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| Paramount Pictures | Release Date: May 1, 1952 |
Starring:
Betty Hutton, Charlton Heston
Summary:
The dramatic lives of trapeze artists, a clown, and an elephant trainer are told against a background of circus spectacle.
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Sprawling across a mammoth canvas, crammed with the real-life acts and thrills, as well as the vast backstage minutiae, that make the circus the glamorous thing it is and glittering in marvelous Technicolor--truly marvelous color, we repeat--this huge motion picture of the big-top is the dandiest ever put upon the screen.
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It has comedy, drama, thrills, melodrama, tragedy and great heart. [11 Jan 1952, p.54]
As has come to be expected from DeMille, the story line is not what could be termed subtle. While it may draw some critical catcalls, it does effectively serve the purpose of a framework for all the atmosphere and excitement of the circus on both sides of the big canvas. In any case, what bleacher fan wants to get mixed up with a plot he’s going to have to wrestle with?
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There's not much juice to the movie's central romantic triangle between money-minded boss Charlton Heston and his two star attractions, dueling trapeze artists Betty Hutton and Cornel Wilde. Still, Jimmy Stewart does some appealingly subtle work as a clown on the run from the law, and DeMille's narration has a charming, corny, true-life-adventure quality, as he hypes the circus as a life-and-death proposition.
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A huge, mawkish, trite circus movie directed by Cecil B. De Mille in a neo-Biblical style.
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