Best movies like The Greatest Show on Earth
The Heartbeat Story of Circus People, Filmed with the Cooperation of Ringling Bros. - Barnum and Bailey Circus!
A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like The Greatest Show on Earth Starring Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde, Charlton Heston, Dorothy Lamour, and more. If you liked The Greatest Show on Earth then you may also like: Under the Big Top, Water for Elephants, O'Shaughnessy's Boy, Road to Rio, Road to Zanzibar and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.
To ensure a full profitable season, circus manager Brad Braden engages The Great Sebastian, though this moves his girlfriend Holly from her hard-won center trapeze spot. Holly and Sebastian begin a dangerous one-upmanship duel in the ring, while he pursues her on the ground.
The Greatest Show on Earth
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Water for Elephants
In this captivating Depression-era melodrama, impetuous veterinary student Jacob Jankowski joins a celebrated circus as an animal caretaker but faces a wrenching dilemma when he's transfixed by angelic married performer Marlena.
O'Shaughnessy's Boy
A circus wild animal trainer searches for the son who was taken away from him by a meddling relative years earlier.
Road to Rio
Scat Sweeney, and Hot Lips Barton, two out of work musicians, stow away on board a Rio bound ship, after accidentally setting fire to the big top of a circus. They then get mixed up with a potential suicide Lucia, who first thanks them, then unexpectedly turns them over to the ship's captain. When they find out that she has been hypnotized, to go through a marriage of convenience, when the ship reaches Rio, the boys turn up at the ceremony, in order to stop the wedding, and to help catch the crooks.
Road to Zanzibar
Stranded in Africa, Chuck and his pal Fearless have comic versions of jungle adventures, featuring two attractive con-women.
At the Circus
Jeff Wilson, the owner of a small circus, owes his partner Carter $10,000. Before Jeff can pay, Carter lets his accomplices steal the money, so he can take over the circus. Antonio Pirelli and Punchy, who work at the circus, together with lawyer Loophole try to find the thief and get the money back.
Big Top Bunny
Bugs Bunny is hired to perform in Colonel Korny's Circus alongside Bruno the Magnificent, the Slobokian Acrobatic Bear, but Bruno doesn't want to share the limelight.
Big Top Pee-wee
Paul Reubens stars as Pee-wee Herman in his second full-length film about a farmer who joins the circus after a storm drops a big tent in his front yard. Pee-wee, along with an outlandish cast of animals and circus performers, puts on the best show ever.
Big Top Scooby-Doo!
When Scooby and the gang hear of a werewolf plaguing a traveling circus, they go undercover as circus performers to get to the bottom.
The Circus
Charlie, a wandering tramp, becomes a circus handyman - soon the star of the show - and falls in love with the circus owner's stepdaughter.
Captive Wild Woman
An insane scientist doing experimentation in glandular research becomes obsessed with transforming a female gorilla into a human...even though it costs human life.
Laugh, Clown, Laugh
A despairing clown suffering a broken heart and a self-indulgent count who uncontrollably laughs learn to help each other with their problems, but both fall in love with the same young woman.
Fun in Acapulco
Mike works on a boat in Acapulco. When the bratty daughter of the boat owner gets him fired, Mike must find new work. Little boy Rauol helps him get a job as a lifeguard and singer at a local hotel. Clashes abound when Mike runs into the rival lifeguard, who is the champion diver of Mexico.
The Greatest Showman
The story of American showman P.T. Barnum, founder of the circus that became the famous traveling Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.
Las Vegas Lady
In Las Vegas, Lucky and two of her girlfriends, Carol and Lisa, plan to steal half a million dollars from the sadistic manager of the Circus Circus Casino. A shadowy man is their contact and organizer. Each of the women could be a weak link in a scheme that has to be flawless: Lucky's boyfriend is a security officer at the casino, Lisa is a trapeze artist who's now plagued with vertigo, and Carol is in debt to a nasty thug - plus, as a Black woman, she's subject to additional harassment. Can the gals pull off the heist, or is the plan, with it's mysterious organizer, too complicated to succeed?
Merry Andrew
When eccentric English teacher Andrew Larabee needs a raise in order for his fiancée to marry him, his interest in archaeology leads him to an ancient statue's burial site. But when he finds a traveling circus directly above the statue's location, he accidentally becomes part of the act. With a newfound passion for performance and an attraction to the beautiful acrobat Selena, Andrew must decide what is truly important to him.
Polly of the Circus
When Polly Fisher, a circus aerialist, is hurt while performing, she is taken to the house of a nearby minister, John Hartley. As she recuperates, they fall in love with each other and secretly marry. But when the truth leaks out , John's congregation rebels at having a circus woman as their minister's wife, and he is fired. Polly decides to leave John in hopes of giving back to him the calling that means so much to him. But fate steps in and rearranges all plans.
Thirteen Women
Thirteen women who were schoolmates ask a swami to cast their horoscopes. The news they receive is not good for any of them.
Thousands Cheer
Acrobat Eddie Marsh is in the army now. His first act is to become friendly with Kathryn Jones, the colonel's pretty daughter. Their romance hits a few snags, including disapproval from her father. Eddie's also plagued by fear of having an accident during his family's trapeze act in the army variety show, which also features a gallery of MGM stars.
The Big Cage
A circus on the verge of bankruptcy decides to save itself by staging a animal act with lions and tigers for the first time.
Sophie & Sheba
Growing up at a zoo, young ballet dancer Sophie always loved animals - but none as much as her pet elephant Sheba. When her parents are forced to sell Sheba to a travelling circus, Sophie has no choice but to runaway and join him on the road to get him back.
Rain or Shine
Young Mary Rainey takes the reins of her deceased father's failing circus. With the help of the Inimitable Smiley Johnson, she hopes to bring fortune back to her ragtag band of ragged shoeleather performers.
Charlie Chan at the Circus
While visiting the circus with his family, Charlie is recruited by the big top's co-owner to investigate threatening letters that he's received.
The Circus Clown
A man who wants to join the circus against the wishes of his ex-circus clown father.
Swing High
To avoid hostilities, Maryan, the ward of Doc May, a medicine show owner, induces Pop Garner, a circus owner, to join forces with her guardian. Doc May and Daphne, his wife, work as clowns; and Garry, a singing soldier of fortune, sings along with Maryan's act. Ruth, Maryan's partner, quits to get married; and Joe, who is jealous of Garry, replaces her with Trixie, his former assistant. When Garry announces his engagement to Maryan, Trixie persuades him to join a strip poker game in a drunken state and "compromises" him in the presence of his fiancée. Grief-stricken, Maryan falls during her act, and Garry, robbed of circus funds, is arrested. In spite of her injuries, Maryan, learning of Trixie's treachery, performs the act with her and forces a confession by threatening to drop her; Garry is released and is welcomed back to the show.
The Big Circus
A circus owner tries to keep his financially troubled circus on the road, despite the efforts of a murderous saboteur who has decided that the show must not go on.
Ring of Fear
Mystery writer Mickey Spillane tries to help Clyde Beatty deal with a plot to sabotage his circus.
The Amazing Dobermans
An ex-con man and his five trained Dobermans help a Treasury Dept. agent stop a racketeer and his gang.
Ava's Magical Adventure
Eddie is a 10-year-old girl who runs away from home with her best friend Ava, a 2-ton circus elephant. They are pursued by everyone from the police to the circus' owner
Little Big Top
An aging out of work clown returns to his small hometown, resigned to spend the rest of his days in a drunken stupor. But when his passion for clowning is reawakened by the local amateur circus he finds his smile.
The Wagons Roll at Night
An escaped circus lion provides the impetus for the meeting of carnival owner Nick Coster and Matt Varney, a small-town man who suddenly becomes a lion tamer when he manages to subdue the big cat. While acclimating to carnival life, Matt begins a romance with Nick's sister, Mary, causing tension between Matt and Nick. The latter must also juggle his stormy relationship with glamorous circus star Flo Lorraine.
4 Devils
The circus provides the backdrop for this melodrama that chronicles the lives of four children raised within the big top. Film historian and collector William K. Everson stated that the only surviving print was lost by actress Mary Duncan who had borrowed it from Fox Studios. In the December 1974 issue of "Films in Review," he explained that Mary Duncan, one of the film's stars, wanted it to show to a group of friends in Florida. The star was aware that it was a dangerous nitrate print and assumed that Fox had others. She threw the only copy in the ocean, a mistake characterized by Everson as "a monumental blunder to rank with Balaclava, Sarajevo, and the Fall of Babylon as one of history's blackest moments."
Bengal Tiger
After causing his friend's death, an animal trainer marries the man's daughter to atone.
Trigger, Jr.
Evil Grant Withers lets a killer horse loose to ruin valuable horses on nearby ranches. He hopes to shake down the ranchers for his "protection". Roy tracks down the bad guys, but is suddenly trapped by them. Peter Miles, a boy terrified of horses, overcomes his fear and rides for help to save the day.
King of the Jungle
A white youth raised in the jungle by animals is captured by a safari and brought back to civilization as an attraction in a circus.
The Circus Queen Murder
Suave, lip-reading DA Thatcher Colt plans to get away from the big city for a while. So he and his secretary, Miss Kelly hop on a train for an Upstate NY town called Gilead. They expect a calm oasis, but when a small time circus rolls into town they soon find themselves caught up in a sordid tale of marital infidelity, murder, cruelty to animals, and cannibalism.
The Boy Who Stole the Elephant
A frontier huckster, Colonel Ryder, and a young orphan, Davey, operate a travelling tent show. They are loaned an elephant by an old friend, Molly, who is also a rival circus owner. Davey trains the elephant and the two soon become inseparable. When the Colonel loses the elephant in gambling, Davey steals the elephant and begins a 20-mile search for Molly, the rightful owner.
The Lost Jungle
Clyde Beatty, an animal trainer and circus star, leads a search for his missing girlfriend and her father who were on an expedition looking for a lost tropical island. Using a dirigible as his mode of transportation, Beatty and his band head off in search of the missing explorers only to crash their airship on the same island their friends are located. Battling wild animals and a gang of greedy men searching for gold, Beatty and his party must rescue his girlfriend and father all the while trying to escape their jungle island. Feature version of the same-title serial of the same year, with refilmed sequences substantially altering the plot and characters of the original chapterplay.
The Return Of Peter Grimm
The ghost of a recently deceased family patriarch tries to help his surviving relatives, in part by preventing a marriage that he knows will go wrong.
Chad Hanna
Country boy joins a circus in the 1840s and falls in love with the bare-back rider. Later he falls in love with another circus runaway.
A Modern Hero
A 1920s circus performer uses every means at his disposal to achieve fame and fortune at the expense of others.
To ensure a full profitable season, circus manager Brad Braden engages The Great Sebastian, though this moves his girlfriend Holly from her hard-won center trapeze spot. Holly and Sebastian begin a dangerous one-upmanship duel in the ring, while he pursues her on the ground.
The Greatest Show on Earth
A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like The Greatest Show on Earth Starring Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde, Charlton Heston, Dorothy Lamour, and more. If you liked The Greatest Show on Earth then you may also like: Under the Big Top, Water for Elephants, O'Shaughnessy's Boy, Road to Rio, Road to Zanzibar and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.
Under the Big Top
Director Karl Brown's 1938 circus drama stars Marjorie Main as a tough, fur-coat-wearing circus boss who raises her orphaned niece to be a trapeze star.