Variety's Scores

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For 17,765 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 52% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 44% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.3 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 63
Highest review score: 100 IMAX: Hubble 3D
Lowest review score: 0 Divorce: The Musical
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9,125 out of 17765
  2. Mixed: 7,004 out of 17765
  3. Negative: 1,636 out of 17765
17765 movie reviews
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    • 78 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Ball of Fire
    A simple gag is hardly enough on which to string 110 minutes of film. And that's all - one funny situation - that Samuel Goldwyn's director and writers have to support Ball of Fire. It's sufficient, however, to provide quite a few chuckles.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    They Died with Their Boots On
    The liberties which the screen writers have taken with well established and authenticated facts are likely to be a bit trying in spots. But the test of the yarn is not its accuracy, but its speed and excitement. Of these it has plenty.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Wolf Man
    The Wolf Man is a compactly-knit tale of its kind, with good direction and performances by an above par assemblage of players, but dubious entertainment.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Suspicion
    Alfred Hitchcock’s trademarked cinematic development of suspenseful drama, through mental emotions of the story principals, is vividly displayed in Suspicion, a class production [from the novel Before the Fact by Francis Iles] provided with excellence in direction, acting and mounting.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Shadow of the Thin Man
    Harry Kurnitz has fashioned the story with a good deal of ingenuity, using the characters of the private detective and his wife, as created in the original yarn by Dashiell Hammett.
    • 96 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Dumbo
    There’s a pleasant little story, plenty of pathos mixed with the large doses of humor, a number of appealing new animal characters, lots of good music, and the usual Disney skillfulness in technique.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    How Green Was My Valley
    Based on a best-selling novel, this saga of Welsh coal-mining life is replete with much human interest, romance, conflict and almost every other human emotion to match up to cinematic standards for all audiences.
    • 97 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The Maltese Falcon
    This is one of the best examples of actionful and suspenseful melodramatic story telling in cinematic form. Unfolding a most intriguing and entertaining murder mystery, picture displays outstanding excellence in writing, direction, acting and editing--combining in overall as a prize package of entertainment for widest audience appeal.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Honky Tonk
    The major power in Honky Tonk is in the love scenes between Clark Gable and Lana Turner.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Hold Back the Dawn
    While Hold Back the Dawn is basically another European refugee yarn, scenarists Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder exercised some ingenuity and imagination and Ketty Frings' original emerges as fine celluloidia.
    • 100 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Citizen Kane
    It happens to be a first-class film of potent importance to the art of motion pictures...a triumph for Orson Welles.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Here Comes Mr. Jordan
    Montgomery’s portrayal is a highlight in a group of excellent performances. Keyes displays plenty of charm. James Gleason scores as the fast-gabbing fight manager, who is bewildered by the proceedings. Direction by Alexander Hall sustains a fast pace throughout.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    A Woman's Face
    There's a rather intriguing dramatic quality to this American version of an original Swedish production (from a French play, Francis de Croisset's Il etait une fois) which had Ingrid Bergman as star. In a story of a woman's handicap and final regeneration.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Major Barbara
    Adapted from an old Shaw play, circa 1905, it still carries the lightning thrusts of Shavian caustic satire at any and all levels of society.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Meet John Doe
    The synthetic fabric of the story is the weakness of the production, despite the magnificence of the Frank Capra-directed superstructure.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Road to Zanzibar
    Although picture has sufficient comedy situations and dialog between its male stars, it lacks the compactness and spontaneity of its predecessor.
    • 96 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Lady Eve
    Laugh entertainment of top proportions with its combo of slick situations, spontaneous dialog and a few slapstick falls tossed in for good measure.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Sea Wolf
    Robinson provides plenty of vigor and two-fisted energy to the actor-proof role of Larsen, and at times is over-directed.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Strawberry Blonde
    Cagney and de Havilland provide topnotch performances that do much to keep up interest in the proceedings. Rita Hayworth is an eyeful as the title character, while Jack Carson is excellent as the politically ambitious antagonist of the dentist.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Mr. & Mrs. Smith
    Pacing his assignment at a steady gait, Hitchcock catches all of the laugh values from the above par script of Norman Krasna.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Kitty Foyle
    Despite its episodic, and at times, vaguely-defined motivation, picture on whole is a poignant and dramatic portraiture of a typical Cinderella girl’s love story. Several good comedy sequences interline the footage, deftly written and directed.
    • 96 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Philadelphia Story
    A picture every suburban mamma and poppa must see–after Junior and little Elsie Dinsmore are tucked away.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Letter
    Never has [the W. Somerset Maugham play] been done with greater production values, a better all-around cast or finer direction. Its defect is its grimness. Director William Wyler, however, sets himself a tempo which is in rhythm with the Malay locale.
    • 96 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Fantasia
    Fantasia best can be described as a successful experiment to life the relationship from the plane of popular, mass entertainment to the higher strata of appeal to lovers of classical music.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Strike Up the Band
    Direction by Busby Berkeley deftly carries through the story side, despite script deficiencies, but he is in his element in the staging of the production and musical sequences.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Westerner
    Supplied with a particularly meaty role, of which he takes fullest advantage, Brennan turns in a socko job that does much to hold together a not too impressive script.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Foreign Correspondent
    Story is essentially the old cops-and-robbers. But it has been set in a background of international political intrigue of the largest order.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    They Drive by Night
    Fast moving and actionful melodrama of long-haul trucking biz, They Drive clicks with plenty of entertainment content.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Pride and Prejudice
    The film is something less than satisfactory entertainment, despite lavish settings, costumes, and an acting ensemble of unique talent.
    • Variety
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Waterloo Bridge
    Elaborating on the basic premise of Robert Sherwood's play, and doing a slick job of cleansing to conform to present regulations of the Hays code, this is a persuasive and compelling romantic tragedy.
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