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The Greatest Show on Earth
original movie poster
Directed by	Cecil B. DeMille
Produced by	Cecil B. DeMille
Written by	Fredric M. Frank Theodore St. John Frank Cavett Barré Lyndon
Starring	Betty Hutton Cornel Wilde Charlton Heston James Stewart Dorothy Lamour
Music by	Victor Young
Cinematography	George Barnes
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	January 10, 1952
Running time	152 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
IMDb profile

The Greatest Show on Earth is an Academy Award-winning 1952 drama film set in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The film was produced, directed, and narrated by Cecil B. DeMille.

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. The three are also involved in a romantic triangle. Other subplots involve performers played by Dorothy Lamour and Gloria Grahame, and a clown who never removes his makeup, played by James Stewart. Bob Hope and Bing Crosby played cameo roles as circus spectators.

Behind-the-scene melodrama is interwoven with almost documentary-style scenes of realistic circus performances in lavish costumes (by Edith Head and others), and towards the end, a spectacular scene involving the two trains that carry the circus from town to town.

The movie won an Academy Award for Best Picture. It also won an Oscar for Best Story.

Contents 1 Controversies 1.1 Best picture award 1.2 Controversial acts 2 Main cast 3 Trivia

Despite its awards, The Greatest Show on Earth has often been cited by film historians and movie buffs as one of DeMille's lesser motion pictures. Many critics and film fans 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 [1] and the British film magazine Empire rated it #3 on their list of the 10 worst Oscar winners.[2]

Erik Lundegaard of MSNBC criticized 2005 Best Picture winner Crash by saying that "This is the worst best picture winner since The Greatest Show on Earth in 1952." and that "Greatest Show was a dull, bloated romance."[3] Other 1952 movies of high critical acclaim include High Noon and The Quiet Man, which are often offered as alternative winners.

James Stewart's clown character, "Buttons," is a doctor on the run from the law. He never removes his makeup because he wants to remain undetected after the "mercy killing" of his terminally ill wife. Some critics believe that the "Best Picture" Oscar was Hollywood's method of voicing support for euthanasia.

• 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

During a song by Dorothy Lamour, the camera pans through the audience. Among the members of the audience are Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. Dorothy Lamour was the frequent costar of Crosby and Hope in the "Road to..." movies.

To her great delight, Lucille Ball was offered a part in the picture by DeMille and wanted very much to sign on for the project, but ruled it as too much of a burden between her pregnancy with her second child, Desi Arnaz Jr., and her I Love Lucy commitments.