The Greatest Show On Earth

Cecil B. DeMille, movie master of the super-colossal, has taken on a subject which is already super-colossal, and the result just goes to prove you can only do so much with sawdust and stable smells.

The Greatest Show on Earth is an uncomfortable assemblage of Ringling Brothers, the March of Time, and John's Other Wife. The circus parts are as good as the real McCoy from a six buck seat, the documentary part aims to prove the circus is a basic industry, and the rest is a powerful emetic.

There are, of course, the usual DeMille touches--crowd scenes, production numbers, spectacular photography, and a sensational five-minute train crash that makes the wreck of Old 97 look like a kiddie-car collision. These parts and the circus acts are diverting and enjoyable providing of course you check your brain with the midget on duty in the lobby.

But the plot is simply incredible--something about a girl aerialist who, when spurned by her sawdust impressario for a sick hippo, falls head over heels in love with a daring young man who falls head over heels off his 60 foot trapeze and does a triple somersault into the hospital.

And that's not all. The elephant trainer, jealous of his female assistant, wrecks the circus train, severely injuring the circus owner, bringing the girl aerialist back to earth, and causing James Stewart, up to now a kindly clown, to be picked up for the murder of his wife. Meanwhile in a small, furnished room on the other side of town...