Ok. I was on a trip to Florida and we went to the Ringling Museum (Incredible works by Rubens). On the property there is housed a circus museum. (Last aside: the docents wear the same uniforms as the art museum. Nobody in clown shoes and tiny cars.) One of the main sections of the circus museum is dedicated to how the Ringling Brothers Circus helped make this movie.
So that was the hook. and I fell for it like a mark at the target booth. Chuck Heston is extra stiff as the circus manager "with sawdust in his veins." Betty Hutton overacts as the trampy trapeze artist who tries to make Heston jealous of her affair with Cornel Wilde.
And would anybody anywhere feel threatened by Jimmy Stewart, even if he took off the clown makeup?