Kate Cameron

Perfectly delightful screen entertainment. The film is as charming as it is novel in conception and execution and it is so bound to appeal as strongly to grown-ups as to youngsters.

Outstanding performances are turned in by Karl Malden in the role of a priest who makes the waterfront characters his particular charge, by Lee J. Cobb, as the big bully who bosses the boys, by Rod Steiger, John Hamilton and a couple of well-known pugilists, Tony Galento and Tami Mauriello.

The film adaptation of Robert E. Griffith’s and Harold S. Prince’s stage production of “West Side Story” retains all the vibrant qualities of the original work while added brilliance and originality have been brought to the screen presentation.

A fast-paced, tongue-in-cheek movie about an engaging foundling.

All About Eve is not only a brilliant and clever portrait of an actress, it is a downright funny film, from its opening scene to the final fadeout.

Walt Disney has waved his magic wand over Collodi's world-famous fairy story, Pinocchio, and presto! he has changed it into the most enchanting film ever brought to the screen.

The film is too sprawling in extent, too noisy as to background music and voices and much too obvious in the application of its social significance notes. But while it isn’t the best picture to come out of Hollywood this year, nor is it Capra’s masterpiece, it tells a good story and its conclusion has a heart-warming effect on the audience.

It has comedy, drama, thrills, melodrama, tragedy and great heart. [11 Jan 1952, p.54]

It is a picture that will charm the young and tickle adults, since the old fairy tale has been transferred to the screen by a Disney who kept his tongue in his cheek throughout the film's animation. It is a beautiful and amusing cartoon.

A brilliant, thrilling, vital transference of the play to the screen.

As the story unreels, one can feel the warmth of the writers' and director's hearts for their subject and inspired playing of the cast.

The film moves at a leisurely pace at first, but it accelerates as it moves towards its exciting climax.

Peter Pan has been done in the style for which Disney is noted. It is one of his best productions and, I believe, is closer to the author's idea than any other presentation of the story, as the Disney medium is ideally adapted to the fantasy.

The funniest comedy I’ve seen in years. There aren’t many of the hundred and four minutes of running time that doesn’t find the audience laughing its head off at the antics of Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe.

It is a sentimental, heart-warming, simple story of a couple of ugly ducklings who find compensation for their lack of good looks in each other's love.

Paramount may have made a more appealing, more tenderly human and amusing picture than Going My Way, during its many years of film-making, but if so, I have missed it.

It is a realistic drama, conceived and written into a brilliant and provocative screen play. [11 Aug 1950, p.52]

Brilliant performances are to be credited to Alec Guinness, as the British colonel, who insists on sticking to the rules of the Geneva Conference governing prisoners of war, and Sessue Hayakawa as the stubborn, cruel, proud Japanese officer.

The dialogue follows the quaint Welsh dialect of the book and the picture is as faithful a transcription of novel to screen as it is possible for a scenarist and director to achieve. The screen play, by Philip Dunne, retains all the honest vigor and tender charm of the book.

Kelly is superb as dancer and comedian, but a little less than that as a singer of Gershwin songs. Leslie Caron, who dances like an angel, is no beauty, according to Hollywood standards, but she is endowed with great grace and personal charm. She is an exquisite dancer. An American in Paris, in short, is definitely a picture to see.

A faithful and beautifully impressive transition to the screen of Robert Bolt's superb historical play.

The direction is excellent. Frank Capra never lets his picture lag for a moment. It is never very exciting, but it moves along snappily and it is full of amusing situations.

The picture is forceful, realistic and horrible. It is badly edited, since it is allowed to run for two hours and a quarter, but in spite of this, and a few other minor defects, the case of the crew against the insane cruelty and avariciousness of Capt. Bligh is so powerfully presented that the injustice done to the men gets under one's skin to stir up a variety of emotion.

Robert Wise has transformed the delightful Rodgers and Hammerstein musical stage production of "The Sound of Music" into a magical film in which Julie Andrews gives an endearing performance in the role of Maria, the governess.

It is light, it is charming, it is delightfully funny and completely captivating. It is all that, and something more. It has an undefinable spiritual quality that raises the spirits of the beholder into a happy, hopeful mood.

Judy Garland is perfectly cast as Dorothy. She is as clever a little actress as she is a singer and her special style of vocalizing is ideally adapted to the music of the picture.

The picture, produced by Alexander Korda, under Lubitsch's direction, has some deliciously funny moments and every now and then a serious sequence is injected that startles the audience into an attitude of taut suspense. But it seems to me that the background of the Melchior Lenggel story is a bit too grim for joking.

As far as its entertainment value goes, the picture should be a smash hit, as its impresario has inveigled so many of the top players of the day to put in an appearance on the screen, that it is the most star-studded film of all time. It is also an eye-filling travelogue, an exciting adventure and a very funny film.

The dialogue is superb and the situations natural. The comedy touches are delightful. They spring from the inherent character of the people in the story, rather than the obvious contriving of playwright and director...A satisfying, heart-warming, deeply moving picture.

The direction is excellent and Freed is to be congratulated on the production as a whole, as the story is presented in an original and enticing manner.

The picture sparkles with witty dialogue, titilates with droll situations, stirs the heart with its story of the metamorphosis of a London guttersnipe in a fine lady, and its romantic intervals glow with warmth and charm that fascinates the audience.

There isn't a dull moment in the picture.