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.
This is the circus with more entertainment, more thrills, more spangles and as much Big Top atmosphere as RB-B&B itself can offer. It's a smash certainty for high-wire grosses.
– Herb Golden,
Variety,
28 Jan 2008
rotten:
It won best-picture Oscar for 1952, but God (De Mille's favorite walk-on, strangely absent here) only knows why.
– Pat Graham,
Chicago Reader,
12 Dec 2006
fresh:
Characteristically elephantine Big Top epic from DeMille, thumped across with a winning brashness and garnering the veteran showman his first Best Picture Oscar.
– Paul Taylor,
Time Out,
24 Jun 2006
fresh:
The great showman of the movies has packed everything into this one picture. It has comedy, drama, thrills, melodrama, tragedy and great heart appeal.
– Kate Cameron,
New York Daily News,
23 Apr 2004
fresh:
Two American institutions have combined to put out a piece of entertainment that will delight movie audiences for years.