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1952 film by Cecil B. DeMille

The Greatest Show on Earth is a 1952 American drama film produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille, shot in Technicolor and released by Paramount Pictures. Set in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, the film stars Betty Hutton and Cornel Wilde as trapeze artists competing for the center ring and Charlton Heston as the circus manager. James Stewart also stars as a mysterious clown who never removes his makeup, and Dorothy Lamour and Gloria Grahame also play supporting roles. In addition to the actors, the real Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's Circus' 1951 troupe appears in the film with its complement of 1,400 people, hundreds of animals and 60 railroad cars of equipment and tents. The actors learned their circus roles and participated in the acts. The film's storyline is supported by lavish production values, actual circus acts and documentary style views into the complex logistics behind big top circuses. The film won two Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Story, and was nominated for Best Costume Design, Best Director and Best Film Editing. It also won Golden Globe Awards for Best Cinematography, Best Director and Best Motion Picture – Drama.

Brad Braden is the no nonsense general manager of the world's largest railroad circus. The show's board of directors plans to run a short 10 week season rather than risk losing money in a shaky postwar economy. Brad bargains to keep the circus on the road as long as it makes a profit, thus keeping the 1,400 performers and roustabouts employed. Brad reluctantly tells Holly, his aerialist girlfriend, that she will no longer be the star. He has been forced to hire world famous aerialist (and notorious ladies man) "The Great Sebastian" as the star and main attraction of that year's show. Holly is heartbroken and claims that Brad has no feelings. Trouble is also brewing for beloved Buttons the Clown, who never appears without his makeup and seems to possess medical knowledge. Holly finds a newspaper article about a mercy killer, but does not immediately connect the doctor who killed his wife to Buttons. Sebastian arrives and is coldly greeted by two former lovers: Angel, who performs in the elephant act with the pathologically jealous Klaus, and Phyllis, who has a dual role as an iron jaw artist and a singer in one of the musical numbers. Sebastian is attracted to Holly, and offers her the center ring. When Brad refuses, Holly vows to make her ring the focus of attention. Buttons' mother attends a performance, warning him the police are on his trail. Meanwhile, the competition between the two aerialists becomes increasingly dangerous; the duel ends when Sebastian removes his safety net, then suffers a serious fall when a stunt goes wrong. Buttons tends to him before the ambulance comes, impressing the circus' doctor. Holly finally has the center ring and star billing, but is not happy at how she got it. Brad cannot comfort her, as she now has feelings for Sebastian. Brad, who runs a clean show, catches crooked midway concessionaire Harry cheating the customers. Harry is fired, vows revenge, and hangs about the periphery of the show sowing disaffection, particularly with Klaus. Several months later, Sebastian rejoins the show, but his right arm is paralyzed. A guilt ridden Holly professes her love for Sebastian, believing Brad is unfeeling. Angel berates Holly for her actions and starts a relationship with Brad herself. During one of the performances, a furious Klaus threatens to have an elephant step on Angel rather than let her go to another man. Brad intervenes to save her and fires Klaus. After one performance, FBI Special Agent Gregory, who is hunting for the mercy killer, joins the circus train. He shows Brad a photo of Buttons without makeup, but Brad does not recognize him. Later, Buttons tells Brad that Sebastian has feeling in his injured hand, a sign that his disability is not permanent. Brad makes the connection and casually observes that Gregory will be taking fingerprints at the next stop, so Buttons can escape or lie low if he wishes. Harry and Klaus stop the first section of the train to rob the pay wagon. Klaus sees the second section coming, and realizes that Angel is aboard that train. He turns his car's headlights down the track to warn the oncoming train. Unable to brake in time, the second train smashes the car off the tracks, killing Klaus and Harry. It also collides with the first train, causing great damage and many injuries. Brad is pinned in the wreckage, bleeding from a cut artery. Buttons tries to slip away from the wreck site, but Holly, realizing whom she truly loves, begs Buttons for help. Buttons gives Brad a direct transfusion from Sebastian, who has the same rare blood type. Gregory assists Buttons and afterwards reluctantly arrests him, telling him "You're all right." Buttons gives his dog to a child and leaves with Gregory to face an unknown fate. Holly takes command of the show, mounting a parade that leads the whole nearby town to an open air performance. Brad realizes how much he loves Holly, but she now has no time for him because the show must go on. Sebastian proposes marriage to Angel, and she accepts. Holly leads the performers in an improvised "spec" around the three rings – a magnificent recovery from the disaster that ensures the circus will continue its national tour.

The film premiered at the Florida Theater (now the Sarasota Opera House) in Sarasota, Florida. The film earned $12.8 million at the box office in the United States and Canada, making it the highest grossing film of 1952, as well as Paramount's most successful film to that time. It was also the most popular film in Britain in 1952 and the most popular film of the year in France in 1953. The film played for 11 weeks at New York's Radio City Music Hall, a record duration that it shared with Random Harvest in 1942 and that would last until at least the 1960s.

At the 25th Academy Awards, the movie won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Story and received nominations for Best Director, Best Film Editing and Best Costume Design, Color. It was the last Best Picture winner to win fewer than three Academy Awards until Spotlight (2015). Some reviewers consider The Greatest Show on Earth among the weakest selections for the Academy Award for Best Picture, as it defeated highly rated films such as High Noon, The Quiet Man, Ivanhoe and the unnominated Singin' in the Rain. In 2005, Empire listed it as the third worst Best Picture winner. MSNBC's Erik Lundegaard called Crash the "worst Best Picture winner since the 'dull, bloated' film The Greatest Show on Earth." In 2013, the selection of The Greatest Show on Earth rather than High Noon was listed by Time among the 10 most controversial Best Picture races. Premiere placed the film on its list of the 10 worst Oscar winners. It holds the second lowest spot on Rotten Tomatoes' 2011 list of the 90 films to win Best Picture (ahead of only 1929's The Broadway Melody). Stanley Kramer alleged that the film's Best Picture Oscar was the result of the political climate in Hollywood in 1952. Senator Joseph McCarthy was pursuing communists at the time, and DeMille was a conservative Republican involved with the National Committee for a Free Europe. Another Best Picture nominee, High Noon, was produced by Carl Foreman, who would soon appear on the Hollywood blacklist, and one of the scriptwriters of Ivanhoe, Marguerite Roberts, was also blacklisted. However, it is also possible that The Greatest Show On Earth won Best Picture because it was seen as a last chance for DeMille to win a competitive Oscar. A Hollywood legend, DeMille's best work had been done during the silent film era, before the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was established. It is possible that the members of the Academy who were veterans of the silent era felt that he, as an elder statesman of Hollywood and one of the founders of the Academy, deserved the honor even if the other nominees for Best Picture were in some ways better than The Greatest Show On Earth.

A television series with the same title was inspired by the film, with Jack Palance in the role of Charlton Heston's character. The program ran on Tuesday evenings for 30 episodes on ABC during the 1963–1964 season. The self titled theme song later served as the theme for WGN TV's long running Bozo's Circus. The Greatest Show on Earth was the first film that director Steven Spielberg saw, and he credits it as one of the major inspirations that led him into a film career. He identifies the film's train crash scene as a major influence, reflected in the science fiction film Super 8 (2011), which he produced. In an early scene in Spielberg's 2005 remake of War of the Worlds, the train wreck sequence from The Greatest Show on Earth is briefly shown on a television. The opening scene of Spielberg's 2022 semi autobiographical film The Fabelmans dramatizes his seeing the film on the big screen, in which Sammy Fabelman (the fictional version of young Spielberg) watches it with his parents in a cinema and is mesmerized by the train wreck sequence.