Cast
- Betty Hutton as Holly
- Cornel Wilde as The Great Sebastian
- Charlton Heston as Brad Braden
- James Stewart as Buttons the Clown
- Dorothy Lamour as Phyllis
- Gloria Grahame as Angel
- Henry Wilcoxon as FBI Agent Gregory
- Lyle Bettger as Klaus
- Lawrence Tierney as Mr. Henderson
- Brad Johnson as unnamed reporter
The film features about 85 Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus acts, including clowns Emmett Kelly and Lou Jacobs, midget Cucciola, bandmaster Merle Evans and aerialist Antoinette Concello. John Ringling North plays himself as the owner of the circus.
There are a number of unbilled cameo appearances (mostly in the circus audiences) including Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour's co-stars in the Road to... movies. William Boyd appears in his usual guise of Hopalong Cassidy. Danny Thomas, Van Heflin, character actor Oliver Blake, and Noel Neill are seen as circus patrons, among others. Leon Ames is seen and heard in the train wreck sequence. However, the plot and cameos play second fiddle to the documentary-like look at The Greatest Show On Earth in its last years under canvas.
A barker, kept anonymous until the very end, is heard in the closing moments of the film. The voice is finally revealed to be that of Edmond O'Brien.
Read more about this topic: The Greatest Show On Earth
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