Lester managed to come up with a movie that not only holds together as a film but one that has proven timeless and rewards repeat viewings.

Rarely do you see first-rate melodrama welded to first-rate political satire. [13 May 1988, p.D5]

Hail, Spartacus. You're no Kane, you're not even Lawrence. You're a movie dinosaur, lumbering and overpraised. But it's good to have you back. [8 May 1991, p.D1]

Director Douglas Sirk keeps the precipitation from becoming too maudlin. [26 Mar 1959]

Easily the best thriller of this or any other recent year...It's the film that marks him as a genius, that proves the auteur (or authorial) theory of filmmaking all by itself. It's the movie that shows a distinctive stamp, the movie that could not possibly have been made by anyone else. And most important, Vertigo is immensely entertaining. It has great peformances from its stars, an overtly Wagnerian score from the celebrated Bernard Herrmann and a plot that is almost hopelessly complex. Almost. [23 Dec 1983, p.D1]

Splashy, uneven version of the musical, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz (All About Eve). Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra seem miscast, but Jean Simmons is delightful as the Salvation Army woman Brando falls for. [04 Aug 1989, p.G37]

Though not on the epic scale of Fantasia or Bambi, Lady and the Tramp is one of the more charming animated features ever made and has depth enough to keep adults as well as children occupied, if not enthralled. [15 Feb 1986, p.C6]

Views of the creatures, which had the youngsters screeching delightedly, are plenty scary -- in fact the blown-up scenes of actual ants, such as everyone in the hot country knows, are enough to make you squirm. [24 Jun 1954, p.7D]

Sunset Boulevard is one of those films which serve as milestones in the progress of the motion picture toward its goal of an entertainment art. [08 Sep 1950, p.22]

A family film to treasure. [02 Mar 1990, p.G41]

A best picture Oscar winner, and one of the finest of all American films. [04 Aug 1989, p.37]

A seductive blend of mystery, psychology and soap opera. [14 Nov 1982, p.8]

Underneath its sometimes frothy and often witty trappings, it’s a wistful meditation on the inevitable losses that accompany growing up and moving on. The real mood is captured perfectly in Judy Garland’s bittersweet rendition of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. [16 Dec 2012]

It's a fine mix of suspense and character study. [02 Mar 1990, p.G41]

It gets awfully corny toward the end ("Print -- choke, gasp -- the truth."), but director George Cukor keeps the atmosphere spooky, and Darryl Hickman is good as a cute little brown-shirt. [12 Sep 1982, p.8]

And the animation, ultimately, is what makes Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs worth seeing again on the big screen. Aladdin may have grossed more than $200 million, but even its state-of- the-art, computer-assisted animation can't surpass the detail and fluidity, the denser-than-reality feel, the astonishing palette (check out the red on the poisoned apple) of the film. Watching it, you don't forget it's a cartoon: You relish that it is. What bigger compliment is there than that? [2 July 1993, p.G5]

Likely The Great Ziegfeld will be catalogued as the most sumptuous cinemusical ever produced. Truly a "colossal" show, it is the musical spectacle to end all such. [12 Apr 1936, p.39]