I for one couldn't help but be drawn in to the film's haphazard affinity for excess. The wild circus acts made me nervous. The weaving in of numerous, elaborate circus sequences don't make no kind of storytelling sense, but it's enough such that by the end of the film, I found myself researching the history of circuses. In spite of what you or I can criticize about this film, I think this shows that at the very least, The Greatest Show on Earth can still serve as a launchpad for igniting one's curiosity into The Circus; a grand relic of a world, one that was once an important channel of entertainment to the masses across the country.
That being said, this is still a shoddy film with little narrative backbone. Watching it, one might wonder why it had to be made, especially considering that the characters hint that the eponymous "Greatest Show on Earth" is increasingly faced with financial challenges at the very beginning of the film. Seems to me that Cecil B. DeMille just up and decided one day that he was to craft a filmic love letter to The Circus, perhaps by way of his own nostalgia...perhaps he was once a young boy enthralled by The Circus at one point in his life. This is demonstrated through his wildly operatic narrations in the film, which serve as some of the most hilarious executions of written word I've heard in a movie in some time. And yet, I'm baffled by how one can allegedly love something so much while also finding so little substance underneath its (many) surface(s).
Leveraging a peculiar documentary-née-drama format, the structure of scenes and tonality are totally disjointed. To start, you might find footage of men setting up a circus tent against the sounds of DeMille rambling on about how setting up a circus tent is one of the more heroic things man can do, followed by a 10-or-so minute sequence of what is essentially filmed footage of an actual circus, then followed by some actual fiction where we see the likes of Betty Hutton, Charlton Heston, Cornel Wilde and James Stewart act out some wildly ridiculous material.
It's been some time since an actor has ground my gears the way Betty Hutton does in this film - yikes. Every single word and affectation from her is just horrible. James Stewart as a fugitive doctor moonlighting as a clown who never takes off his makeup is a description that just about sums up the audacity of how melodramatic this film can veer. Don't get me wrong - it's enjoyable enough to watch - from Cornel Wilde's hand to the big train crash to Charlton Heston's blood transfusion to Gloria Grahame almost getting her face smashed in by an elephant, the drama that lives in The Greatest Show on Earth is cheap, soapy fun.
The spectacle of The Greatest Show on Earth is pretty enjoyable to watch as well. The film's own detriment lies in the fact that it tries to be too much, and cohesion is put to the wayside. Is this a quality film? No. Is this a worthy Best Picture winner? No. Is it much too long and nonsensical? Yes. Is it a guilty pleasure? I'd say so!
I thought this movie was rather terrible and an awful best Picture winner. I liked Stewart and Grahame, but that’s about it. Betty Hutton was abysmal.
ReplyDeleteOh god, Betty was TERRIBLE! Give her a posthumous Razzie!
Delete1952 was a weak year in films considered by the Academy. The real best picture, 'The Quiet Man', had to settle for Best Director and 'Singin' in the Rain' and 'The Bad and the Beautiful' weren't even nominated. 'Greatest Show' has become an easy target for Oscar naysayers but at the time it was a huge success. I think it's corny, overwrought, badly acted (this was actually Betty Hutton's best performance - Yikes!) and also incredibly entertaining at all times (sometimes for the wrong reasons). It was also a valedictorian lap for cinema-originator Cecil B. De Mille, so that played a part in its victory. A stronger list of nominees would have nixed this film's chances but let's consider: Around the World in 80 Days, Tom Jones, The Sting, Chariots of Fire, Gandhi, The Last Emperor, Driving Miss Daisy, Braveheart, The English Patient, Crash .... the Academy's record in choosing the big one is littered with false starts and retrospective junk. At least 'Greatest Show' is entertaining.
ReplyDeleteInteresting regarding this being Betty's best performance - I've literally no interest in checking out any other movie of hers.
DeleteIt's definitely entertaining for reasons good and bad. As a holistic piece, the film is just not good, but components of it work and/or are solid.