The Greatest Show on Earth

An actor and general manager with his mother’s theatrical troupe since the mid-1900s, Cecil B. DeMille formed a filmmaking partnership in 1913 with vaudeville artist Jesse L. Lasky and businessman Samuel Goldfish (soon to be known as Samuel Goldwyn). Their first venture was The Squaw Man (1914), which DeMille co-directed, co-wrote and co-produced with Oscar Apfel. This successful and elaborate six-reeler launched DeMille on a lifelong career in films. His first solo effort was the Western The Virginian (1914), which he also co-scripted. He edited and wrote (or co-wrote) almost all his successful films, with the notable exception of the popular melodrama The Cheat (1915). Writer Jeanie Macpherson began working for DeMille in 1914 with The Captive (1915), and wrote most of his later silent films: hits that included witty romantic farces (Don’t Change Your Husband); epic morality tales that combined modern dramas with visions of history (Joan the Woman ¹⁹¹⁶) or the Bible (The Ten Commandments ¹⁹²³); and perhaps DeMille’s greatest artistic success, the handsome and moving life of Christ, The King of Kings (1927). Macpherson also wrote the director’s first three talkies, ending their collaboration in 1930 with the bizarre comedy Madam Satan (1930). DeMille continued to score hits in the ‘30s with epics (Sign of the Cross ¹⁹³², Cleopatra ¹⁹³⁴) and Westerns (The Plainsman ¹⁹³⁷, Union Pacific ¹⁹³⁹). His output became more sporadic during the ’40s, but he still pleased the public with his rugged action films Northwest Mounted Police (1940) and Reap the Wild Wind (1942). DeMille’s last three films — Samson and Delilah (1950), The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), and The Ten Commandments (1956), a remake of his 1923 movie of the same name — were the most successful releases of their respective years. DeMille’s final directorial effort, The Ten Commandments was also the decade’s box-office champ. He died in 1959 at the age of 77; his memoir, The Autobiography of Cecil B. DeMille, was published posthumously later that year. —allmovie guide