The Greatest Show on Earth (review)

This is Cold War-era entertainment. Listen as the narrator calls the circus a "gigantic power," a "restless giant" "moving in to capture a new city." Did you know that a circus is a "fierce primitive fighting force," a "mechanized army on wheels"? I bet you didn't.

Produced with the cooperation of the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus, this Cecil B. DeMille epic is like a fictionalized documentary: even the narration is like something out of those scratchy, 50s-era educational filmstrips bored teachers ran for Generation Xers in elementary school. Today, this would be a two-hour PBS thing hosted by Alan Alda, with lots of focus on the careful treatment of the elephants and bears.

Instead, and much more diverting, we get Charlton Heston snarling that "women are poison" and fending off girls trying to seduce him by cleaning up his trailer and making him coffee. It's so deliciously retro.

Best Motion Picture 1952
unforgettable movie moment:
For sheer bizarreness, the scene in which a priest with a hoard of altar boys in tow blesses the circus train.

previous Best Picture:
1951: An American in Paris
next Best Picture:
1953: From Here to Eternity