Oscars mystery solved: Just how did ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’ win Best Picture?
The Academy Awards celebrated its 25th anniversary on March 19, 1953 by being telecast for the first time in its history. Bob Hope hosted the celebration for NBC at the RKO Pantages Theater in Hollywood while Conrad Nagel had the MC duties at the NBC International Theatre in New York. And the show captured the largest single TV audience at the time.
The Best Picture nominees were Fred Zinnemann’s thrilling Western “High Noon,” MGM’s lavish epic “Ivanhoe,” John Huston’s dazzling biopic on Toulouse Lautrec “Moulin Rouge,” John Ford’s warm hug of an Irish romantic comedy “The Quiet Man” and Cecil B. DeMille’s penultimate film as a director, “The Greatest Show on Earth.” (Shockingly, Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen’s “Singin’ in the Rain,” considered one of the greatest if not the greatest musical ever made, only managed two lesser nominations.)
The surprise winner was “The Greatest Show on Earth,” which was the box office champ of the year earning $14 million domestically and $36 million worldwide. Critics were not so kind to his cotton-candy colored melodrama set under the big top at Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey’s Circus. Films in Review declared “Mr. DeMille is so accomplished a showman that one is astonished he did not just photograph a circus performance without the synthetic story he injected here. After all, the Ringling Brothers-Barnum and Bailey Circus is a wonder in itself. But he had to add love interest and schmaltz it up.”
And over the years, it has garnered the reputation of being one of the worst if not the worst movie to win an Oscar. It has 42% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Paramount Home Entertainment has just released “The Greatest Show on Earth” on Blu-ray in a stunning newly restored 4K film transfer from the original negative. And this Technicolor popcorn flick just pops off the screen.
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The film gives contemporary audiences a near documentary look at what the three-ring circus under the big top was like when this was filmed in 1951 with the real members of the circus. The atmosphere is crowded, crazy, scary, dynamic and fun. And it’s a thrill to see his young cast: Betty Hutton as the aerialist Holly who will do anything to get the center ring (Lucille Ball wanted the part but was pregnant); handsome Cornel Wilde as the egotistical aerialist the Great Sebastian; Charlton Heston, in just his second movie as Brad, as the lantern-jawed general manager and Holly’s boyfriend; Gloria Grahame as Angel, who is part of the elephant act; and Jimmy Stewart as Buttons the Clown who never is seen without his makeup. There are also some fun cameos from Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Mona Freeman, Edmond O’Brien and Hopalong Cassidy.
DeMille, who earned his only Best Director Oscar nomination for the film after nearly 40 years as a filmmaker, insisted that all the actors learn their crafts for their role, to make the action more realistic. Though the film also won for a scriptwriting Oscar, it’s really hokey. If you love circuses then you’ll adore this movie, but if you have issues with animals doing tricks under the big top or are scared of clowns, it probably won’t be your cup of tea.
Silent screen superstar, producer and early Oscar winner Mary Pickford presented DeMille who produced the film, the Best Picture Oscar. Though he lost the Best Director race to Ford for “The Quiet Man,” DeMille also walked away with the Irving G. Thalberg Award.
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Best Actor went to Gary Cooper for “High Noon”; Shirley Booth received Best Actress for her first film “Come Back, Little Sheba”; Anthony Quinn earned his first supporting actor Oscar (and became the first Latino to win for acting) for “Viva Zapata!” and Grahame was the recipient of supporting actress for “The Bad and the Beautiful.”
“The Bad and the Beautiful,” Vincente Minnelli’s scathing look at Hollywood, came into the Oscars with seven nominations but was snubbed for Best Picture. The film won the most Academy Awards that night with five including Grahame, screenplay, cinematography, art direction-set decoration (black-and-white) and costume design (black-and-white).
Silent film clown Harold Lloyd received an honorary award for “master comedian and good citizen” while host Hope received one for “his contribution to the laughter of the world, his service to the motion picture industry, and his devotion to the American premise.”
There were some bizarre moments at the Academy Awards most notably Celeste Holm performing the best song nominee “Thumbelina” from “Hans Christian Anderson” to a face painted on her thumb. And surprise winner Grahame was quite literally nearly speechless.
To celebrate the 25th anniversary, the Oscars brought back 24 former acting winners clasping their statuettes.
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