Fresh
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
The Greatest Show on Earth
The Heartbeat Story of Circus People, Filmed with the Cooperation of Ringling Bros. - Barnum and Bailey Circus!
1952 · 2h 32m · Approved
Drama, Romance
Directed by
Cecil B. DeMille
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The Greatest Show on Earth
Overview
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.
Director and cast
- Cecil B. DeMille Director
- Betty Hutton as Holly
- Cornel Wilde as The Great Sebastian
- Charlton Heston as Brad Braden
- Dorothy Lamour as Phyllis
- Gloria Grahame as Angel
- James Stewart as Buttons
- Henry Wilcoxon as Agent Gregory
- Lyle Bettger as Klaus
- Lawrence Tierney as Mr. Henderson
- Emmett Kelly as Emmett Kelly
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
50%
Tomatometer
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
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
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
Fresh
Two American institutions have combined to put out a piece of entertainment that will delight movie audiences for years.
Bosley Crowther, New York Times
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