Press Release PHE Press Release: Paramount Presents! The Greatest Show On Earth (1952) (Blu-ray) (1 Viewer)

[battlebeast]

Most of those last six belong to Warner Bros. I think HAMLET was a Universal release. WAC might get around to at least a few of these. HAMLET could come from Kino.

Hamlet is a Criterion release. It was on TCM last year with the JANUS logo.

 

[Dick]

Hamlet is a Criterion release. It was on TCM last year with the JANUS logo.

Criterion may have put it out on DVD, but Universal-International originally it in this country in 1948. I'd love to see Criterion upgrade this, along with about nine dozen other DVD-only titles.

 

[DigniT@DigniT!]

Excellent!! Another Best Picture winner on Blu-ray! Now Paramount needs to do it with "Ordinary People". Then that will leave just six Best Picture winners not yet on Blu-ray. "Broadway Melody", "Cimarron", "The Great Ziegfeld", "The Life of Emile Zola", Olivier's "Hamlet", and "Around the World in 80 Days".

HAMLET is available on Blu Rya in the UK from itv Home Entertainment, if you're Region Free and interested. It's not a great transfer but it certainly is a clear presentation of the film, which may or may not have stood the test of time based on your tastes for Shakespeare on film.

 

[Noel Aguirre]

I'll be getting it for that amazing cast (Heston, Stewart, Hutton, Wilde, Grahame, Lamour) and the childhood nostalgia. But honestly, it's a mediocre picture. I much prefer The Big Circus (1959).

Ah the circus genre! I prefer Jumbo myself. I mean Billy Rose’s Jumbo as nothing beats Doris Day on a trapeze with the possible exception of Joan Crawford as the ring mistress in Berserk!
But seriously I think Trapeze is a pretty good circus film too.
I will get this only because I collect all Best Film Oscar winners. Hopefully Around the World in 80 Days is next.

 

[RBailey]

A little off topic here but does anyone remember the TV series of THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH? It had a 30 episode run on ABC back in 1963-1964. Jack Palance starred in the series which was produced by Desilu Productions and even featured Lucille Ball as a guest star in one episode. I remember watching it but can't recall anything about it.
EDIT: I should have checked YouTube. Here's the Lucy episode. Not great quality but a couple of these would have made a great extra.

 

[ahollis]

i remember the show. One of our local stations played reruns in the late 60’s because the station had just went to color broadcasting and the show was in color. There were nearly no shows in syndication at that time that were filmed in color. I can only remember Superman, The Lone Ranger and The Cisco Kid. I’m sure there were others but those titles escape me.

 

[B-ROLL]

i remember the show. One of our local stations played reruns in the late 60’s because the station had just went to color broadcasting and the show was in color. There were nearly no shows in syndication at that time that were filmed in color. I can only remember Superman, The Lone Ranger and The Cisco Kid. I’m sure there were others but those titles escape me.

Bonanza was entirely filmed in color and was syndicated while it was still in first run as Ponderosa.

 

[wranim8]

Just watched on CBS all access

 

[wranim8]

Hoping the new release is better than what I saw. Lots of registration problems. Don't know if this was the source for the 4K scan. Could be a really lovely show if the 3 strips were registered properly but the streaming version is not, so I would wait for reviews before buying blindly.

 

[Robin9]

Ah the circus genre! I prefer Jumbo myself. I mean Billy Rose’s Jumbo as nothing beats Doris Day on a trapeze with the possible exception of Joan Crawford as the ring mistress in Berserk!
But seriously I think Trapeze is a pretty good circus film too.

I agree completely about both Jumbo and Trapeze.

 

[winstoncarolina]

This movie's preservation of the Barnum and Bailey circus in all its Big Top glory is now of greater importance than the movie itself. As a boy of 9, I attended one of those fabulous shows with my dad in Washington, D.C., just after De Mille has finished filming this movie. It's all gone now but every time I've seen it, the movie takes me back. I can almost smell the peanuts and popcorn.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

This movie's preservation of the Barnum and Bailey circus in all its Big Top glory is now of greater importance than the movie itself. As a boy of 9, I attended one of those fabulous shows with my dad in Washington, D.C., just after De Mille has finished filming this movie. It's all gone now but every time I've seen it, the movie takes me back. I can almost smell the peanuts and popcorn.

I hear yuh! I remember going to the circus as a kid.

Are there still tent circuses anymore?

 

[B-ROLL]

I hear yuh! I remember going to the circus as a kid.

Are there still tent circuses anymore?

Ringling Bros Barnum & Baily wasn't really a tent circus least in the last 50 years or so. There are some small single tent 3-Ring circus's around - unless the 'Vid has finally done them in.

I am aware of this one

Circus Vargas 🎪 - The Entertainment Experience For 2024!

Circus Vargas is coming to town and we’re all invited! With world-class performers, Circus Vargas is guaranteed to thrill you.

circusvargas.com

And here is a wiki page for another that has tickets on Ticketmaster for shows that keep being cancelled.

Shrine Circus - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Ringling Bros Barnum & Baily wasn't really a tent circus least in the last 50 years or so. There are some small single tent 3-Ring circus's around - unless the 'Vid has finally done them in.

I am aware of this one

Circus Vargas 🎪 - The Entertainment Experience For 2024!

Circus Vargas is coming to town and we’re all invited! With world-class performers, Circus Vargas is guaranteed to thrill you.

circusvargas.com

And here is a wiki page for another that has tickets on Ticketmaster for shows that keep being cancelled.

Shrine Circus - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Thank You. The last RB&BBC I saw was at Madison Square Garden. But we always had a tent circus in my town when I was a kid.

 

[lark144]

We can wax nostalgic about tent circuses--I especially loved the midways, with the aroma of spun sugar, the dulcet tones of barkers pitching freak shows, and the screams from spook rides--but they could be very dangerous.

When I was six, we went to a tent circus in a field by Lake Onondaga in Syracuse, NY. It was a lovely, cloudless day in June, the skies a shade of translucent blue that since that day, I've only seen in paintings by Francois Boucher. Suddenly, about 20 minutes into the show, a tornado struck from nowhere, and the tent came crashing down. Luckily, my mother and I came late, and we were forced to sit on top of the bleachers, which saved our lives, for we were able to jump down and escape. I could be wrong , but I think more than 50 people were killed. After that, they banned tent shows in upstate New York.

 

[B-ROLL]

We can wax nostalgic about tent circuses--I especially loved the midways, with the aroma of spun sugar, the dulcet tones of barkers pitching freak shows, and the screams from spook rides--but they could be very dangerous.

When I was six, we went to a tent circus in a field by Lake Onondaga in Syracuse, NY. It was a lovely, cloudless day in June, the skies a shade of translucent blue that since that day, I've only seen in paintings by Francois Boucher. Suddenly, about 20 minutes into the show, a tornado struck from nowhere, and the tent came crashing down. Luckily, my mother and I came late, and we were forced to sit on top of the bleachers, which saved our lives, for we were able to jump down and escape. I could be wrong , but I think more than 50 people were killed. After that, they banned tent shows in upstate New York.

I believe tent circuses are required to have "lightning arresters" in most jurisdictions.

 

[lark144]

I believe tent circuses are required to have "lightning arresters" in most jurisdictions.

This wasn't a thunderstorm. It was a tornado which lifted up the circus tent from the ground, and then deposited it on the people sitting inside. It resembled the climax of "The Greatest Show on Earth". It seemed to belong in a movie, except it was reality. There was no warning, nor any prediction of bad weather. It was fairly horrifying. There was so much wind and rain it was difficult to keep one's feet on the ground. I recall trees being uprooted. I spoke to my mother about this recently, and she remembers more details--more shocking details, I should add--then I do. I imagine it's on line somewhere.

 

[David Weicker]

I would think there are a lot of Illinois/Iowa residents who would say that you can’t blame tornado damage on a tent

 

[CMitchellHoffman]

Unless Criterion or some other company gets the rights, I'd expect an "Ordinary People" BD to be just as barebones as the DVD.

If it's part of the Paramount Presents line, they'll get Maltin to chat about it for 7 minutes.

While I'd love it too, I'd be shocked to get the kind of commentary you mention - or any commentary at all...

I’m actually surprised Criterion hasn’t come out with this title.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

I’m actually surprised Criterion hasn’t come out with this title.

Criterion works in mysterious ways!

They may well have approached Paramount about "Ordinary People" and gotten told no.

I honestly have no idea how the whole process works...