Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1952)

"Greatest Show" Gives DeMille Greatest Plaudits When a Cecil B. DeMille production is subjected to the not-so-tender mercies of the New York critics, it usually has taken a verbal beating, despite the fact that it can be counted upon to draw crowds. This, it was doubly emphatic when the Gotham scribes showered superlatives on DeMille's circus epic, "The Greatest Show On Earth." Even the Times' caustic Crowther call it "entertainment that will delight movie audiences for years," while others label it DeMille's "best", no mean applause for a film from one of the most successful producers the movies has ever known. The Times' critic adds that "DeMille has done himself and motion pictures proud" with this exposition of the Big Top. "Glamour, sentiment, romance, razzle-dazzle, excitement and dare-deviltry." Predicting a long stay at the Music Hall, the World-Telegram and Sun's Alton Cook feels that it is "just about the best picture Cecil B. DeMille has made in all his long Hollywood years." And for the circus fan, the picture will be "one long carnival of frenzied delight." Not quite as enthusiastic about its emotional aspects, Archer Winsten, of the Post, still feels that "few pictures in the history of the movies have been able to unify and handle with consistently mounting suspense as varied material." While you're "well aware that you've been sitting for much longer than usual, there's been too much of interest for you to be bored." The Herald Tribune's Otis Guernsey also lavishes hearty applause on the way the film has caught the "spirit and facts of the circus in a sparkling, freakish, daredevil array." It "makes every child's daydream come true" and 'makes spring come out of season for the great enjoyment of every one." Rose Pelswick, Journal-American, is perhaps the most unrestrained in her approval. "DeMille has outdone even himself," she says, with the "greatest piece of entertainment he's turned out in years of filming super-spectacles." She finds it "packed with glitter and glamor, high excitement and eyefilling splendor" and lots more, then puts it into the select category with, "Don't miss it." DISTANT DRUMS' WARNER BROS. "The din is terrific most of the time. So are the desperate adventures . . . Don't look for novel surprises." — Crowther, N. Y. Times. "Action is heavy enough for the most bloodthirsty child, and those who like to see conflict brought down to the understandably personal will be delighted . . . Picture as a whole is nothing to take seriously."—Winsten, N. Y. Post. "Exciting and exceptionally well made outdoor drama that gives Gary Cooper his best screen role in some time." — Pelswick, N. Y. Journal-American. "Made Up of equal parts of melodrama 18 "QUOT6S" What the Newspaper Critics Say Ahout New Film? and color photography, with a lot to look at but not much imagination in the way it is presented." — Guernsey, N. Y. Herald Tribune. 'IT'S A BIG COUNTRY' METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER "Noble in motive, artless and uncomplicated in theme . . . Sometimes of side-show stature, but it is wonderful to see so many good people showing off to such good advantage."— Cook, N. Y. Telegram & Sun. "Heavily weighted in the direction of sermonizing about prejudice within the ranks . . . Mildly diverting object lesson in social ethics." — Guernsey, N. Y. Herald Tribune. "Suffers from excessive hammering on its didactic, patriotic thesis, from frequent predictability, and from its general atmosphere of What a Bright Worthwhile Picture Am I."— Winsten, N. Y. Post. "Cozy bundle of folksiness ... If it weren't for the shallow chauvinism of the narration, this would be an easy film to watch and generally enjoy." — Crowther, N. Y. Times. 'WILD BLUE YONDER' REPUBLIC "This is a battle which looks pretty authentic to one lucky enough never to have seen warfare except on a movie screen . . . Lots of familiar faces doing the old fami'Sir things." — Creelman, N. Y. World-Telegram. "Nothing that sets it apart from all th-i other aviation pictures . . . equipped with the same dramatic situations . . . Just another assembly job." — N. Y. Post. "Incidents of simulated air strikes over Japan are exciting enough and the usual newsreel clips of battle action have been inserted to flavor the fiction with bitter truth . . . Goes along on a sort of automatic pilot of movie convention and depends on the conflict of war to make the film interesting." — Guernsey, N. Y. Herald Tribune. "Action-filled drama of World War 2." — Pelswick, N. Y. Journal-American. "Plows monotonously through every cliche of aerial war films . . . Except for a few aerial glimpses and newsreel shots lifted out of the files, "The Wild Blue Yonder" is strictly artificial, illogical, pedestrian and dull."— Crowther, N. Y. Times. I WANT YOU' RKQ "Pretty lugubrious story that . . . Mr. Goldwyn and his people are trying to sell on terms of sentiment and romance . . . Running crisis of the "cold war" has been absorbed in the cotton padding of sentiment, A straight recruiting poster would be more convincing and pack more dramatic appeal." — Crowther, N. Y. Times. "Not a big, important or superior picture . . . Just fiddles along diligently cultivating the obivous . . . Fails either to have force or profound implications." — Winsten, N. Y. , Post. "High on the must-see list. Spun out with heart and humor . . . People are recognizable and its emotions are real. And its story of love and patriotism and courage is genuinely stirring." — Pelswick, N. Y. JournalAmerican. "Blend of sloppy sentiment and homely humor is aimed strictly at the weepers in( the handkerchief brigade." — Cook, N. Y. World-Telegram & Sun. "Sustained by a curious kind of suspense, a feeling that perhaps, at last, some one is going to say something that will generate at least a ray of sympathetic understanding . . . But "I Want You" only flickers too, pat, too sentimental . . . Well meaning and neighborly, but not quite in touch with' the complicated reality of our time." — Guernsey, N. Y. Herald Tribune. FOR MEN ONLY' LIPPERT PRODUCTIONS "Isn't a bad picture. If offers some thought, a few vital moments, a sound cast, adequate direction. Oh, what a good movie it could have been!"— Thirer, N. Y. Post. "Serious little item . . . some pretty rough tactics . . . For all of Mr. Henreid's sincerity of purpose, however, "For Men Only" seems to be jousting against a terribly tiny dragon. — Weiler, N. Y. Post. "Provocatively titled film turns out to be an indictment of hazing in college fraternities . . . Henreid pilots his production, smoothly through its melodramatic pacesi and gives it the benefit of a group of fresh* young faces." — Pelswick, N. Y. Journal) American. "Well-named . . . certainly not for women j at least not for women who have no taste for watching deliberate brutalities . . . Fat[| from the snappy story apparently expectec'h by the almost completely masculine audi | ence. Sadism is the mood, for all the preaching against it." — Creelman, N. Y. WorldTelegram & Sun. MODEL & THE MARRIAGE BROKER 20TH CENTURY-FOX "Spirited, merrily cynical comedy . . Mirthful spurts persist right to the finish . Smart gleam and sparkle to the laughter anc a contagious spirit of happiness that th customer carries away with him." — Cook N. Y. Telegram & Sun. "What appears at the start a dismal bur lesque turns out a most happy affair." Crowther, N. Y Times. "Amusing comedy, bright as to lines an frequently wacky as to incident." — PelswicI N. Y. Journal-American. "Dialogue is good, the characters likabl and the direction by George Cukor is we paced and effortless . . . Pleasant and ingrat ating show . . . Light and mild." — Guernse} N. V. Herald Tribune. FILM BULLETi: