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Isabel Quigly

Isabel Quigly's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer® when published at Tomatometer-approved publication(s).
Publications:

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
The Searchers (1956) 87% EDIT “The splendour of the country-side, the whole sweep and scope of conception and above all the grandeur of Ford's leisurely, controlled direction, make the film outstandingly fine.” – The Spectator Mar 22, 2024 Full Review Pather Panchali (1955) 98% EDIT “It invites its audience not so much to watch from outside, as to participate.” – The Spectator Dec 2, 2021 Full Review The Sandpiper (1965) 21% EDIT “The Sandpiper, another vehicle for the irresistible combination of Burton-and-Taylor, has magnificent Big Sur scenery and a script that might have been hilarious and just isn't, but not much else.” – The Spectator Nov 24, 2021 Full Review I Only Arsked (1958) EDIT “The `Army Game' boys, if you like them, headed by Bernard Bresslaw (whose half-witted air I find, on the whole, rather creepy than entertaining), carry on with what looks like a strictly family joke, not for non-military outsiders like me.” – The Spectator Nov 29, 2020 Full Review Paris Belongs to Us (1961) 86% EDIT “Some pretty yawn- provoking detail, as well as its basic, though not necessarily insurmountable, disadvantages of ambiguity, woolliness and apparent triviality.” – The Spectator Sep 27, 2020 Full Review Pasazerka (The Passenger) (1963) EDIT “Given a sort of half-dubbing commentary, very well subtitled and altogether admirably edited into a short masterpiece of compression and explosiveness.” – The Spectator Sep 27, 2020 Full Review The Naked Edge (1961) EDIT “A kind of Hitchcock parody, with even the Hitchcockian publicity stunts about not giving away the ending and tricks of Hitch-style surprise, such as a bead of sweat in close-up-and, quite simply, no talent.” – The Spectator Sep 26, 2020 Full Review The Girl With the Golden Eyes (1961) EDIT “Brought ex- haustingly up to the minute, is at moments the prettiest film you could imagine, if prettiness is what you're after, with a Christmas-tree glitter, far-fetched lighting effects and all sorts of razzle-dazzle and sequins.” – The Spectator Sep 26, 2020 Full Review The Fire Within (1963) 82% EDIT “It's hard not to feel impatient with the self-absorbed hero, but his ravaged face ends by arousing pity and even a pinch of awe.” – The Spectator Jul 17, 2020 Full Review The Trouble With Harry (1955) 88% EDIT “Sprightly is the word for Hitchcock's direction; neither moral nor gruesome, neither childish nor yet quite adult, neither in the world nor quite outside it, it gives the impression of taking you straight into a peculiarly vivid dream.” – The Spectator May 5, 2020 Full Review Goodbye, My Lady (1956) EDIT “A film of remarkable charm, made up of small, intimate touches, sure and exactly suit- able performances, a perfect command of sound --in the Mississippi swamplands -- as well as vision, and a delicacy of taste, humour and suggestion.” – The Spectator Apr 30, 2020 Full Review The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) 89% EDIT “A curate's egg of a film, but thoroughly recommended.” – The Spectator Apr 28, 2020 Full Review Zulu (1964) 97% EDIT “The tension mounts, breaks, mounts, seems unbearable and then is borne at the right sort of pace, and, for a film that's largely taken up with killing, it strikes me as decently unbloodthirsty.” – The Spectator Mar 11, 2020 Full Review The Leather Boys (1963) 79% EDIT “Pete is the film's hero and reason and charm. He is played with such accuracy and pathos by Dudley Sutton that no one and nothing else have much of a chance of getting our interest and sympathy.” – The Spectator Mar 11, 2020 Full Review A Boy Ten Feet Tall (1963) 70% EDIT “Only Edward G. Robinson, sentimentalised into a role rather like Spencer Tracy's so long ago in Captains Courageous, provides an unclubbish brand of charm.” – The Spectator Mar 6, 2020 Full Review The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw (1958) EDIT “Some of the jokes may be elderly, but some humour keeps well, like Christmas pudding : my favourite Western chestnut, for instance, the hotel notice saying : 'No spurs in bed.'” – The Spectator Dec 3, 2019 Full Review Light in the Piazza (1962) EDIT “I must confess to an almost insuperable pre- judice after seeing the film's trailer and realising that a gay, romantic story with a happy ending had been made out of a situation as ghoulish as this one seemed to be.” – The Spectator Nov 5, 2019 Full Review The Barbarian and the Geisha (1958) 40% EDIT “Sincere, devout, expensive-looking and in result quite dreadful; attempting realism and achieving only the pastel prettiness of a badly-printed picture book.” – The Spectator Oct 23, 2019 Full Review Black Orpheus (1959) 88% EDIT “This is an attractive boy-meets-girl story and no more, with everything full of charm, but slow, deathly slow and repetitive till the charm itself grows monotonous.” – The Spectator Oct 10, 2019 Full Review Nine Hours to Rama (1963) 80% EDIT “It is hard to think just what sort of an audience a film of this quality, quite seriously made, I think-no tongue-in-cheek, lots of uplift -is aimed at.” – The Spectator Oct 7, 2019 Full Review A Taste of Honey (1961) 86% EDIT “This, of course, is what a film ought to make you feel: that it was conceived in cinematic terms.” – The Spectator Aug 1, 2019 Full Review The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) 95% EDIT “With all the Ford requirements and the Ford mystique, including John Wayne and James Stewart off- setting each other's archetypal physiques, presences, worlds and implications; and Edmond O'Brien, at his uproariest.” – The Spectator Jul 31, 2019 Full Review Il Grido (1957) 71% EDIT “A view of the world seen through the eyes of a man in despair, in which the time is always winter, the weather perma- nently foggy and even moments of beauty or gaiety make their ironic comment on the rest of life's sadness.” – The Spectator Jul 23, 2019 Full Review Jungle Fighters (1961) EDIT “As far as the war is concerned, we see a good deal of physical violence and squalor, but the detail is unconvincing; and what, out of it all, is it trying to say, meaning us to feel?” – The Spectator Jul 23, 2019 Full Review Mamma Roma (1962) 95% EDIT “It almost inevitably dis- appoints, one is tempted to a bit of hindsight and reassessment.” – The Spectator Jun 23, 2019 Full Review
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