Rating: 
Summary: NOT THE GREATEST BUT CERTAINLY THE MOST LAVISH!
Review: "The Greatest Show On Earth" is Cecil B. DeMille's epic melodrama of tragedy set under the auspices of the big top. It's a mind-bogglingly overstuffed bon-bon of oddities (James Stewart masquerading as a clown, Betty Hutton lampooning a trapeze artist) and overblown over-acting (Chuck Heston attempting to part a herd of elephants as though they were the Red Sea). Beefcake, Cornel Wilde and sultry, Dorothy LaMour are also in the cast - you know, as eye candy. Nevertheless, this is one heck of a good piece of 50s kitsch, a real barn burner that will make you want to book yourself a seat at the nearest circus and, oh yes - almost forgot - an Academy Award winning Best Picture.
TRANSFER: The picture is full frame, as it should be. Colors are rich, bright and bold. Age related artifacts crop up now and then but nothing that will terrible distract. Shadow and contrast levels are bang on. There is a slight hint of edge enhancement and some pixelization but these do not distract. The audio is a big fat mono but nicely balanced.
EXTRAS: Not a one. For an Oscar-winning Best Picture?!?! PLEASE, PARAMOUNT!!!
BOTTOM LINE: This one's a vintage necessity for your film library!
Rating: 
Summary: DEMILLE AT HIS BARNUM BEST!
Review: "The Greatest Show on Earth" is probably Cecil B. DeMille's best sound film (sans the 1956 perennial "The Ten Commandments") since it is a film about showmanship. DeMille was cinema's greatest showman, whether his movie plots were historical, religious, dramatic, or just plain American 1950's hokum, such as this one. "The Greatest Show on Earth" succeeds at glorifying the lost art of the world's traveling circus when the circus was performed in tents, vs. the great arenas of today. DeMille's narration adds an air of authenticity to the proceedings, but the audience knows full well that this movie is a big show itself, which is low on the acting quality but big on the spectacle. Some of the matte shots and special effects show their age, especially the model train wreck which climaxes the film. Most fun of all is seeing Bob Hope and Bing Crosby in the circus audience watching their Paramount co-star Dorothy Lamour perform.
Rating:
Summary: DEMILLE AT HIS BARNUM BEST!
Review: "The Greatest Show on Earth" is probably Cecil B. DeMille's best sound film (sans the 1956 perennial "The Ten Commandments") since it is a film about showmanship. DeMille was cinema's greatest showman, whether his movie plots were historical, religious, dramatic, or just plain American 1950's hokum, such as this one. "The Greatest Show on Earth" succeeds at glorifying the lost art of the world's traveling circus when the circus was performed in tents, vs. the great arenas of today. DeMille's narration adds an air of authenticity to the proceedings, but the audience knows full well that this movie is a big show itself, which is low on the acting quality but big on the spectacle. Some of the matte shots and special effects show their age, especially the model train wreck which climaxes the film. Most fun of all is seeing Bob Hope and Bing Crosby in the circus audience watching their Paramount co-star Dorothy Lamour perform.
Rating:
Summary: Good But Not Oscar material
Review: ... this film would not be my choice for best picture of theyear, I find it to be good entertainment... Betty Hutton, in her role,was irksome. END
Rating: 
Summary: Circus at his best
Review: Although I've seen this movie only once before (when it was out in theaters in Europe, and I was only about 9 years old), it was one of those I've been waiting for to be released since the beginning of the DVD era. And I was not disappointed in the least: great circus numbers, good performance by the whole cast, and, at the end, the best illustration that could be made of Barnum's motto "The Show must go on". What does not spoil anything, the DVD transfer is flawless; and, with the quality of these 2 and 1/2 hours of pure show at a price difficult to be beaten, there is no reason whatsoever to regret the lack of bonuses.
I've seen many comments complaining about the awarding of 'Best Picture' award (I'm not complaining at all), my only complaint is about the McCarthy insanity (I always thought that he took Hitler's anti-german activities measures as a model for his anti-american activities' crusade) which prevented 'Limelight' from being a nominee in the same year 1952. But what is unbelievable is why all the crap from TV (sorry for redundancy) is deemed more urgent to be released prior valuable movies like this one: I'm not sure that the 175 titles I'm still waiting for (and I know I'm not the only one) will be released before the DVD's 10 years anniversary (only about 30 of them seem to be in preparation at this time).
Rating:
Summary: POPCORN! PEANUTS! CIRCUS SOUVENIERS!!
Review: Arguably the best/worst film made! Charleton Heston stars as Brad, who runs the circus by barking orders and being angry throughout the entire movie. Holly (Betty Hutton) is torn between loving Brad and feeling obligated to The Great Sebastian, the star trapeze artist who falls while trying to impress her. My favorite scene is when Brad is kind enough to let Sebastian stay with the circus even though his injuries will no longer enable him to perform his trapeze act. The scene then cuts to "The Great Sebastian" selling popcorn and balloons with with his crippled "claw" hand.Let's not forget the scene where the jealous elephant trainer punishes his ex-girlfriend for making a pass at Brad (picture a close-up of a giant fake, stuffed elephant foot bearing down on the beautiful Gloria Graham). And to add to the cheesiness, Jimmy Stewart stars as "Buttons" the clown is really a doctor who hiding from the law for killing his wife Will Brad dedicate his life to the circus he loves or Holly, the woman who loves him? Will Sebastian's claw hand ever heal so that he can stop selling popcorn? Can the show go on after a horrific train crash threatens to end the circus? Will Buttons ever take off that makeup? You'll have to watch to find out. Some questions will never be answered: Why on earth did Cecil B. DeMille allow Betty Hutton to sing in the show? Couldn't he have had her lip sync to someone who can actually carry a tune? Why was there endless time wasted on the circus acts? What's with the scenes of the crowd eating popcorn and licking ice cream cones? The world will never know. I will ALWAYS love this movie!
Rating:
Summary: The Greatest Show On Earth - But Not The Best Picture
Review: As a circus buff, I can't imagine anybody BUT C.B. De Mille having the scope of vision to do justice to a show deliberately created to be so big that one person simply can't take it all in, and the stories and subplots that abound under the biggest of the Big Tops. That said, I do have to wonder what on earth the Academy was thinking when they voted TGSOE the Oscar as Best Picture of 1952. That year saw the release of High Noon, Ivanhoe, The Quiet Man and Singin' In The Rain, any one of which could lay better claim to the title of Best Picture in terms of writing, plot and cinematography. Why did TGSOE win the Oscar? I believe it is because the film was seen as a "last chance" vote for De Mille; particularly ironic given that C.B. received the Thalberg that year as well, and for the same reason: for creating and producing consistently high-quality movies. De Mille's best work was decades behind him when he filmed the 1951 edition of the Ringling Brothers - Barnum & Bailey Circus. The subplots, purple prose and some of the situations have more in common with the silent cinema spectacles for which De Mille is justly famed than they do with the realities of running a three-ring railroad circus plus midway under canvas on the road for an 8-month season. One subplot almost derailed the production, in fact. From its beginnings, Ringling Brothers was renowned for running a totally honest show. Considering that at one point Ringling had been nicknamed 'the Sunday-School Show' for its total intolerance of grifters, pickpockets and thieves, the subplot involving a dishonest rival circus owner planting a team of con men on the show to run the midway's games of chance was about as welcome to the circus's management as a skunk at a picnic. There were rows between De Mille, Art Concello (Ringling's Director of Performance) and John Ringling North, the show's owner, over this plot until C.B. convinced them he needed the plot line to set up the climactic train wreck at the end of the movie. (Ringling's management didn't like THAT much either, because RB&BB hadn't had a train wreck since 1892!) However, the show extended itself even beyond their usual standard to accommodate the filming (Concello, a famous aerialist in his time, even gaffed The Great Sebastian's fall for De Mille) and despite the tensions engendered by the needs of two different forms of entertainment (there is a legend that C.B. got a royal chewing-out from Concello for moving the lighting around without asking so he could film better, which movement nearly caused a trapeze artist to fall because he couldn't see his catcher), the principal photgraphy was a marvelous chronicle of circus life, in and out of the ring. The photography, in fact, is what makes The Greatest Show On Earth such an important picture. De Mille succeeded in capturing on film a way of life that even then was starting to die; John Ringling North would strike the Big Top for good midway through the 1956 season and convert his circus into an 'arena show.' Forget the corny subplots involving Brad Braden, Holly, Buttons the Clown and The Great Sebastian. Watch this movie in a documentary frame of mind and you will realize not just how important the circus used to be back before television brought the world into your living room, but the sense of wonder that has been lost from our faster-paced, wider-ranging lives. Glory in the music as well, much of it written for the movie or the 1951 Edition; Victor Young's "The Greatest Show On Earth March" instantly sets the circus scene just as well as Fucik's "Entry of the Gladiators" ever has. Remember that all the acts are doing their thing in real time, not with the help of a green screen and CGI; those are real people really risking their necks out there! (Oh yes: and that really IS Betty Hutton working on the single bar above Ring One. She was doubled for the sequences on the flying trapeze, but she learned and performed her own routines on the single bar. There is even an extant film clip of her being presented with an award from Photoplay Magazine by C.B. De Mille, who had to ride up on a camera crane to give it to her while she was rehearsing under the Big Top!) We owe the great Cecil B. De Mille many thanks for the documenting of The Greatest Show On Earth at its peak. I personally believe this movie should rank high on the AFI 100 Greatest Movies List. However, as I've said, the best picture of 1952 it isn't, not by a long shot. Even so, buy the DVD anyway and go to the circus again... and again... and again! "Bring the young'uns! Bring the old folks! Come again!"
Rating:
Summary: The Greatest Movie on Earth!
Review: As a kid, I saw this movie about 20 times and thought it the Greatest Movie on Earth. As a adult with 40 years of experience I saw it on video again and realised that as a kid I had been quite right. There are many films I love, but this will always be Number One!
Rating: 
Summary: Even Charlton Heston can't save this movie from mediocrity!
Review: Being a huge fan of Mr. Heston's , I felt obliged to watch this movie, i.e., The Greatest Show on Earth VHS ~ Betty Hutton. Unfortunately, this is a perfect example of a movie being ruined by a horribleplot, to few lines and a movie that is more focused on the sideshow, i.e., the circus then telling a good story. Apart from Charlton Heston, the rest of the actors do not seem genuine and the leading leading is quite unsympathetic (stubborn, spoiled etc.; emotions that are very unlady like). I would have to say that I was a bit disapointed and like I stated in my title; Even Charlton Heston can't save this movie from mediocrity!
Rating:
Summary: stunning, lavish spectacle
Review: Cecil B. DeMille's stunning, lavish spectacle THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH has something for everyone; songs, dances, comedy and high-drama. The story concerns the fates and fortunes of a circus troupe. The hard-nosed manager, Brad (Charlton Heston), the lead female high-flyer Holly (Betty Hutton), the star flyer Sebastian (Cornel Wilde), the elephant stunt-girl Angel (Gloria Grahame), singer Phyllis (Dorothy Lamour), and clown Buttons (James Stewart). A lavish, fast-paced drama, THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH is as towering as the Big-Top, as delicious as cotton candy and as uplifting as the trapeze!
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