The New York Times' Scores

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For 20,271 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 46% higher than the average critic
  • 5% same as the average critic
  • 49% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 4.2 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 61
Highest review score: 100 Short Cuts
Lowest review score: 0 Gummo
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9,377 out of 20271
  2. Mixed: 8,430 out of 20271
  3. Negative: 2,464 out of 20271
20271 movie reviews
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  1. The Maltese Falcon
    It's the slickest exercise in cerebration that has hit the screen in many months, and it is also one of the most compelling nervous-laughter provokers yet.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Honky Tonk
    Mostly, "Honky Tonk" is a crowd-catching midway exhibit in which Miss Turner gives a competent, if limited, performance and Mr. Gable again shows off his muscles.
  3. Hold Back the Dawn
    An amazingly poignant picture, rich in humor, heart and subtle ironies.
  4. Citizen Kane
    In spite of some disconcerting lapses and strange ambiguities in the creation of the principal character, Citizen Kane is far and away the most surprising and cinematically exciting motion picture to be seen here in many a moon. As a matter of fact, it comes close to being the most sensational film ever made in Hollywood.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Here Comes Mr. Jordan
    However you look at it, "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" is rollicking entertainment.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    A Woman's Face
    As melodrama, sheer and simple, the story behind Anna Holm's murder trial is often superbly effective, but when it attempts to become a study of emotional anguish it merely betrays the essential hokum of which the film is constructed.
  7. Major Barbara
    This is something more than just a brilliant and adult translation of a stimulating play, something more than a captivating compound of ironic humor and pity. This is a lasting memorial to the devotion of artists working under fire, a permanent proof for posterity that it takes more than bombs to squelch the English wit.
  8. Meet John Doe
    With an excellent script by Mr. Riskin—overwritten in many spots, it is true—Mr. Capra has produced a film which is eloquent with affection for gentle people, for the plain, unimpressive little people who want reassurance and faith.
  9. Road to Zanzibar
    Farce of this sort very seldom comes off with complete effect, but this time it does, and we promise that there's fun on the Road to Zanzibar.
  10. The Lady Eve
    With The Lady Eve, which arrived yesterday at the Paramount, Mr. Sturges is indisputably established as one of the top one or two writers and directors of comedy working in Hollywood today. A more charming or distinguished gem of nonsense has not occurred since It Happened One Night.
  11. The Sea Wolf
    At least a good half of the effect in a sea-picture comes from the sea, and when that element is lacking the whole thing seems flat and synthetic. This, we regret to say, is a major fault in The Sea Wolf.
  12. The Strawberry Blonde
    Its amiable, infectious quality lies in the seriocomic way it re-creates the Eighteen Nineties culture of New York — horse-and-buggy courtships, dancing at beer gardens, Sunday afternoon street music and maybe an occasional brawl.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Mr. & Mrs. Smith
    A chucklesome comedy that fails to mount into a coruscating wave of laughter.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Invisible Woman
    The script is as creaky as a two-wheeled cart and were it not for the fact that John Barrymore is taking a ride in it we hate to think what "The Invisible Woman" might have turned out to be.
  15. Kitty Foyle
    The sharpness and contemporary significance of Mr. Morley's commentary are missing.
  16. The Philadelphia Story
    Provided you have a little patience for the lavishly rich, which these folks are, you should have great fun at The Philadelphia Story. For Metro and Director George Cukor have graciously made it apparent, in the words of a character, that one of the "prettiest sights in this pretty world is the privileged classes enjoying their privileges." And so, in this instance, you will too.
  17. The Letter
    It is an evil tale, plotted with an eye to its torturing effects. And Mr. Wyler has directed the film along those lines. With infinite care, he has created the dark, humid atmosphere of the rubber country. At a slow, inexorable pace, he has accumulated the details.
  18. Fantasia
    Fantasia is simply terrific—as terrific as anything that has ever happened on a screen.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Strike Up the Band
    When they take the rugs off the floor and the youngsters begin moving, Strike Up the Band is spanking good entertainment.
  20. The Westerner
    If some one could just have decided who should carry the ball, instead of letting it pass from one to the other, The Westerner might have been a bang-up, dandy film. And that, we are sorry to say, it isn't. The trouble, as indicated, is that the picture has no core.
  21. Foreign Correspondent
    Director Alfred Hitchcock, whose unmistakable stamp the picture bears, has packed about as much romantic action, melodramatic hullabaloo, comical diversion and illusion of momentous consequence as the liveliest imagination could conceive.
  22. They Drive by Night
    For fanciers of hard-boiled cinema, They Drive By Night still offers an entertaining ride.
  23. Pride and Prejudice
    Hunt Stromberg and his associates have managed to turn out a film which catches the spirit and humor of Miss Austen's novel down to the last impudent flounce of a petticoat, the last contented sigh of a conquering coquette.
  24. Waterloo Bridge
    Miss Leigh shapes the role of the girl with such superb comprehension, progresses from the innocent, fragile dancer to an empty, bedizened street-walker with such surety of characterization and creates a person of such appealing naturalness that the picture gains considerable substance as a result.
  25. Turnabout
    So far as we're concerned, this self-conscious fantasy of a husband and wife who reverse their biological status is a tired and tiresome jape, as subtle as a five-cent stogie and just as aromatic.
  26. My Favorite Wife
    A frankly fanciful farce, a rondo of refined ribaldries and an altogether delightful picture with Cary Grant and Irene Dunne chasing each other around most charmingly in it.
  27. Rebecca
    An altogether brilliant film, haunting, suspenseful, handsome and handsomely played.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The House of the Seven Gables
    Dreary and slightly stale fare.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    It All Came True
    Neither comedy, strictly speaking, nor good red gangsterism, nor an altogether creditable combination of both.
  30. Road to Singapore
    The Road to Singapore is cobbled with good intentions, is blessed intermittently with smooth-running strips of amiable nonsense, but is altogether too uneven for regular use.
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