The Greatest Show on Earth

One season with a circus: rivalry in the ring, danger on the wire, hidden pasts backstage, and finally a train wreck. Cecil B. DeMille builds it almost as documentary, folding in the real Ringling Bros performances, the real raising of the tent and the real crew. Charlton Heston plays the manager, Betty Hutton and Cornel Wilde the two trapeze artists competing with each other, and James Stewart a clown who never once removes his makeup. It won the best picture Oscar, a choice now regarded as among the Academy's most disputed. The length and the melodrama sit heavily today, and the show sequences still work. Who it is for: viewers curious about big fifties studio spectacle and circus culture. Who it is not for: anyone wanting restraint, since everything here is done large.