles created 20 Feb 2015 Title: The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) 6.7/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Won 2 Oscars. Another 4 wins & 5 nominations. See more awards » Photos A Victorian Englishman bets that with the new steamships and railways he can circumnavigate the globe in eighty days. Directors: Michael Anderson, John Farrow Stars: David Niven, Cantinflas, Finlay Currie At the turn of the century in a Welsh mining village, the Morgans, he stern, she gentle, raise coal-mining sons and hope their youngest will find a better life.

Director: John Ford Young Oliver Twist runs away from an orphanage and meets a group of boys trained to be pickpockets by an elderly mentor. Director: Carol Reed A misogynistic and snobbish phonetics professor agrees to a wager that he can take a flower girl and make her presentable in high society. Director: George Cukor Edit Storyline 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. Subplots involve the secret past of Buttons the Clown and the efforts of racketeers to move in on the game concessions. Let the show begin! Written by Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu> Academy Award winner "Best Picture"! See more » Genres: May 1952 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth See more » Filming Locations: Did You Know? Trivia The first movie that Steven Spielberg ever saw. His father took him to the theater, promising him a trip to the circus.

He was six years old at the time. See more » Goofs The Walt Disney characters are seen getting their costume heads prior to the parade. When the characters are seen on parade inside the tent, they are in different costumes to what they were wearing when they got the heads. See more » Quotes [while Sebastian was speaking, romantically to Holly, Ruth, an elephant, was directed by Angel to pick up and take Holly away, from Sebastian, to Brad] Sebastian : [Sebastian, speaking French] Qu'est-ce qu'al y a? Holly : Let me go. Sebastian. Angel : Never try to take anything from an elephant. Holly : Sebastian, do something! Sebastian : A lion I fight for you, a tiger! But the red-headed wildcat with an elephant, no. [then he chuckled, with a big grin] Holly : You make this two-tailed jackass put me down.

[...] O Come All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fideles) (ca 1743) (uncredited) Music attributed to John Reading (16??) Played during the parade around the rings "Ladies and Gentlemen and Children of All Ages.........." 18 September 2005 | by bkoganbing (Buffalo, New York) – See all my reviews The Greatest Show on Earth is a Cecil B. DeMille extravaganza, maybe the best one he ever produced and directed. Unlike his religious films or his historical films, this film is a nice tribute to an American institution, the Ringling Brothers&Barnum&Bailey Circus and as such it does not attract the controversy of some of his other films. The Best Picture Oscar for 1952 that this film won was more of a tribute to a Hollywood institution. Cecil B. DeMille in fact directed the first Hollywood made film, The Squaw Man, forty years earlier and this Oscar was essentially a tribute to him for the work of a lifetime. Not the first time or the last time the Motion Picture Academy has done that. This is DeMille spectacle at it's best.

The circus as a cinema subject, so full of color and life, is ideal for a DeMille production. Wonderful camera work marks this film, both of the circus acts and the reaction shots into the crowd of the children of all ages. Cecil B. DeMille himself narrates portions of the film showing the work involved in putting on the Greatest Show on Earth. His was a familiar voice to the American public because for 10 years DeMille came into American households via radio narrating the Lux Radio Theater. In fact until Alfred Hitchcock got his own anthology TV series, DeMille's voice was probably the most known to the American public of a film director. And only his name and that of Walt Disney's of people behind the camera were guaranteed box office in the days of the Hollywood studio system. Spectacle was his thing and DeMille was the master. As a director of players and a judge of good modern writing, DeMille left a lot to be desired. Because of the nature of the subject, no great historical or religious events, the grandiloquent dialog present in so many DeMille films is kept to a minimum here.

This was Charlton Heston's first big break as a star and his second film under a Paramount contract. He had done a film called Dark City, a good noir thriller that got good reviews, but did little for him personally. DeMille saw the six foot two Heston walking on the Paramount lot one day and just said to himself that this was to be the circus ramrod for this film. But Heston was fourth billed behind Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde, and Gloria Grahame, all better known than him at the time. Wilde and Grahame were independents as was James Stewart who played a clown with a hidden past. Stewart in fact had always wanted to play a clown and took this supporting role with smaller billing just for the opportunity. At the time he agreed to do this, his wife Gloria was pregnant with their twin daughters. Stewart had it in his contract a clause that gave him permission to leave the film temporarily to be with Gloria when her time was near. In fact Gloria McLean Stewart had a rough time with the birth and Jimmy exercised that option and totally enraged DeMille who had to shut down production for a few days.

He and DeMille did not get along after that though Stewart finished the film and was great in it. Gloria Grahame may not have been the most beautiful woman in Hollywood, but she was the most seductive operating in 1952. That was a banner year for her. She got a Best Supporting Actress for The Bad and the Beautiful on top of this DeMille film. As the elephant girl she attracts the unwanted attentions of Lyle Bettger who plays an elephant trainer. Bettger was a great player at that time who played a lovely variety of psychopaths on the screen. He pulls out all the stops here and its his unwanted attentions to Grahame that set up the final scenes. Dorothy Lamour was here also in a supporting part and she gets to sing Lovely Luawanna Lady in sarong and the reaction shots of the crowd focus on a couple of familiar faces who panted after her in a few Paramount films. The story itself is a standard four sided triangle involving Heston, Hutton, Wilde, and Grahame with Bettger horning in. You have to see the film to find out who winds up with who.

However the high point of the film involves a circus train wreck. DeMille got a lot of notice for wrecking a train in Union Pacific back in 1939. So he doubles the excitement and wrecks two trains here with circus animals pouring out of busted cages. Great stuff. Betty Hutton was coming close to the end of her film career. This and Annie Get Your Gun would be her biggest triumphs. Given DeMille's limitations on directing players, Hutton is surprisingly subdued here and effective. She also sings a couple of nice songs here as she bids adieu to Paramount in her next to last film for them. When The Greatest Show on Earth came out and was doing great box office, Charlton Heston related a story that DeMille came over to him on the Paramount lot and gave him a newspaper clipping and said he would never get a better notice ever, no matter how long a career he had. Heston read the thing and the critic from some small town paper praised all the actors like Stewart, Wilde, Hutton, Grahame, and Lamour said they were great, but that C.B.

DeMille must be the greatest director in the world to get a performance out of that circus ramrod. For all of DeMille's faults here, he created a circus picture that set the standard for any to follow. 59 of 64 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

Yes Best Picture - 1952 - The Greatest Show on Earth (Heston, Lamour (download torrent) - TPB Get this torrent (Problems with magnets links are fixed by upgrading your torrent client !) Best Picture - 1952 - The Greatest Show on Earth (Charlton Heston, Dorothy Lamour, Jimmy Stewart) Video Codec..........: XviD ISO MPEG-4 Video Bitrate........: 1433kbps Duration.............: 2:32:32 Resolution...........: 640*464 Framerate............: 23.976 Audio Codec..........: 0x0055 MPEG-1 Layer 3 Audio Bitrate........: 60 kbps VBR Audio Channels.......: 1 Filesize.............: 1,723,561,984 SUBTITLES............: English, Spanish UPLOADERS NOTE - This film was currently unavailable on DVD, so I could not rip it myself. This is someone else's torrent, all I did was document it to make the collection complete. Thanks to the OP.

The Greatest Show on Earth is a 1952 drama film set in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The film was produced, directed, and narrated by Cecil B. DeMille, and won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Its storyline is supported by lavish production values, actual circus acts, and documentary, behind-the-rings looks at the massive logistics effort which made big top circuses possible. The film stars Betty Hutton and Cornel Wilde as trapeze artists competing for the center ring, and Charlton Heston as the circus manager running the show. James Stewart also stars as a mysterious clown who never removes his make-up, even between shows. In addition to the film actors, the real Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's Circus' 1951 troupe appears in the film, with its complement of 1400 people, hundreds of animals, and 60 carloads of equipment and tents. The actors learned their respective circus roles and participated in the acts. Adjusted for inflation, the film's box office is among the highest-grossing films in the United States and Canada.

A television series, also called The Greatest Show on Earth, was inspired by the film, but with Jack Palance in the role of Charlton Heston's character. The program ran on Tuesday evenings for thirty episodes on ABC during the 1963â€”1964 season. Cast Betty Hutton as Holly Cornel Wilde as The Great Sebastian Charlton Heston as Brad Braden James Stewart as Buttons the Clown Dorothy Lamour as Phyllis Gloria Grahame as Angel Henry Wilcoxon as FBI Agent Gregory Lyle Bettger as Klaus Lawrence Tierney as Mr. Henderson Brad Johnson as unnamed reporter The film features about 85 Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus acts, including clowns Emmett Kelly and Lou Jacobs, midget Cucciola, bandmaster Merle Evans and aerialist Antoinette Concello. There are a number of unbilled cameo appearances (mostly in the circus audiences) including and Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour's co-stars in the Road to... movies. William Boyd appears in his usual guise of Hopalong Cassidy. Danny Thomas, Van Heflin and Noel Neill are seen as circus patrons, among others.

Leon Ames is seen and heard in the train wreck sequence. However, the plot and cameos play second fiddle to the documentary-like look at The Greatest Show On Earth in its last years under canvas. A barker, kept anonymous until the very end, is heard in the closing moments of the film. The voice is finally revealed to be that of Edmond O'Brien. AWARDS At the 25th Academy Awards, the movie won Oscars for Best Picture (earning that recognition over films such as High Noon and The Quiet Man and the classic Singin' in the Rain) and for Best Story. It received nominations for Best Director, Best Film Editing, and Best Costume Design, Color. Many consider this film among the worst to have ever won the Academy Award for Best Picture. The American film magazine Premiere placed the movie on its list of the 10 worst Oscar winners and the British film magazine Empire rated it #3 on their list of the 10 worst Oscar winners. It has the second lowest spot on Rotten Tomatoes' list of the 81 films to win Best Picture. There have been allegations that the film's Best Picture Oscar was due to the political climate in Hollywood in 1952.

Senator Joseph McCarthy was pursuing Communists at the time, and Cecil B. DeMille was one of his supporters[citation needed]; another Best Picture nominee, High Noon, was produced by Carl Foreman, who would soon be on the Hollywood blacklist. Another likely reason The Greatest Show On Earth was voted Best Picture of 1952 was that it was seen as a "last chance" vote for Cecil B. DeMille, to honor him for a lifetime of film making going well back into the silent movie era. DeMille's best work had been done before the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was created. It may be that the members of the Academy (which included many veterans of the silent era) felt that as an elder statesman of Hollywood, he deserved the honor even if films like The Quiet Man, High Noon, Singing' in the Rain, Ivanhoe and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers were seen as better than The Greatest Show On Earth. The Circus - The Greatest Show on Earth - YouTube The Circus - The Greatest Show on Earth Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content.

Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Uploaded on Jul 24, 2011 The Greatest Show on Earth is a 1952 drama film set in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The film was produced, directed, and narrated by Cecil B. DeMille, and won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Its storyline is supported by lavish production values, actual circus acts, and documentary, behind-the-rings looks at the massive logistics effort which made big top circuses possible. Category The Greatest Show on Earth: by (): Booksamillion.com: Movies The Greatest Show on Earth Overview - THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH is a dazzling, only-by-DeMille spectacle of life behind the scenes with Ringling Bros.-Barnum and Bailey Circus, the best three-ring circus in the land. The great showman Cecil B. DeMille produced and directed this splashy, colorful look at life under the big top. Read more... Sorry: This item is not currently available.

FREE Shipping for Club Members More About The Greatest Show on Earth - Overview THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH is a dazzling, only-by-DeMille spectacle of life behind the scenes with Ringling Bros.-Barnum and Bailey Circus, the best three-ring circus in the land. The great showman Cecil B. DeMille produced and directed this splashy, colorful look at life under the big top. Charlton Heston stars as Brad Braden, the beloved circus manager who runs a tight ship with integrity and a big heart. In an effort to bring in enough money to guarantee a full tour, Brad hires the Great Sebastian (Cornel Wilde), a daredevil trapeze star, to replace his girlfriend, Holly (Betty Hutton), a beautiful and talented trapeze artist who had been promised the coveted center-ring spot. Sebastian, a suave ladies' man, instantly takes a liking to Holly despite their jealous rivalry. Holly and Sebastian carry on their feud high in the air, with an audience watching, performing a dangerous show of one-upmanship. While the two duel in the air, sparks fly on the ground, and Brad is too busy running the grand show to notice.

This gutsy star-studded spectacle was produced in cooperation with Ringling Bros.-Barnum and Bailey circus and filmed in a semidocumentary style, with frequent cuts from the full-scale grandiose circus acts and larger-than-life costumes by the legendary Edith Head to real footage of the daily life on the road for the full-scale traveling operation. Jimmy Stewart costars in a gem of a role, as Buttons the clown, who is hiding from a mysterious past. This cavalcade of jaw-dropping visual splendor, complete with lions, elephants, and an action-packed train wreck of a finale, is DeMille at his grandiose best. Look for many small guest appearances from circus stars and celebrities, including Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. Awards: the greatest show on earth : definition of the greatest show on earth and synonyms of the greatest show on earth (English) Box office $12 million (US) [1] The Greatest Show on Earth is a 1952 drama film set in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and starring Betty Hutton , Cornel Wilde , and Charlton Heston . The film was produced, directed, and narrated by Cecil B.

DeMille , and won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Its storyline is supported by lavish production values, actual circus acts, and documentary, behind-the-rings looks at the massive logistics effort which made big top circuses possible. The film stars Hutton and Wilde as trapeze artists competing for the center ring, and Heston as the circus manager running the show. James Stewart also stars as a mysterious clown who never removes his make-up, even between shows, while Dorothy Lamour and Gloria Grahame play supporting roles. In addition to the film actors, the real Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's Circus' 1951 troupe appears in the film, with its complement of 1400 people, hundreds of animals, and 60 carloads of equipment and tents. The actors learned their respective circus roles and participated in the acts. Adjusted for inflation, the film's box office is among the highest-grossing films in the United States and Canada . A television series , also called The Greatest Show on Earth , was inspired by the film, but with Jack Palance in the role of Charlton Heston's character.

The program ran on Tuesday evenings for thirty episodes on ABC during the 1963—1964 season. Contents 9 External links DeMille's opening remarks "We bring you the circus — that Pied Piper whose magic tunes lead children of all ages, from 6 to 60, into a tinseled and spun-candied world of reckless beauty and mounting laughter; whirling thrills; of rhythm, excitement and grace; of daring, enflaring and dance; of high-stepping horses and high-flying stars. "But behind all this, the circus is a massive machine whose very life depends on discipline, motion and speed . . . a mechanized army on wheels that rolls over any obstacle in its path . . . that meets calamity again and again, but always comes up smiling . . . a place where disaster and tragedy stalk the Big Top, haunt the backyards, and ride the circus rails . . . where Death is constantly watching for one frayed rope, one weak link, or one trace of fear. "A fierce, primitive fighting force that smashes relentlessly forward against impossible odds: That is the circus. And this is the story of the biggest of the Big Tops . . .

and of the men and women who fight to make it — The Greatest Show on Earth! " Plot Brad Braden is the no-nonsense general manager of what was at the time the world's largest railroad circus. He has a number of problems on his hands for the upcoming season. The show's board of directors plan to run a short 10 week season rather than risk losing $25,000 a day in a shaky post-war economy. Brad bargains to keep the circus on the road as long as it is making a profit, thus keeping the 1,400 performers and roustabouts who make Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus' the Greatest Show On Earth working. Brad's first problem is having to tell his girlfriend, Holly, a flyer who has no idea whom she is in love with and who had been expecting to be the star of that season's show, that she's out of the center ring. The only way he was able to get management to agree to a full season was to hire The Great Sebastian, "the debonair King of the Air" and world-class trapeze artist, as the star of the show.

Holly knows Brad must think of the show first and personal feelings second, and that he does not take chances with the show, but is nevertheless infuriated at his decision. His second problem is keeping Sebastian under control. He has a well-deserved reputation as a ladies' man who has cut a wide swath through the female contingent of every show he's ever worked in, to the detriment of the running of those shows. His third problem is keeping an eye on Harry, a midway concessionaire he suspects of running crooked games of chance, who works for a mysterious gangster named Mr. Henderson (who has a healthy respect for Brad Braden and not much for Harry). Another situation unbeknownst to Brad involves the beloved Buttons the Clown, who is never seen without his makeup. During a performance, Buttons converses with a woman member of the audience — who warns him that an unnamed "they" are asking questions about him again. She is in fact his mother and they see each other only once a year. Hints about his former life are revealed as he gives first aid to performers and wraps bandages around a trapeze for Holly in an expert manner.

Holly later finds a newspaper article about a doctor who had "mercy killed" his wife. The competition between Holly and Sebastian for the center ring develops into a romantic triangle as well, with both Sebastian and Brad vying for Holly as the aerialists ' acts become increasingly daring and dangerous. Sebastian ignores his former lovers on the show: Angel, who performs in the elephant act; and Phyllis, who does a double turn as an iron jaw artist and a vocalist starring in a South Seas spectacular built around her talent as a singer. The duel ends when, in response to a challenge from Holly, Sebastian removes his safety net and suffers serious injuries in a fall when a trick goes wrong. Buttons tends to him, and when a doctor expresses admiration for the way he dealt with the injuries the clown explains, a little nervously, that he used to be a pharmacist's mate . Holly finally has the center ring and star billing — but not the way she wanted it. Brad is unable to comfort her because she is in love with Sebastian. One problem at least is resolved. When Harry is caught cheating circus attendees on the midway, Brad calls him on it and fires him, finishing the fight Harry started by throwing him into a puddle of mud.

Harry leaves the lot, vowing revenge. He is seen now and then on the periphery of the show, shooting craps and sowing disaffection, particularly with Klaus the elephant trainer who is obsessed with Angel, one of the "ballet girls" (female performers whose primary job is to look beautiful, as opposed to performing a specialty act) who works with his elephants as "the Sultan's Favorite." Sebastian rejoins the show, but is unable to return to the trapeze due to an injury which has left him with a useless right arm. A guilt-ridden Holly professes her love for her former rival over the cold, unfeeling Brad. Calling Holly a fool "for busting up the swellest guy in the circus," Angel makes a pass at Brad and they become an item. This sits badly with Klaus, who has spent the entire season pursuing Angel and cannot accept that she is not in love with him and does not want him. As they are about to leave one stand, Special Agent Gregory of the FBI intercepts Brad, asking if the circus doctor looked like a photograph of a man he is hunting (the photo is of Buttons without makeup).

Having never seen Buttons without makeup, Brad doesn't recognize the man in the photo. The detective boards the train to continue his investigation. Brad mentions this to Buttons, who tells him that Sebastian has feeling in his injured hand — a sign that his disability is not permanent. Brad makes the connection between Buttons and the fugitive doctor and comments that the police will be taking fingerprints . The implication is that Buttons should make himself scarce until the detective leaves the show to search elsewhere. The joy of Sebastian's potential recovery is overshadowed by a spectacular collision of the circus' two trains, set up by Harry, the crooked midway operator fired by Brad, and Angel's rejected suitor, Klaus, as a byproduct of their robbing the circus pay wagon of the money earned by the show at the last stand. Buttons, who had been about to flee, returns after a plea from Holly, who, like Brad, had made the connection between the doctor "who killed the wife he loved, then vanished" and his new identity as Buttons the Clown, and saves the critically injured Brad's life by giving him a blood transfusion from Sebastian "on the fly," despite knowing that Gregory is watching.

This in turn leads to Gregory reluctantly arresting Buttons, who he declares "is all right." Holly realizes that she is actually in love with Brad, that she has always loved him; and takes command of the show, mounting a circus parade through the town nearest the crash and staging an open air show by the crash site (as the Big Top and lighting were lost in the wreck). Brad's near-death experience forces him to admit that he is in love with Holly, but ironically she now hasn't time for him because the show must go on. The last loose end is tied up when Sebastian proposes to Angel and she accepts. The movie ends with the troupe mounting a "spec" to open their improvised performance, which will keep the show in the black and enable them to continue their tour, a magnificent recovery from disaster. Cast The film features about 85 Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus acts, including clowns Emmett Kelly and Lou Jacobs , midget Cucciola , bandmaster Merle Evans and aerialist Antoinette Concello . [2] John Ringling North plays himself as the owner of the circus.

There are a number of unbilled cameo appearances (mostly in the circus audiences) including Bob Hope and Bing Crosby , Dorothy Lamour 's co-stars in the Road to... movies. [2] William Boyd appears in his usual guise of Hopalong Cassidy . Danny Thomas , Van Heflin , character actor Oliver Blake, and Noel Neill are seen as circus patrons, among others. Leon Ames is seen and heard in the train wreck sequence. However, the plot and cameos play second fiddle to the documentary-like look at The Greatest Show On Earth in its last years under canvas. A barker , kept anonymous until the very end, is heard in the closing moments of the film. The voice is finally revealed to be that of Edmond O'Brien . Production Lucille Ball was offered Gloria Grahame's role in the picture by DeMille, but dropped out when she discovered she was pregnant with her first child, Lucie Arnaz . The music for the song, "Lovely Luawana Lady", was written by John Ringling North , who appears briefly as himself during the discussion about whether the show would play the road rather than have a short 10 week season.

North was a nephew of the five Ringling Brothers who founded Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. At the time the movie was filmed, John Ringling North was the owner of The Greatest Show On Earth. Reception In 1952, Bosley Crowther called The Greatest Show on Earth a "lusty triumph of circus showmanship and movie skill" and a "piece of entertainment that will delight movie audiences for years": [3] Sprawling across a mammoth canvas, crammed with the real-life acts and thrills, as well as the vast backstage minutiae, that make the circus the glamorous thing it is and glittering in marvelous Technicolor—truly marvelous color, we repeat—this huge motion picture of the big-top is the dandiest ever put upon the screen. In 1952, Time magazine called it a "mammoth merger of two masters of malarkey for the masses: P. T. Barnum and Cecil B.

de Mille " as well as a film that "fills the screen with pageants and parades [and] finds a spot for 60-odd circus acts" with a plot that "does not quite hold all this pageantry together." [4] In 1952, Variety wrote that the film "effectively serve[s] the purpose of a framework for all the atmosphere and excitement of the circus on both sides of the big canvas." [2] In 1999, critic Leonard Maltin opined that "like most of DeMille's movies, this may not be art, but it's hugely enjoyable". [5] In 2005, "The Official Razzie Movie Guide: Enjoying The Best of Hollywood's Worst" [6] includes The Greatest Show On Earth. The general sentiment about the film seems to be: it was a heinous mistake on the part of the Academy to give it the coveted Best Picture award. And in that same year the magazine Empire listed it as the third worst Best Picture winner of all time.

[7] In 2006, in an article for MSNBC about the 78th Academy Awards selection of Crash as Best Picture, Erik Lundegaard called Crash the "worst Best Picture winner since the 'dull, bloated' film The Greatest Show on Earth" [8] Awards A publicity shot for the film, featuring (L-R) James Stewart, Cornel Wilde, and Charlton Heston. At the 25th Academy Awards , the movie won Oscars for Best Picture (earning that recognition over films such as High Noon and The Quiet Man and the classic Singin' in the Rain ) and for Best Story . It received nominations for Best Director , Best Film Editing , and Best Costume Design, Color . Many consider this film among the worst to have ever won the Academy Award for Best Picture. The American film magazine Premiere placed the movie on its list of the 10 worst Oscar winners [9] and the British film magazine Empire rated it #3 on their list of the 10 worst Oscar winners. [10] It has the second lowest spot on Rotten Tomatoes ' list of the 81 films to win Best Picture. [11] There have been allegations[ who?

] that the film's Best Picture Oscar was due to the political climate in Hollywood in 1952. Senator Joseph McCarthy was pursuing Communists at the time, and Cecil B. DeMille was one of his supporters[ citation needed ]; another Best Picture nominee, High Noon, was produced by Carl Foreman , who would soon be on the Hollywood blacklist . Another likely reason The Greatest Show On Earth was voted Best Picture of 1952 was that it was seen as a "last chance" vote for Cecil B. DeMille, to honor him for a lifetime of film making going well back into the silent movie era. DeMille's best work had been done before the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was created. It may be that the members of the Academy (which included many veterans of the silent era) felt that as an elder statesman of Hollywood, he deserved the honor even if films like The Quiet Man , High Noon , Singin' in the Rain , and Ivanhoe were seen as better than The Greatest Show On Earth. Influence The self-titled closing theme song later served as the theme for WGN-TV 's long running The Bozo Show .

[12] The Greatest Show on Earth was the first film that director Steven Spielberg saw and he credits it as one of the major inspirations that led him into a film career. [13] He pointed out the film's train crash scene as a major influence, and this influence was later reflected in the 2011 science fiction film Super 8 , which he produced. In Steven Spielberg's remake of War of the Worlds, in an early scene the children of Tom Cruise's character are seen channel-surfing on their television, and the train-wreck scene from The Greatest Show On Earth is being broadcast. References DVD Savant Review: The Greatest Show on Earth The Greatest Show on Earth The Greatest Show on Earth Paramount Home Entertainment 1952 / Color / 1:37 flat full frame / 152 min. / Street Date April 6, 2004 / 14.99 Starring Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde, Charlton Heston, Dorothy Lamour, Gloria Grahame, Henry Wilcoxon, Lyle Bettger, Lawrence Tierney, Emmett Kelly James Stewart Cinematography Edith Head, Dorothy Jeakins, Miles White Art Direction E.

Ray Goetz, Henry Sullivan, Victor Young Written by Fredric M. Frank, Theodore St. John, Frank Cavett and Cecil B. DeMille Reviewed by Glenn Erickson Cecil B. DeMille's Best Picture Oscar winner is one of the least-deserving recipients of that award, and testifies more to the director's publicity clout than anything else. In 1952 DeMille's power on the Paramount lot was still considerable, enough that Billy Wilder, then smarting from a failure with his Ace in the Hole, felt obligated to say yes when corralled into a screening of the legend's newest movie about the circus. When it was all over and Wilder didn't know how to handle the praise DeMille expected, he solved his problem by telling the old man excitedly, "Mr. DeMille, you have made the greatest show on Earth!" Or so it's been repeated by Wilder's many biographers. The Greatest Show on Earth has too much color and too many varied circus acts to be boring. The services of the Ringling Bros.

circus provided most everything on-screen, making DeMille's contribution rather easy: one silly (but Oscar-winning) plot and a lot of hyped conflict. The actors do well considering the 3rd-grade level of the drama, and Charlton Heston proves himself a real star by authoritatively holding the center and not looking foolish. Too bad for Betty Hutton though, as her failed efforts to enliven a truly dumb character almost outweigh her previous excellence in gems like The Miracle of Morgan's Creek and Annie Get Your Gun . Synopsis: The Ringling Bros. circus wants to scale back its touring season but tough circus boss Marc Braden (Charlton Heston) uses intimidation to keep a full schedule, provided the show stays in the black. This means kicking aerial star Holly (Betty Hutton) out of the center ring to make way for the famous headliner The Great Sebastian (Cornel Wilde), a womanizer already well acquainted with elephant wrangler Angel (Gloria Grahame). Braden has to contend with this drama while staving off the demands of crooked sideshow gangster Henderson (Lawrence Tierney) and keeping the 'circus army' on the move and ready for the next show.

Observing all is Buttons the Clown (James Stewart), who never removes his clown greasepaint and appears to have a guilty secret. The Greatest Show on Earth is hyped from one end to the other. The biggest issue with the circus in 1952 was how to keep the shows going, as the dozens in operation before the war had shuttered forever or were consolidating. DeMille's pompous narration couches the circus tradition in warlike terms. It's an army fighting threats on all sides, and only the vigilance and brute muscle of fighters like Marc Braden can hold it together. It all reminds me of the non-drama of an old Budd Boetticher WW2 drama called Red Ball Express that hypes the gritty spirit of behind-the-lines truck drivers: Potholes! Flat tires! Nothing stops them! Anyway, DeMille's Cold War circus gets more interesting away from the combat metaphors. This is by far the biggest movie showing authentic circus acts and a lot of the running time is padded with okay Technicolor coverage of real performances. But the hype factor gets in the way.

Circus performers are meant to be viewed from 40 yards away and people who can do wild tricks and great stunts rarely look like Hollywood stars. So we have plenty of big-names to hog the attention of the camera. Dorothy Lamour is pleasant enough as an all-purpose performer, handling the interchangeable, bad dialogue with Gloria Grahame's elephant girl. The attempt at snappy comeback lines is pitiful, probably the fault of DeMille's taste. Betty Hutton is the main casualty. She's convincing as a trapeze artist and presumably had a great match in a stunt double. But she just plain doesn't look that attractive. When lothario Cornell Wilde zeroes in on her from fifty yards away, it's simply laughable. Add to that the character's insipid non-personality, always expressed in exclamations and excited declarations, and she becomes really tiresome. The men come off much better. Heston is great when he's allowed to exude understated command. He's ridiculously bigger than life, but a circus movie needs that.

Marc Braden routinely barks stupid orders at people, telling them how to do their jobs, which DeMille equates with authority at work (like a movie director). The silliness becomes even more obvious at the end when he's incapacitated - Hutton takes over by suddenly snapping out a string of meaningless orders at people already heavily engaged in their work. I think they'd hit her with a shovel and be finished with her. Not at all bad is Cornel Wilde, the much-maligned actor ( The Big Combo ) with a physique like an action hero. In realistic movies he often seems to be made of plastic, but as an overbearing and wolfish trapeze star he's fine. The strained foreign accent helps too. The character goes a little odd when DeMille sticks him with a Lon Chaney-like gnarly claw to represent a paralyzed arm (!), yet Wilde handles it well. By that time we've had two hours of cornball theatrics, and little things like gnarly claws no longer seem as foolish as they should. James Stewart gives one of his most overrated performances as Buttons, the Clown With a Dark Past. As Bill Murray said, he's the "crying on the inside" type.

Three year-olds could decipher the grossly unsubtle "hints" that Buttons isn't what he seems, and the drama of the clown risking capture to help out his fellow circusites is incredibly phony. It's also odd that The Greatest Show on Earth has the most famous clown of the 20th century, Emmett Kelly, but uses him only for a few cutaways. Stewart stumbles around doing mostly unfunny clown schtick. Poor Lyle Bettger is the "evil" German elephant tamer. Neither his malice nor that of the bad guys headed by Lawrence Tierney make a whole lot of sense outside of a 1915 melodrama. Like Bettger's really going to threaten to crush Hutton's head under an elephant's foot? Are circus trains really good robbery targets? The Greatest Show on Earth wraps up with an exciting variation on the disaster ending. That already worked well for DeMille in the bizarre Madame Satan, in which a crazy party on a dirigible is cut short when it crashes. Here there's one heck of a crash that uses model trains fairly well. The general panic afterwards is pretty tense, and there's a really strange feeling of chaos when the tigers and lions are set loose.

Otherwise the effects are just so-so, with the mighty Paramount optical department trying its best to enliven unconvincingly-designed travelling mattes. DeMille uses them as frequently as he does rear projection, adding to the artificial atmosphere. The aerial trapeze action, however, isn't bad and doesn't rely too heavily on effects. No matter how much it's hyped, the circus still comes off as an entertainment from another era that seems like more trouble than it's worth. The performers immediately stage a show at the site of the train wreck. Yes, Savant's wicked, I couldn't help but imagine the faceless crowds tripping over a forgotten disaster victim on the way to the improvised grandstand. During performances, DeMille cuts away to audiences faking awe and delight (are those all studio employee kids?) peppered with familiar faces (Mona Freeman, the dreamy Nancy Gates) and a few cameo ringers. As kids, we responded heartily to the cameo appearance of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby munching popcorn. Kathleen Freeman and Noel Neill are supposed to be in there somewhere too.

For who-knows what reason, Edmond O'Brien delivers a kiss-off line at the very end, sticking out of a circular graphic like Bugs Bunny in a Merrie Melody cartoon. Paramount's DVD of The Greatest Show on Earth looks fine. The studio clearly no longer sees this as a prestige title like The Ten Commandments as the disc is a budget release with no extras. But the picture is bright and snappy and the (mostly terrible) songs nicely recorded. I skipped the awful Be a Jumping Jack tune ... it's just too painful. There are a few really good circus movies. Carol Reed's Trapeze is a vastly superior circus drama, and the guignol-inflected Circus of Horrors generates a pretty-good circus atmosphere too. The movie fantasy with by far the best circus nostalgia is still the animated Dumbo. On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, The Greatest Show on Earth rates: "The Greatest Show on Earth" - The spectacles of Cecil B. DeMille - Pictures - CBS News The spectacles of Cecil B. DeMille Ready When You Are, C.B. Left: Cecil B.

DeMille during location filming for his 1956 remake of "The Ten Commandments." He was the very definition of a big-time Hollywood filmmaker, who helped invent the big-budget epic. Cecil B. DeMille directed and/or produced more than 70 movies in a career that spanned more than four decades, and is remembered for such spectacles as "The Ten Commandments," "King of Kings," "Cleopatra," and the Oscar-winning "The Greatest Show on Earth." "Cecil B. DeMille: The Art of the Hollywood Epic" (Running Press), a new book, co-written by DeMille's granddaughter, explores the artistry behind his movie legacy. Credit: Running Press On Set Cecil B. DeMille with his granddaughter, Cecilia, on the set of "Samson and Delilah." "He was kind of like a modern day Medici," she told CBS News' Rita Braver. "He surrounded himself with the people that he thought had great drama and great talent and let them go." DeMille was unsuccessful in his early pursuits of a career as an actor, writer and producer on the stage.

"Nothing seemed to stick, nothing seemed to work," said film historian Mark Vieira. "At age 33 he was just kind of this fifth wheel for everybody." Then, the movies came calling. Credit: Running Press "The Squaw Man" DeMille's lucky break came when Jesse Lasky and Samuel Goldfish (a.k.a. Samuel Goldwyn) - two friends who were building a motion picture company - asked DeMille to head west and make a feature film, "The Squaw Man" (1914). It was the story of an English aristocrat (Dustin Farnum) who comes to America and falls in love with a Native American woman (Red Wing). "Very racy" for the time, said Mark Vieira. Credit: CBS News "Male and Female" A publicity still of Gloria Swanson from the Cecil B. DeMille film, "Male and Female" (1919), about a shipload of British aristocrats and servants shipwrecked on an island, where class roles are dispensed with during their struggle to survive.

Credit: Running Press "Male and Female" In a fantasy sequence, Gloria Swanson, as Lady Mary Lasenby, poses with a lion in photographer Karl Struss' takeoff of the Gabriel von Max painting, "The Lion's Bride." Credit: Running Press "The Ten Commandments" Director Cecil B. DeMille with Charles de Rochefort as Ramses in "The Ten Commandments" (1923). His Biblical epic actually told two stories - one set in ancient Egypt, of Moses and the exodus of the Israelites; and a modern-tale tale of men breaking the very commandments handed down by Moses. Credit: Paramount Pictures "The Ten Commandments" Moses (Theodore Roberts) leads his people through the parted waters of the Red Sea in Cecil B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments" (1923). Credit: Paramount "King of Kings" "King of Kings" (1927), starring H.W. Warner as Jesus, was Cecil B. DeMille's last silent film.

Credit: Running Press "Madam Satan" "Who wants to go to hell with Madam Satan!" Kay Johnson attends a masquerade ball held in a zeppelin above New York City in the musical comedy "Madam Satan" (1930). The party ends abruptly when lightning strikes the dirigible, forcing the partygoers to parachute to safety. The New York Times reviewer called the film "a strange conglomeration of unreal incidents." Credit: MGM "The Sign of the Cross" Charles Laughton as the Emperor Nero watches as Rome burns in "The Sign of the Cross" (1932). The forced perspective shot used burning miniatures at the Paramount ranch. Credit: Running Press Cecil B. Demille directing Claudette Colbert on the set of "Cleopatra" (1934). Credit: AP An uncredited concept painting for "Cleopatra." Credit: Running Press Concept art for the setting of the barge sequence in "Cleopatra." Credit: Running Press "Cleopatra" An erotic sequence from Cecil B. DeMille's "Cleopatra" (1934).

Joseph Breen, the censor who made sure studio films adhered to the Production Code, had his knives out for DeMille's epic, as it featured what he categorized as "glamorous sin-women." Among the items cut was a bull dance scene that, Breen said, contained movements suggesting "unnatural practices with beasts." In an editorial for Film Daily, DeMille wrote, "Motion pictures cannot be made without sex. Take it away from films and you take away your very life." Whatever Breen cut, there was still enough to attract audiences: "Cleopatra" was one of the director's biggest hits ever. Credit: Running Press "The Crusades" A Harold Mile concept painting for Cecil B. DeMille's medieval epic, "The Crusades" (1935), which he made in part to placate the head of the Production Code office. Credit: Running Press "The Crusades" Loretta Young as Berengaria, Princess of Navarre (with Alan Hale) in Cecil B. DeMille's "The Crusades." Costumes by Travis Banton.

Credit: Running Press "The Plainsman" A Dan Sayre Groesbeck concept painting for "The Plainsman" (1936). DeMille looked to the works of Frederic Remington as inspiration for his Western tale, featuring such larger-than-life figures as Wild Bill Hickok, Buffalo Bill Cody, Calamity Jane and Gen. George Custer. Credit: Running Press "The Plainsman" Gary Cooper as Wild Bill Hickok and Jean Arthur as Calamity Jane in Cecil B. DeMille's "The Plainsman" (1936). It was the first of four films that Cooper did with DeMille, including "North West Mounted Police," "The Story of Dr. Wassell," and "Unconquered." Credit: Running Press "The Buccaneer" Fredric March (far right) starred as pirate Jean LaFitte in Cecil B. DeMille's tale of the War of 1812, "The Buccaneer" (1938). The film co-starred Anthony Quinn (far left).

Twenty years later, DeMille served as executive producer for Paramount's color remake, which starred Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner as LaFitte. Directing the remake: Anthony Quinn, who at the time was married to DeMille's adopted daughter, actress Katherine DeMille. Credit: Paramount Pictures "Union Pacific" Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Robert Preston and Brian Donlevy starred in DeMille's big-budget Western, "Union Pacific" (1939), about the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad. Naturally, there's a train wreck, Indian attacks, and a torrid love triangle, by the time the golden spike is driven into the rails at Promontory Summit, Utah. Credit: Running Press "North West Mounted Police" Akim Tamiroff, Gary Cooper and Preston Foster in "North West Mounted Police" (1940), Cecil B. Demille's first full-color film. Credit: Running Press "Reap the Wild Wind" In "Reap the Wild Wind" (1942), starring Ray Milland and John Wayne, two rival companies seek to salvage the cargo of sunken ships off Florida. And watch out for the giant octopus!

Credit: Paramount PIctures "Unconquered" A Dan Sayre Groesbeck painting for "Unconquered" (1947), Cecil B. DeMille's tale of slavery, Indian uprisings and the burgeoning Colonial frontier in pre-Revolutionary America. The film starred Gary Cooper and Paulette Goddard. Credit: Running Press "Samson and Delilah" According to DeMille, this Dan Sayre Groesbeck illustration is what sold Paramount on the Biblical epic "Samson and Delilah," released in 1949. It starred Hedy Lamarr and Victor Mature. Credit: Running Press Storyboards for Cecil B. DeMille's "Samson and Delilah" (1949). Credit: Running Press Victor Mature as Samson in "Samson and Delilah" (1949). Credit: Running Press "Samson and Delilah" Special effects master Gordon Jennings created the scene of Samson bringing down the temple, using an eight-foot miniature. Credit: Paramount PIctures "Sunset Boulevard" One of the most recognizable showmen of the movies, Cecil B.

DeMille played himself in Billy Wilder's caustic Hollywood tale "Sunset Boulevard" (1950), in which Norma Desmond (played by one of DeMille's biggest stars, Gloria Swanson) visits the Paramount lot to inquire about her role in his next picture. Credit: Paramount Pictures "The Greatest Show on Earth" Concept art for Cecil B. DeMille's "The Greatest Show on Earth" (1952). In the summer of 1949 the director and his granddaughter, screenwriter Fredric Frank and several others traveled with Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, where they soaked up stories and incidents of circus folk, before setting to the task of creating a motion picture that captured the drama and spectacle of "the greatest show on Earth." Credit: Running Press "The Greatest Show on Earth" John Jensen's concept art for Cornel Wilde's character, "The Great Sebastian," from "The Greatest Show on Earth" (1952). Credit: Running Press "The Greatest Show on Earth" The aftermath of the catastrophic train wreck sequence, from "The Greatest Show on Earth." Credit: Running Press Academy Awards Producer Cecil B.

DeMille, winner of the Best Picture Oscar for "The Greatest Show on Earth," poses with Gloria Grahame (Best Supporting Actress Oscar-winner for "The Bad and the Beautiful"). Credit: Photofest "The Ten Commandments" For Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 remake of "The Ten Commandments," John Jensen created this concept painting of Pharoah Sethi's throne room. Credit: Running Press Charlton Heston as Moses, photographed during location shooting of Cecil B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments." Credit: Running Press Charlton Heston as Moses in Cecil B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments." Credit: Running Press "The Ten Commandments" A "cast of thousands" was employed during location filming in Egypt. During the grueling weeks of shooting in Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula, DeMille suffered what doctors diagnosed as an "acute coronary thrombosis," but he continued working nonetheless. "I would rather be a dead director on the set than a live director in an oxygen tent," he was quoted as saying in Life Magazine.

Credit: Running Press "The Ten Commandments" Moses leads the freed slaves out of bondage (portrayed by an estimated 6,000-8,000 extras) in "The Ten Commandments" (1956). It was the last film DeMille directed, and his most successful. The Oscar-winner died in 1959 at age 77. Credit: Running Press "The Art of the Hollywood Epic" For more info: The Greatest Show on Earth : Wikis (The Full Wiki) For other uses, see The greatest show on earth . The Greatest Show on Earth Original theatrical poster Language English The Greatest Show on Earth is a 1952 drama film set in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus . The film was produced, directed, and narrated by Cecil B. DeMille , and won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Its storyline is supported by lavish production values, actual circus acts, and documentary, behind-the-rings looks at the massive logistics effort which made big top circuses possible.

The film stars Betty Hutton and Cornel Wilde as trapeze artists competing for the center ring, and Charlton Heston as the circus manager running the show. James Stewart also stars as a mysterious clown who never removes his make-up, even between shows. In addition to the film actors, the real Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's Circus' 1951 troupe appears in the film, with its complement of 1400 people, hundreds of animals, and 60 carloads of equipment and tents. The actors learned their respective circus roles and participated in the acts. Adjusted for inflation, the film's box office is among the highest-grossing films in the United States and Canada . A television series , also called The Greatest Show on Earth , was inspired by the film, but with Jack Palance in the role of Charlton Heston's character. The program ran on Tuesday evenings for thirty episodes on ABC during the 1963—1964 season.

Contents 9 External links DeMille's opening remarks We bring you the circus --- that Pied Piper whose magic tunes lead children of all ages, from 6 to 60, into a tinseled and spun-candied world of reckless beauty and mounting laughter; whirling thrills; of rhythm, excitement and grace; of daring, enflaring and dance; of high-stepping horses and high-flying stars. But behind all this, the circus is a massive machine whose very life depends on discipline, motion and speed .... a mechanized army on wheels that rolls over any obstacle in its path .... that meets calamity again and again, but always comes up smiling .... a place where disaster and tragedy stalk the Big Top, haunt the backyards, and ride the circus rails .... where Death is constantly watching for one frayed rope, one weak link, or one trace of fear. A fierce, primitive fighting force that smashes relentlessly forward against impossible odds: That is the circus. And this is the story of the biggest of the Big Tops .... and of the men and women who fight to make it --- The Greatest Show on Earth!

Plot Brad Braden is the no-nonsense general manager of what was at the time the world's largest performing troupe. He has a number of problems on his hands. Administrators plan to cut the season short, rather than risk losing thousands in a shaky post-war economy. Brad bargains to keep the circus on the road as long as it is making a profit, thus keeping 1400 people working. Meanwhile, two of his acts, girlfriend Holly and handsome trapeze star The Great Sebastian, engage in a fierce aerial duel to show which act is the best. Finally, a crooked sideshow promoter and his henchman are running their own schemes, and Brad has to fire them despite their threats. Another situation — unbeknownst to Brad — involves the mysterious Buttons the Clown, who is never seen without his makeup. A woman tells Buttons that an unnamed "they" are asking questions about him. We discover that she is Buttons' mother, and that they see each other only once a year. Hints about his former life come as he gives first aid to performers and wraps bandages around a trapeze in an expert manner. Holly later finds a newspaper article about a doctor who had "mercy killed" his wife.

The competition between Holly and Sebastian develops into a romantic triangle, with both Sebastian and Brad vying for Holly as the aerialists' acts become increasingly daring and dangerous. Sebastian ignores his former girlfriend Angel, who performs in the elephant act. The duel ends when Sebastian falls after having cut his safety net away. He returns to the circus, but is unable to resume his act due to debilitating injuries. A guilt-ridden Holly professes her love for her former rival over the cold, unfeeling Brad, so a dejected Brad and Angel pair up. Immediately after Sebastian takes his fall, Buttons tends to his injuries. When a doctor expresses admiration for the way he dealt with them, the clown explains, a little nervously, that he used to be a pharmacist's mate . As they are about to leave one town, a detective intercepts Brad, asking if the circus doctor looked like a photograph a man he is hunting (the photo is of James Stewart without makeup). The detective boards the train to continue his investigation. Brad mentions this to Buttons, who tells him that Sebastian has feeling in his injured hand — a sign that his disability is not permanent. Brad makes the connection between Buttons and the fugitive doctor and comments that the police will be taking fingerprints.

The joy of Sebastian's potential recovery is smashed in a massive collision of the circus' two trains, set up by the crooked promoter and Angel's rejected suitor, Klaus, the elephant trainer. Buttons, who had been about to flee, returns after a plea by Holly and saves the critically injured Brad's life (including a transfusion from Sebastian) despite knowing that the detective is watching, leading to his arrest. Holly realizes that she is actually in love with Brad. She takes over command, mounts a circus parade through the town nearest the crash and stages an open air show by the crash site (as the tents and lighting were lost in the crash), enabling the circus to avoid bankruptcy. Cast The film features about 85 Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus acts, including clowns Emmett Kelly and Lou Jacobs , midget Cucciola, and aerialist Antoinette Concello. [1] There are a number of cameos in the film, including William Boyd , Bing Crosby , and Bob Hope . There are a number of unbilled cameo appearances (mostly in the circus audiences) including Bob Hope and Bing Crosby , Dorothy Lamour 's co-stars in the Road to... movies.

[1] Edmond O'Brien has a cameo as an announcer. However, the plot and cameos play second fiddle to the documentary-like look at the "Big Top" in its last years. Production Lucille Ball was offered Gloria Grahame's role in the picture by DeMille, but dropped out when she discovered she was pregnant with her first child, Lucie Arnaz . Reception Bosley Crowther called The Greatest Show on Earth a "lusty triumph of circus showmanship and movie skill" and a "piece of entertainment that will delight movie audiences for years": [2] Sprawling across a mammoth canvas, crammed with the real-life acts and thrills, as well as the vast backstage minutiae, that make the circus the glamorous thing it is and glittering in marvelous Technicolor—truly marvelous color, we repeat—this huge motion picture of the big-top is the dandiest ever put upon the screen. Time magazine called it a "mammoth merger of two masters of malarkey for the masses: P. T. Barnum and Cecil B.

de Mille " as well as a film that "fills the screen with pageants and parades [and] finds a spot for 60-odd circus acts" with a plot that "does not quite hold all this pageantry together." [3] Variety wrote that the film "effectively serve[s] the purpose of a framework for all the atmosphere and excitement of the circus on both sides of the big canvas." [1] Critic Leonard Maltin opined that "like most of DeMille's movies, this may not be art, but it's hugely enjoyable". [4] In 2006, in an article for MSNBC about the 78th Academy Awards selection of Crash as Best Picture, Erik Lundegaard called Crash the "worst Best Picture winner since the 'dull, bloated' film The Greatest Show on Earth" [5] Awards A publicity shot for the film, featuring (L-R) James Stewart, Cornel Wilde, and Charlton Heston. At the 25th Academy Awards , the movie won Oscars for Best Picture (earning that recognition over films such as High Noon and The Quiet Man and the classic Singin' in the Rain ) and for Best Story .

It received nominations for Best Director , Best Film Editing , and Best Costume Design, Color . Many consider this film among the worst to have ever won the Academy Award for Best Picture. The American film magazine Premiere placed the movie on its list of the 10 worst Oscar winners [6] and the British film magazine Empire rated it #3 on their list of the 10 worst Oscar winners. [7] It has the lowest spot on Rotten Tomatoes ' list of the 81 films to win Best Picture. [8] There have been allegations that the film's Best Picture Oscar was due to the political climate in Hollywood in 1952. Senator Joseph McCarthy was pursuing Communists at the time, and Cecil B. DeMille was one of his supporters[citation needed]; another Best Picture nominee, High Noon, was produced by Carl Foreman , who would soon be on the Hollywood blacklist . Trivia A barker , kept anonymous until the very end, is heard in the closing moments of the film. The voice is finally revealed to be that of Edmond O'Brien .

The self-titled closing theme song later served as the theme for WGN-TV 's long running The Bozo Show .[citation needed] The Greatest Show on Earth was the first film that director Steven Spielberg saw and he credits it as one of the major inspirations that led him into a film career. [9] The music for the song Lovely Luawana Lady was written by John Ringling North, who appeared briefly as Brad's boss during a telephone conversation. North was the nephew of the five Ringling Brothers. References

Question: Who produced, directed and narrated the best film Oscar winning 1952 movie The Greatest Show On Earth?
Answer: Cecil B deMille