Jules Furthman penned the uncompromising script; Edmund Goulding directed with a master hand. [05 Jun 2005, p.E12]

A gritty, powerfully acted drama set in an overcrowded maximum-security prison. [04 Feb 1999, p.F48]

In a string of awful '30s movies, MacMurray refined his light touch, so he was ready when he finally got some decent comic material to work with. As a struggling chicken farmer, he's the prefect foil for Claudette Colbert's urban sophisticate in this comedy pitting city life against country life. [08 Nov 1991, p.F24]

What makes Odd Man Out effective is Reed's love of detail, especially when it comes to the mix of characters Johnny encounters along the way. With economical cinematic strokes, Reed describes these people, getting us to wonder about them and, ultimately, to have a sense of who they are. [19 Jan 1995, p.14]

Song of the South is essentially a nostalgic valentine to a past that never existed, and within those limits, it offers a pleasant, family diversion for holiday afternoons when the children get restless.

This 1946 version became a key film in postwar Hollywood film noir. Directed by Tay Garnett, it remains one of Lana Turner's (right) very best films. [02 Feb 1997, p.78]

Michael Curtiz’s Mildred Pierce remains a rip-roaring entertainment.

More than 45 years after it was released, the movie made of Oscar Wilde's tale of the price of eternal youth is still well worth seeing. [05 Sep 1991, p.11]

It’s a pretty arduous journey, complete with personal revelations, melodramatic suspense, a grand finale and all the Hollywood hokum MGM could get away with.

Hawks' direction is his very best: crisp, humane and full of humor. [26 Jul 1998, p.4]

Dated, but rousing 1944 dramatization of the planning and execution of first bombing raid over Tokyo. [24 Dec 1998, p.F12]

What keeps "Gaslight" burning is its tantalizing aura of mystery. [10 Feb 1994, p.5]

German director Robert Siodmak gives this juicy 1943 entry terrific gothic style. [06 Jun 2004, p.E13]

Arthur Lubin's elegant 1942 color version of the Gaston Leroux chiller remains one of the best, with a chilling yet poignant Claude Rains prowling a Paris Opera house, wreaking hideous revenge. [20 Oct 1996, p.4]

This film does have its layers of propaganda, but it also (quite remarkably for its time) shows that people with thick German accents are not necessarily Nazis. They, too, have families and loves -- and some a hatred for fascism. [21 Mar 1991, p.12]

Victor Young’s score is glorious and soaring and Ray Rennanhan’s cinematography is breathtakingly lush and vibrant. Equally vibrant are Cooper and Bergman, who both received Oscar nominations. Two of the most beautiful people to ever grace the silver screen, their love scenes are sexy, touching and sweet.

Cat People sinks its claws into the psyche for an erotically tinged horror-thriller. [29 Oct 1998, p.F7]

Who doesn't love a good amnesia movie, and this one, starring Ronald Colman and Greer Garson, pulls out more stops than one would have thought possible. [03 Apr 2020, p.E1]

Road to Morocco is light and airy family entertainment, yet at a time when the Production Code was at its height of power, it is surprising what Crosby and especially Hope, of course, manage to suggest. [07 Jun 2001, p.34]

A high-grade Bette Davis soap opera that finds her playing a repressed Boston spinster rescued by her suave psychiatrist (Paul Henried, who figures in the film's famous cigarette-lighting scene). [18 Dec 1988, p.5]

Tons of fun. [28 May 1998, p.F39]

The 1942 musical-comedy Holiday Inn, starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire and featuring the music of Irving Berlin, has been overshadowed by Crosby-Berlin's 1954 hit "White Christmas." Holiday Inn is the superior film, thanks to Mark Sandrich's light-hearted direction, Astaire's dance numbers and Crosby crooning "White Christmas" and "Be Careful, It's My Heart." [20 Nov 1992, p.11]

Despite all the good fun, Bambi remains a potent story that touches deep fears and emotions. Few scenes in animation--or live action film--match the poignancy of the death of Bambi's mother, a sequence that still moves children (and adults) to tears.

An elegiac saga of the decline and fall of a rich small-town American family, based on a Booth Tarkington novel.

Of course, Yankee Doodle Dandy is short on answers -- picture biographies from the '40s tended to ignore facts, opting instead for more emotional entertainment -- but that doesn't dissuade us. Curtiz and Cagney make their point, that dreamland America can be a helluva place, especially for gutter snipes (like Cagney) turned glitter stars (like Cohan). [30 Jun 1994, p.16]

1942's Mrs. Miniver seems dated in today's contemporary world. Nevertheless, it's still an inspiring, well-made, patriotic drama. [05 Jan 1997, p.4]

It’s the sort of verbally dexterous farce you’d have to be a total Crabapple Annie not to enjoy.

Suspicion is not quite as strong as, possibly, some of the director’s best preceding films. In one respect, though, it must be reckoned especially notable — the portrayal of Joan Fontaine.