YMMV / The Greatest Show on Earth

• Ensemble Dark Horse: The German sisters with the head balancing act who keep swooning over Sebastian have little plot prominence or dialogue but are pretty popular performers.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: There's a man named Harry who works for a mob boss named Mr. Henderson.
• Hype Backlash: The film was a box office smash and considered very entertaining, but its reputation took a nose dive after it controversially won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Many people quite understandably felt the year's other contenders — including High Noon, The Quiet Man, Ivanhoe, and Singin' in the Rain (which wasn't even nominated!) — were better films and didn't deserve the Award Snub. Many have speculated that it won because High Noon and Ivanhoe had blacklisted screenwriters involved, and the Academy wanted to honor Cecil B. DeMille for his body of work. Since then it has often appeared on lists such as "worst best picture."
• Overshadowed by Controversy: Nowadays, the movie's less known for its plot and more known for somehow managing to beat out Singin' in the Rain (among other films) for a Best Picture award.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Phyllis is a decently colorful character played by a big name star, but she is Out of Focus a fair bit and never seems to get any resolution to her small subplot. Her iron jaw act is never even featured.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Say what you will about this movie, but the train crash scene is still pretty impressive for its time. It may have been all models and green screens, but having two trains smash into one another in a gruesome and twisted wreck in a way that impressed Steven Spielberg enough to pursue a career in movies says it all.

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