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Illustrated Daily News (Los Angeles)

Tomatometer-approved publication.

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Rating Title | Year Author Quote
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) Ezra Goodman The picture benefits particularly by the UN theme, which takes the movie out of the routine melodrama class and gives it added stature.
Posted Jan 16, 2026  Edit critic review
A Place in the Sun (1951) Darr Smith Stevens tells his story imaginatively and with unflagging interest. You will think about - maybe even be haunted by - his telling for a long time.
Posted Jan 13, 2026  Edit critic review
Out of the Past (1947) Marie Mesmer It offers exciting sequences, unexpected twists and turns, crisp dialog, and sustained interest throughout.
Posted Jan 09, 2026  Edit critic review
Alice in Wonderland (1951) Ezra Goodman "Alice in Disneyland" is in the best Disney tradition of cuteness, sentimentality and pastel-toned animation. It stresses the wacky as much as the witty and strives valiantly but not always successfully to capture the fragile nonsense of Carroll's words.
Posted Jan 09, 2026  Edit critic review
Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939) Harry Mines Anatole Litvak's direction has given the exciting incidents the proper punch.
Posted Dec 24, 2025  Edit critic review
Cinderella (1950) Darr Smith Walt Disney's Cinderella -- without any qualification that comes to mind -- is one of the most delightful bits of entertainment ever shown on a screen.
Posted Mar 11, 2025  Edit critic review
Only Yesterday (1933) Eleanor Barnes Boles is at his best as the man. Reginald Denny acquits himself excellently ln the comedy part. To the youngster, Jimmy Butler, go some flowery compliments.
Posted Apr 23, 2024  Edit critic review
The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) Howard McClay You'll get a genuine delight out of watching Guinness and company romp through this satirically funny film.
Posted Apr 17, 2024  Edit critic review
The Model and the Marriage Broker (1952) Howard McClay Outcome of this venture is never in doubt, but Mae's future is. The film closes with a downright charming scene between Mae and -- well, you go find out for yourself.
Posted Apr 16, 2024  Edit critic review
Road to Ruin (1934) Charles Vanda [It's] a picture designed to help those who believe babies are born in cabbage patches... An extremely capable cast tell this rather, outmoded story, and while they work energetically, they are quite handicapped by inferior photography and slow direction.
Posted Apr 15, 2024  Edit critic review
The Big Heat (1953) Howard McClay The Big Heat is a pretty rough cinematic journey, but for those who like this kind of going the film, packs a big, brutal wallop.
Posted Apr 11, 2024  Edit critic review
Sabrina (1954) Howard McClay Technically, the film scores on all counts, with Charles Lang's lensing and Frederick Hollander's music deserving of special credit.
Posted Mar 28, 2024  Edit critic review
National Velvet (1944) Virginia Wright There's a heartwarming quality about most of the characterizations, the action is valid, and the humor arising from family relationships is always sound.
Posted Mar 26, 2024  Edit critic review
Westward the Women (1951) David Bongard MGM's off-beat style of western has a good many chuckles in general and a more particular study of the method our forefathers used in outfitting an expedition to a new golden state.
Posted Mar 02, 2024  Edit critic review
State Fair (1933) Eleanor Barnes It is a homely little yarn, too, yet the people in it for moat port are pretty decent, their likes and dislikes are not very pronounced, their problems are the same as confront the average person.
Posted Nov 10, 2023  Edit critic review
The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933) Eleanor Barnes Frank Capra, an imaginative director, with the aid of Joseph Walker, his cameraman, preserved the misty illusion through delicately screened photography and an interesting presentation of Nils Asther as the Chinese general.
Posted Apr 25, 2023  Edit critic review
The Black Pirate (1926) Eleanor Barnes Suspense, real daring, action, love and romance are all revealed in this play.
Posted Mar 23, 2023  Edit critic review
The Dark Angel (1935) Eleanor Barnes Timely in context, excellent in photography, and interestingly presenting Merle Oberon as a new star.
Posted Mar 10, 2023  Edit critic review
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) Howard McClay A lush up-to-date Technicolored version of the Anita Loos-Joseph Fields musical comedy.
Posted Mar 08, 2023  Edit critic review
Back to Bataan (1945) Virginia Wright Beulah Bondi gives a strong performance as the American school teacher, and Ducky Louie plays the child hero.
Posted Feb 01, 2023  Edit critic review
The Lady Eve (1941) Virginia Wright It preaches no moral; it never heard of logic, but it is hilariously funny, consistently bright and ingenious.
Posted Dec 29, 2022  Edit critic review
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) Harry Mines Though [the characters] may owe their existence to the agility of the sketcher's pen and the vividness of the sketcher's imagination, still the emotions reflected on their countenances are so lifelike that one soon regards them as flesh and blood people.
Posted Dec 21, 2022  Edit critic review
Gentleman's Agreement (1947) Virginia Wright Gentleman's Agreement isn't the first film to tackle the subject of racial prejudice on the screen, but it carries on the fight with effective weapons.
Posted Nov 16, 2022  Edit critic review
The Maltese Falcon (1941) Virginia Wright Its excitement springs not only from its unpredictable story line, and the suspense with which Huston traces each pilot development, but from the precision of each character delineation.
Posted Nov 16, 2022  Edit critic review
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) Virginia Wright In its own engaging way, Meet Me In St. Louis is rather wonderful. And if it's typical at all of what Hollywood has in store -- then 1945 should see an improvement in the escapist films, at least.
Posted Nov 10, 2022  Edit critic review
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) Virginia Wright Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is brilliantly amusing. It presents a pride of country amidst typically American self conscious laughter. Its flag waving is of the most subtle kind, because it makes you laugh.
Posted Nov 09, 2022  Edit critic review
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) Harry Mines James Stewart has never been better as the young man who fights for truth and right All the performances are first rate, for that matter.
Posted Nov 09, 2022  Edit critic review
King Kong (1933) Eleanor Barnes While the cast is adequate, much of the fascination is in the imaginative scenes.
Posted Nov 09, 2022  Edit critic review
The Shop Around the Corner (1940) Harry Mines Lubitsch at his most exhilarating. Go see it.
Posted Nov 07, 2022  Edit critic review
Stalag 17 (1953) Howard McClay William Holden, as Sefton, is tops, registers solidly with another one of his well-shaded screen-portrayals.
Posted Nov 05, 2022  Edit critic review
The President's Mystery (1936) Jay Rosely [The President's Mystery] has all the elements of good drama, together with a soundly drawn romance, against its political background.
Posted Oct 25, 2022  Edit critic review
The Thief of Bagdad (1924) L.B. Fowler It may be said without any exaggeration that The Thief of Bagdad is the greatest cinema of its kind ever to be projected on the silver screen; a truly colossal effort founded and produced upon pure entertainment principles.
Posted Oct 22, 2022  Edit critic review
Shanghai Express (1932) Eleanor Barnes Anna May Wong... who achieved such fame on the London stage, was easily the outstanding performer in the cast.
Posted Oct 21, 2022  Edit critic review
High Noon (1952) Howard McClay Director Fred Zinnemann's expert hand has made High Noon one of the best film western of all time.
Posted Sep 20, 2022  Edit critic review
An American in Paris (1951) Howard McClay The best film musical Hollywood has dished up in years. From beginning to end, this lavish Technicolor production rates superior.
Posted Aug 02, 2022  Edit critic review
How Green Was My Valley (1941) Virginia Wright Director John Ford and screenwriter Philip Dunne have retained the story's essentially lyric charm and compressed its many angled plot. The result is a poetic, moving and photographically superb motion picture.
Posted Jul 26, 2022  Edit critic review
Hobson's Choice (1954) Howard McClay An exhilarating film frolic.
Posted Mar 30, 2022  Edit critic review
From Here to Eternity (1953) Howard McClay It's a topnotch example of what Hollywood can do In transforming the novel to celluloid. As a matter of fact, its our opinion that [James] Jones' work bene fits considerably by the conversion.
Posted Mar 15, 2022  Edit critic review
Mrs. Miniver (1942) Virginia Wright Here, at last, is a film which doesn't fumble its great and simple message, a deeply humane and humorous film more stirring than any drama of vast spectacle.
Posted Jan 05, 2022  Edit critic review
The Power and the Glory (1933) Eleanor Barnes The Power and the Glory is one of the great pictures of the talkie era.
Posted Dec 17, 2021  Edit critic review
Nightmare Alley (1947) Virginia Wright Both a shrewdly observant portrait of gullible humanity and a sharp study of the rise and fall of a "hustler" who feeds on the public's credulity.
Posted Dec 03, 2021  Edit critic review
The Great Ziegfeld (1936) Eleanor Barnes As a living, glowing, womanly monument to the memory of the man who glorified the American girl, Luis Rainer last night breathed into show business the very essence of glamour that Flo Ziegfeld Jr. emphasized during his lifetime.
Posted Dec 01, 2021  Edit critic review
Kiss Me Kate (1953) Mildred Norton As the feuding pair, Howard Keel and Kathryn Grayson handle their roles superbly.
Posted Nov 18, 2021  Edit critic review
It Happened at the Inn (1943) Virginia Wright [It Happened at the Inn] has the finest collection of characterizations seen on the screen in a number of years.
Posted Nov 18, 2021  Edit critic review
The Wizard of Oz (1939) Harry Mines Caught la the relentless clutch of a Kansas Cyclone, Dorothy's whirlwind excursion into a world peopled by witches, fairies, Winkles, Munchkins and other quaint folk provides swift and exhilarating adventure.
Posted Oct 14, 2021  Edit critic review
His Girl Friday (1940) Virginia Wright Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant are perfectly paired. Their comedy performances set a new speed record on the screen.
Posted Oct 14, 2021  Edit critic review
Sunset Boulevard (1950) Darr Smith This is a picture to haunt the mind with Its tragedy, Its bitterness and Its sharp hardness.
Posted Oct 11, 2021  Edit critic review
Leave Her to Heaven (1945) Virginia Wright Overlong In the telling and continuously melodramatic, Leave Her to Heaven is nevertheless a plausible version of the book.
Posted Sep 29, 2021  Edit critic review
Them! (1954) Howard McClay Under Gordon Douglas high-geared direction, Them emerges as a top science-fiction film, and all performances are tops. Sid Hickox' lensing, art director Stanley Fleischer's sets and film director Thomas Reilly's cutting are all excellent.
Posted Sep 28, 2021  Edit critic review
Gun Crazy (1950) David Bongard There were times in the criminal's getway car when the continuous camera shot didn't seem to break for hours, all the time the drama builds up to a tremendous peak with just throw away lines from the principals.
Posted Sep 14, 2021  Edit critic review
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