Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1954)

"QUOT€S% What the Newspaper Critics Say Ahont New Films iV. Critics Cheer CaiumbitM^s 'Mi Shauld H€Bppen* The opening of Columbia's Judy Holliday starrer, "It Should Happen to You," had the N. Y. critics polishing up their choicest compliments. Without exception, reviews echoed with the plaudits "tickling and touching entertainment," "clever and amiable movie," and "fun-extra special". The scribes conceded that this film is tailored to Holliday's talents. "Neat piece of comic contrivance that will contribute to the joy of man," commends Hosley Crowther in the Times. He feels the film was handled "with intelligence, compassion — and lots of gags . . . precisely the right business for the brilliantly droll Miss Holliday." Crowther's final approbation is "once more they have brightened superbly a winter season of comparative comic drought." The Herald Tribune's Otis L. Guernsey, Jr. finds it a "pleasant bout of whimsy . . . comedy as bright and comfortable as Miss Hollidaj-'s personality." Devoting most of his attention to the star he says, "Nothing in her seems deliberate, and yet everything she does is funny . . . she is the most sensible screwbail going and it is a joy to have her around." Ciiving the film a Good Plus Movie Meter Rating, the Post's Irene Thirer chortles "Holliday holiday . . . with the blond and beguiling Judy turning in another captivating performance in a new, merry, mirthful, oflF-beat picture." She gives it her unrestrained sanction writing, "It's all a lark: it's satirical, it's slapstick, it's fun-extra special. You'll find it ... a 2D black-andwhite any size screen DELIGHT." "Hilarious, derisive comedy," applauds Alton Cook in the World-Telegram & Sun. "Customers have an hour and a half of blissful delight ahead of them," he opinions. Cook wryly suggests to the theater-goer, "Steel yourself to the prospect of becomin:^ one of the happiest people in town." Rose Pelswick of the Journal-American pulls out all stops cheering, "Delightfully wacky film of birdbrain gal . . . the dizzy blonde of 'Born Yesterday' scores again." She pens that "dotted with amusing dialogue and spun out at a lively clip, the film is tailored to Miss Holliday's talents." 'BOTH SIDES OF THE LAW Universal (Rank) "Pretty policewomen get themselves involved in a jewel robbery . . . night club raid and rescue a tot that had crawled out on a top window ledge. It all makes for lively melodrama." — Pelswick. N. Y. JournalAmerican "Lucid and informative without being particularly exciting. — Weiler, N. Y. Times "Highly melodramatic film . . . never a dull moment . . . but the matter becomes a bit tiresome to a foreign audience." — Guernsey, N. Y. Herald Tribune "Full of warm sentiment and bursts of strong excitement. This goes high on the recommended list." — Cook, X. \'. WorldTelegram 'KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE' MGM (Cinemascope) "Good plus (Movie ^Meter Rating) ... as CinemaScopic material, it might be called a natural, but not quite up to the mark of 'The Robe'. Taken as costume pageantry of English history ... it makes closest comparisons with 'Ivanhoe'." — Winsten, N. Y. Post "Spectacular is the word . . . top-drawer pageant, packed with scenes of swashbuckling adventure that are enormously enhanced by the CinemaScope process." — Pelswick, N. Y. Journal-American "King Arthur never had it better . . . some of the best-staged, large-scale medieval battles since 'Ivanhoe'. Only Nero of 'Quo Vadis' lived in more lavish luxury and splendor."— Cook, N. \. World-Telegram "Lavish plaything ... a bit of everything from Sir Thomas Malory to Roy Rogers in this fanciful movie version of a Dark Ages myth." — Guernsey, N. Y. Herald Tribune "Don't look for something in the mood of Tennyson's 'Idylls of the King' or Malory's 'Morte d'Arthur' . . . the poetic eloquence and grandeur of those distinctly literary works have been replaced by a sweep of Pdg« 12 FILM BULLETIN Ftbruary 8, 1954 graphic action and romantic symbols that is straight Hollywood." — Crowther, N. Y. Times ■FOREVER FEMALE' Paramount "Whole thing is played with much more gusto than is contained in the slightly pallid script . . . (Crowley) has vigor, vivacity and pretty features, but she also has a voice that twangs." — Crowther, N. Y. Times "Routine movie act with a lot of personality and a few laughs." — Guernsey, N. \ . Herald Tribune "Belongs right up in the upper brackets . seems a good gamble ;a the moment to guess that here (Crowley) is the major new star of 1954." — Cook, N. Y. World-Telegram "Light, bright and slickly produced . . . amusing dialogue and performances highli.ght the film . . . tempo is brisk and the principals handle their roles ably." — Pelswick, \. Y. Journal-.^merican "(lood (Movie Meter Rating) . . . Less lhan a triumph . . . AAA produce which has been in the warehouse long enough to lose its first freshness but not long enough to be thrown out, marked down, or smell sour." — Winsten, N. Y. Post 'THE WILD ONE' Columbia "Debauched and frightening view of a small but peculiarly significant and menacing element of modern youth . . . Tough and engrossing motion i)iclure." — Crowther, N. ^'. Times "Study in terror . . . tense and taut drama. It's coiTipletely ofif-beat, with the accent on brutality." — Pelswick, X. \'. Jonrnal-.American "Strange, tense little film . . . grim, humorless piece of business, calculated to rouse terror." — Bently, N. ^'. Herald Tribune "Might have been a strong treatment of juvenile problems if it had not been allowed to slip so far away from credibility. Thej flaw centers mainly around the unshaded) over-emphasis of the Brando performance." — Cook, N. Y. World-Telegram 'CRIME WAVE' Warner Bros. "Bang-up melodrama . . . hard-hitting cops-and-robbers thriller." — Pelswick, X. Y JournalAmerican "Exciting version of a familiar tale . . . well-brewed dish of suspense and gunpowder."— Cook, N. Y. World-Telegram "Good (Movie Meter Rating) . . . routine crime considerably beefed up by the sur-| prisingly good performances." — Winsten, N. Y. Post "By shuffling some standard ingredients j . . . film manages to look a good deal better j than it is." — N. Y. Times i "Not much superior to the average police melodrama seen on the television set at night." — Pihodna, N. 'N'. Herald Tribune 'PARATROOPER' Columbia "Criterion's balcony sitters . . . predominantly male, husky and clearly spellbound, perched well forward about half the time." | — N. Y. Times \ "Well-made, well-played war drama." — Pelswick, N. Y. Journal-American "Best, though familiar by now, sequence^ are the detailed processes a trainee must endure to become a paratrooper . . . Skirmishes are staged with a graphic ferocity." — Cook, X. \'. World-'Telegram "Unwieldy mass of realism, melodrama and romance." — Pihodna, X. "S". Herald Tri1 bune j "Good (Movie Meter Rating) . . . Movie i fans who are partial to pictures having to do with training and warfare, will find this e s citing fare, with a ring of authenticity." — . Thirer, N. Y. Post