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Sayonara
(1957)
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Peter Walsh
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Under Joshua Logan’s vulgar, uninspired direction, Sayonara plods along against a background of Japanese picture postcards strictly for the tourist trade.
Posted Mar 02, 2023
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Marty
(1955)
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Edouard de Laurot
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Ironically enough, this film, whose intention is clearly to provide insights into a social milieu and its problems, actually encourages an unquestioning conformity in the public through the innocuousness of its presentation.
Posted Aug 02, 2022
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Boris Godunov
(1955)
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Jay Leyda
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The film "Boris," it is true, makes you more conscious of music than of film, which does not seem, to me, a flaw -- for in Musorgsky's hands music is a totally unaffected expression of human emotions.
Posted Jun 07, 2022
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Richard III
(1955)
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Jay Leyda
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Richard III is a play not worth the loving carpentry Olivier has lavished on it.
Posted Jun 07, 2022
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Saint Joan
(1957)
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Film Culture Staff
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A sentimental, slow, incompetent presentation of G.B.S.
Posted Jun 07, 2022
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The Pride and the Passion
(1957)
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Film Culture Staff
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An effective, though shallow, filming of C.S. Forester's novel.
Posted Jun 07, 2022
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The Forty First
(1956)
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Film Culture Staff
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An impressive film from post-Stalinist Russia.
Posted Jun 07, 2022
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The Prince and the Showgirl
(1957)
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Film Culture Staff
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An outdated, routine comedy with excellent performances by Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe.
Posted Jun 07, 2022
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Across the Bridge
(1957)
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Film Culture Staff
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A chase thriller with a promising first part and a weak denouement. Graham Greene's atmosphere and moral torment is captured at moments, but the film's main asset is Rod Steiger's strong character performance.
Posted Jun 07, 2022
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No Down Payment
(1957)
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Film Culture Staff
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The film grapples with some real issues along with some sensational plot twists involving sex and alcohol. Film collapses in incredibly melodramatic solution.
Posted Jun 07, 2022
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The Tin Star
(1957)
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Film Culture Staff
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Henry Fonda and Tony Perkins are excellent in this latest chronicle of moral doubt in the once unfaltering West.
Posted Jun 07, 2022
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And God Created Woman
(1956)
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Film Culture Staff
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Brigitte Bardot as a wanton creature of nature driven men mad on the Riviera. The most absurd caricature of sex since Theda Bara.
Posted Jun 07, 2022
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Les Girls
(1957)
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Film Culture Staff
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Undistinguished Cole Porter score and lack of one brilliant, show-stopping dance number handicaps film, and keeps it well below standard of Singing in the Rain and The Bandwagon.
Posted Jun 07, 2022
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Time Limit
(1957)
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Film Culture Staff
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Karl Malden's first directorial assignment on the themes of "brainwashing" and "collaboration" in Chinese prison camps. Malden's crisp style does not yet have any personal quality. Film is handicapped by unduly melodramatic revelations.
Posted Jun 07, 2022
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The Mystery of Picasso
(1956)
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Film Culture Staff
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Clouzot, with his first film on art, demonstrates the proper technique for a cinematic study of a painter. An unforgettable experience for both art-lovers and film enthusiasts.
Posted Jun 07, 2022
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That Night
(1957)
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Film Culture Staff
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Probably the first film to focus attention on the immediate causes and long-range implications of a heart attack on its victim and his family. This is a worthy project from a social standpoint, but only an average achievement artistically.
Posted Jun 07, 2022
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The Wages of Fear
(1953)
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Herman G. Weinberg
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Clouzot makes the most of the suspense inherent in such a tale, you can be sure, but his attitude is hopeless from the start and a sense of doom hangs over the film from the very beginning, long before the terrible end.
Posted Jun 07, 2022
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The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
(1943)
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Herman G. Weinberg
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Shot in handsome Agfacolor and replete with bizarrerie without end, including some amusing erotic passages, Baron Munchausen, in its original German version, is quite a spectacle.
Posted Jun 07, 2022
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One Summer of Happiness
(1952)
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Herman G. Weinberg
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One Summer of Happiness, a Swedish film, has all the virtues of the best Swedish films -- a deep feeling for nature, a healthy attitude towards sex, and a genuine dislike for religious bigotry.
Posted Jun 07, 2022
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Umberto D
(1952)
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Herman G. Weinberg
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It is exquisite in its simplicity, and if "Neo-realism" had to finally give way in the Italian cinema to a more optimistic outlook, it is good to see that up to the last no compromise with the truth was made.
Posted Jun 07, 2022
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Othello
(1955)
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Herman G. Weinberg
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A flashy, heavily emotional (as it should be), frequently bizarre, but always visually and dramatically exciting rendition of Shakespeare's tragedy.
Posted Jun 07, 2022
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The Game of Love
(1954)
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Herman G. Weinberg
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As a civilized excursion into the mysteries of sex, The Game of Love is a salutary achievement.
Posted Jun 07, 2022
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Romeo and Juliet
(1954)
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Herman G. Weinberg
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As Shakespeare it seems flat, but as a reconstruction of Mantua and Verona of the 15th century it is extraordinarily handsome.
Posted Jun 07, 2022
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Song of the Land
(1953)
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Herman G. Weinberg
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Some of the greatest shots of wildlife and natural forces are in this very remarkable compilation, patiently made over a long period of years.
Posted Jun 07, 2022
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Hansel and Gretel
(1954)
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Herman G. Weinberg
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For adults who have been enchanted by the best of Disney, there is no enchantment here. Indeed, I found it utterly lacking in imagination or humor and completely without charm.
Posted Jun 07, 2022
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A Star Is Born
(1954)
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Herman G. Weinberg
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Something of the monstrous artificiality of Hollywood comes through most acutely in various incisive touches and certainly A Star is Born will take its place among the most acutely observed films about Hollywood life.
Posted Jun 07, 2022
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Desiree
(1954)
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Herman G. Weinberg
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It has not the satirical edge and ironic bite of Sacha Guitry's Desiree Clary, but it is pleasant and just rueful enough in its humors to make for agreeable seeing.
Posted Jun 07, 2022
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Carmen Jones
(1954)
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Herman G. Weinberg
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Even if Carmen Jones is not the genuine folk opera that Porgy and Bess is, being a pastiche, at best, it is an immensely spirited pastiche, with real gusto.
Posted Jun 07, 2022
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Animal Farm
(1954)
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Herman G. Weinberg
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It is a fable, or allegory, in which human actions are presented in the guise of animal actions. But how can this convince any intelligent person who knows that animals don't act that way? Aesop was far cleverer.
Posted Jun 07, 2022
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Summertime
(1955)
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Algirdas Landsbergis
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The outcome shows that Lean-the-producer decided to spread another transparent romance against of a panorama of canals. But, thanks to Lean-the-artist, Summertime has a formula plot which occasionally deviates to insights below the surface.
Posted Jun 07, 2022
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The Night of the Hunter
(1955)
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Eugene Archer
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[Director Charles Laughton] is experimenting with the medium and, if he fails more of often than he succeeds, this does not make his attempt less admirable. The Night of the Hunter is frequently bad, but it is never less than interesting.
Posted Jun 07, 2022
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Rebel Without a Cause
(1955)
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Eugene Archer
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Rebel Without a Cause settles a number of questions regarding Dean's capacities as an actor. Working more or less on his own, without benefit of Kazan's rigid control, Dean gave a performance which dominated the film.
Posted Jun 07, 2022
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La Strada
(1954)
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Edouard de Laurot
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Whether we should accept La Strada's message is a matter of taste -- and depth. But while a great work of art cannot be created out of slight substance, an exquisite one can. Fellini has given the screen a poem of bitter and tender beauty.
Posted Jun 07, 2022
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The Red Balloon
(1956)
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Arlene Croce
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Albert Lamorisse shares a vision of the child’s world that is as fabulous as it is true.
Posted Mar 30, 2022
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Escapade
(1955)
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John Gilchrist
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Escapade is a fantasy, a dream which, executed with style and strength, impressively conveys its simple but timely message.
Posted Mar 30, 2022
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Passionate Summer
(1958)
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John Gilchrist
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Not even good performances and Sechan’s beautiful photography can save it.
Posted Mar 30, 2022
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Sweet Smell of Success
(1957)
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Carol Rittgers
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Its sophistication, underscored by the subtle rhythms of progressive jazz, its frank acceptance of immoral motivations, and its sheer melodramatic excitement give it a fascinating surface that far nobler films lack.
Posted Mar 30, 2022
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Torero
(1956)
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Barry Sussman
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In combining the documentary validity of Bullfight with the drama of The Brave Bulls, Torero! emerges far superior to either. It is definitely the best film done on bullfighting.
Posted Mar 30, 2022
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The Rising of the Moon
(1957)
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Jonas Mekas
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John Ford has declared this his best film. Though very far from being that, The Rising of the Moon is an important work in Ford’s very uneven career.
Posted Mar 30, 2022
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A Hatful of Rain
(1957)
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Jonas Mekas
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The film is all realism and no poetry, no poetry to lift it above mere surface.
Posted Mar 30, 2022
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The Young Stranger
(1957)
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Colinette Leitch
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Though at times clumsy and naive, this film is made with an almost documentary conscientiousness and possibly contributes more towards understanding the “generation without a cause” than some of its more spectacular predecessors.
Posted Mar 30, 2022
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Gervaise
(1956)
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Arlene Croce
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As a film version of Zola’s L’Assommoir, Gervaise emerges as the finest rendering of a literary classic the cinema has given us since David Lean’s Dickens films.
Posted Mar 30, 2022
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Love in the Afternoon
(1957)
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George N. Fenin
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Some critics have found a streak of the famous Lubitsch touch in this film. We most heartily disagree!
Posted Mar 30, 2022
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The Sun Also Rises
(1957)
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Peter Walsh
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Unfortunately, the film retains the novelist’s text without capturing the distinctive mood of the original. An aura of remoteness obscures the vital motivations (wildly seeking expression in cynical bravado) of the characters.
Posted Mar 30, 2022
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The Last Bridge
(1954)
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Barry Sussman
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These definite shortcomings would comprise sufficient cause to damn most pictures, but The Last Bridge can- not be explained away and dismissed. Our memory lingers not upon the defects, but on so many delicate and poignant sequences.
Posted Mar 30, 2022
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Green Magic
(1953)
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Joel Walcott
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He who, seduced by the awards this picture has received at various festivals, expects to learn from it something about the peoples and cultures the expedition encountered, will be disappointed.
Posted Mar 30, 2022
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I Am a Camera
(1955)
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Herman G. Weinberg
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For a motion picture, it is unusually literate and honest in its dialogue, which means that it doesn’t attempt to hide the truth under coy euphemisms. There is not a dishonest word or situation in it.
Posted Mar 30, 2022
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The Back of Beyond
(1954)
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Joel Walcott
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It is a pity and an irony that this film which more than any other film made in Australia succeeds in revealing some of its most characteristic aspects, is condemned by irresponsible businessmen to a limited exhibition.
Posted Mar 30, 2022
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The Seven Year Itch
(1955)
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George N. Fenin
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The Seven Year Itch is another step down in the career of the talented director.
Posted Mar 30, 2022
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Umberto D
(1952)
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George N. Fenin
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The name of Umberto D. will forever be associated with the rich stream of the Italian neo-realistic tradition.
Posted Mar 29, 2022
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