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Cinema Quarterly

Tomatometer-approved publication.

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Rating Title | Year Author Quote
Ladies Lake (1934) J.S. Fairfax Jones It never properly gets to grips with the story, and a great deal more might have been made of the scenic background. Nevertheless, it succeeds in being reasonably entertaining, and Simone Simon, who plays the part of Puck, is most enchanting.
Posted Jun 05, 2021  Edit critic review
Power (1934) Paul Rotha Here is no cross-section of the eighteenth century which might have been such grand material for movie. The film is founded on the superficial appearance of men and things, an approach that has never and can never achieve the level of greatness.
Posted Feb 12, 2021  Edit critic review
Wings Over Everest (1934) Forsyth Hardy An important and impressive addition to the growing group of Everest pictures.
Posted Feb 12, 2021  Edit critic review
Tavaszi Zápor (1932) Campbell Nairne This French version of a Hungarian national legend, directed by Paul Fejos with Annabella as star, illustrates how disastrous is the naturalistic approach to a theme which demands fanciful treatment.
Posted Feb 12, 2021  Edit critic review
Thunder Over Mexico (1933) Paul Rotha Can nothing be done to prevent the advertisement of a director's name in connection with a picture when he has withdrawn his hand?
Posted Feb 04, 2021  Edit critic review
Ruggles of Red Gap (1935) Forsyth Hardy Charles Laughton has said that he enjoyed playing the part of Ruggles more than any other on stage or screen; and his performance definitely has that fine, rich, sustained quality which results when an artist has delighted in expression.
Posted Feb 04, 2021  Edit critic review
The Making of a King (1935) J.S. Fairfax Jones [The film] is magnificent. Jannings makes a triumphant and convincing return to the screen in a film after his own heart.
Posted Feb 04, 2021  Edit critic review
Wedding Night (2001) Kirk Bond To add that the direction itself is generally undistinguished if not mediocre completes the sad story.
Posted Feb 04, 2021  Edit critic review
La Crise Est Finie (1934) D.F. Taylor There is a cheerful air of spontaneity about the whole production.
Posted Feb 04, 2021  Edit critic review
Anna and Elizabeth (1933) Paul Rotha This is primarily an acting film and does not enlarge our experience of cinema.
Posted Feb 04, 2021  Edit critic review
Les Miserables (1935) Forsyth Hardy The strength of Laughton's performance makes this film more than other versions a conflict between Javert and Jean Valjean. With studied power, he brings this inhuman bully, obsessed with the sacredness of the law, to life.
Posted Feb 04, 2021  Edit critic review
The Devil Is a Woman (1935) Forsyth Hardy It is lacking in every virtue which made Sternberg a director of promise.
Posted Feb 04, 2021  Edit critic review
The 39 Steps (1935) Forsyth Hardy [Hitchcock] tells the story clearly and convincingly and the wildly melodramatic moments are in part offset by such well observed sequences as the Scottish political meeting, the Forth Bridge episode, and the discreetly managed scene in the inn bedroom.
Posted Feb 04, 2021  Edit critic review
Black Fury (1935) Campbell Nairne Though not, on the whole, up to the standard of I Am a Fugitive, this film has definite importance as an index of America's increasing absorption with her sociological problems.
Posted Feb 04, 2021  Edit critic review
(undefined) J.S. Fairfax Jones There are no pyrotechnics, but it is a competent piece of work and few people would walk out on it.
Posted Feb 04, 2021  Edit critic review
Escape Me Never (1935) Forsyth Hardy The camera does its work of photographing Bergner smoothly, sensitively and unobtrusively and Paul Czinner in his direction reveals that mastery over mood which made Der Traumende Mund memorable.
Posted Feb 04, 2021  Edit critic review
Sanders of the River (1936) Paul Rotha It is important to remember that the multitudes of this country who see Africa in this film, are being encouraged to believe this fudge is real.
Posted Feb 04, 2021  Edit critic review
The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935) Campbell Nairne By partially divesting Edwin Drood of its caricatured characters, Universal pull it down to the level of a second-rate thriller.
Posted Feb 04, 2021  Edit critic review
David Copperfield (1935) Campbell Nairne It is the quality of the characterisation almost as much as the carefully elaborated period detail which recreates the spirit of coaching England as Dickens embalmed it in the novel. One can almost smell the aroma of harness and cold mutton.
Posted Feb 04, 2021  Edit critic review
Little Friend (1934) Paul Rotha There is a solid honesty behind this film which, despite its many shortcomings, I commend to your notice.
Posted Feb 04, 2021  Edit critic review
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) Forsyth Hardy The acting is for the most part simple and straightforward, but there is real subtlety in the performance of Peter Lorre, the Dusseldorf murderer of M, as the anarchist leader.
Posted Feb 04, 2021  Edit critic review
The Scarlet Pimpernel (1935) Forsyth Hardy Were it not for the polished acting, particularly of Leslie Howard, fallow patches, occasionally apparent, would be more plainly revealed; but Howard is studied, resourceful and charming, his timing perfect as always.
Posted Feb 04, 2021  Edit critic review
The Iron Duke (1934) Forsyth Hardy On the screen it lacks life and form, and Victor Saville's direction is flat and uninspired.
Posted Feb 04, 2021  Edit critic review
The Last Billionaire (1934) Charles Davy Le Dernier Milliardaire is nearly a satire on financiers and dictators butalways, as soon as Clair has let off a few warning shots, someone, rings the bell for the end of the round.
Posted Feb 04, 2021  Edit critic review
(undefined) Charles Davy The first of its four sections I would call the most powerfully enchanting piece of documentary anyone has yet made.
Posted Feb 04, 2021  Edit critic review
Dela i lyudi (Men and Jobs) (1932) John Grierson With Men and Jobs we have light in the East again.
Posted Feb 04, 2021  Edit critic review
(undefined) Paul Rotha The Arnold Fanck brigade of Alpine Endeavour has, I am sorry to say, suffered a landslide in Universal's new epic of the North.
Posted Feb 04, 2021  Edit critic review
Footlight Parade (1933) Campbell Nairne The film will have interest for admirers of James Cagney. He surprisingly reveals gifts as a singer and tap-dancer.
Posted Feb 04, 2021  Edit critic review
(undefined) D.F. Taylor This film has a magnificent opportunity to pattern the landscape of history. But theatrical conventions still tie the hands of British producers.
Posted Feb 04, 2021  Edit critic review
The Mayor of Hell (1933) Paul Rotha It is one of the most stimulating American films I have seen for months.
Posted Feb 04, 2021  Edit critic review
Poil de Carotte (1932) Paul Rotha It has much which gives pleasure and much which is ridiculous; an odd mixture of the vices and virtues of cinema.
Posted Feb 04, 2021  Edit critic review
Deserter (1933) Paul Rotha Technically, the film is as uneven as the presentation of its theme. Moments of inspired direction and brilliant cutting are alternated with long passages of mediocre cinematics which do not seem the work of the same man.
Posted Feb 04, 2021  Edit critic review
La Maternelle (1933) Paul Rotha This is in many ways an admirable film, most intelligently made, and played on all sides with a tenderness and sensibility that compel our respect.
Posted Feb 04, 2021  Edit critic review
Tugboat Annie (1933) Paul Rotha It is worth staying if only to see Beery's heroic exploit (I am not sure exactly what he does) which is very well staged.
Posted Feb 04, 2021  Edit critic review
(undefined) Paul Rotha As a director of imagination, Trenker is obviously unfamiliar with his job and is hardly more than amateurishly capable as the hero.
Posted Feb 04, 2021  Edit critic review
The Stranger's Return (1933) D.F. Taylor This corn-belt epic is an important contribution to a real movie renaissance that is taking place in American cinema. Such films as State Fair, The Man Who Dared, and The Stranger's Return are shaping a naturalistic movie.
Posted Feb 03, 2021  Edit critic review
Twenty-Six Commissars (1932) Ralph Bond Twenty-six Commissars was directed by Shengelaya. His selection of types is superb. So also is the camera work.
Posted Feb 03, 2021  Edit critic review
Zoo in Budapest (1933) Paul Rotha This is one of the best films to come from Hollywood this year.
Posted Feb 03, 2021  Edit critic review
Bitter Sweet (1933) D.F. Taylor For the definitely imaginative camera work and setting Bitter Sweet marks a real advance on anything yet produced in England.
Posted Feb 03, 2021  Edit critic review
The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) Forsyth Hardy The Private Life of Henry VIII gives Korda an assured place among the important directors in contemporary cinema.
Posted Feb 03, 2021  Edit critic review
The Song of Songs (1933) Forsyth Hardy In Mamoulian's hands Marlene Dietrich gives the performance of her career, achieving through restraint an impressiveness seldom achieved in her former films.
Posted Feb 03, 2021  Edit critic review
I Was a Spy (1933) Paul Rotha I raise my hat to Gaumont for attempting a film of serious stature, but replace it when I see the spirit in which the deed is done.
Posted Feb 03, 2021  Edit critic review
The Scarlet Empress (1934) Paul Rotha This glamorous, sadistic fabrication appears one long procession of derivative ideas.
Posted Feb 03, 2021  Edit critic review
Viva Villa! (1934) D.F. Taylor The whole film fails as a social document; revolutionary ideals become purposeless when there are no causes.
Posted Feb 03, 2021  Edit critic review
Blood Money (1933) Paul Rotha The high-spot climax... is in the true Griffith tradition and as old as cinema itself, but because of its grand cutting and use of sound, gets across on a modern audience better than anything else of its kind that I have seen this year.
Posted Feb 03, 2021  Edit critic review
October (1928) D.F. Taylor This film is the work of a master, one of the few directors who have left an indelible stamp on the work of film producers all over the world.
Posted Feb 03, 2021  Edit critic review
Man of Aran (1934) Ralph Bond Flaherty's world is a world of dreams; it exists only in his imagination. Unfortunately, fairy tales, however beautiful and artistic, have nothing to do with documentary.
Posted Feb 03, 2021  Edit critic review
Queen Christina (1933) Paul Rotha [Garbo] contrives, though Heaven knows how, to surpass all the badness they thrust upon her.
Posted Feb 03, 2021  Edit critic review
Eskimo (1933) Paul Rotha Better than the usual run of adapted plays.
Posted Feb 03, 2021  Edit critic review
Catherine the Great (1934) Paul Rotha It is polished; it is artificial; and it is theatrical in treatment. But if you are tolerantly disposed towards romantic costume pictures, the insignificance of all this pomp and petulance will not arise to disturb your entertainment.
Posted Feb 03, 2021  Edit critic review
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