Word: screening
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...picture's theme is the rise of Na tional Socialism from the gutter to the June 1934 Blood Purge. The film is a sober attempt to screen history. It is forceful as propaganda, sharp as cartooning, interesting as journalism, sometimes exciting as cinema. But it is inadequate to its subject. In part this failure is due to the attempt to pack 16 of the most crowded, crucial, sinister years of modern German history into 101 minutes of lively cinema. In part it is due to the fact that Nazi characters and motives are simplified to the point of absurdity...
...Catholic priest, and gets away with it so gracefully that Crosby, the priesthood and the audience are equal gainers. It offers, in the performance of nutcracker-faced, 56-year-old Barry Fitzgerald, the finest, funniest and most touching portrayal of old age that has yet reached the screen. In so doing, it points the way to the great films which will be possible when Hollywood becomes aware of the richness and delight of human character observed for its own sake...
Cowboys, Indians, soldiers and lots of noisy gunpowder--a throw-back to the days when Tom Mix, Ken Maynard and Buck Jones used to hold the Saturday matinee spellbound. Remember the thrill when troops of soldiers thundered across the screen leaving their loved ones and a trail of dust behind them. And the Indians--how vicious they looked in their war paint, and how quiet they were in sneaking up on an encampment of sleeping men. But what a grand lot of noise there was when battle took place! Those were the days...
...Between Two Worlds (Warner), ready for release, is the second screen version of Sutton Vane's morality play (Outward Bound) about death and judgment...
...film was made with care and skill, but the intricate military story is told too doggedly, with too much commentary. A general high-surface of tact and politeness reduces the film's forces as a record of truth. Most unfortunate touch is the finale between the off-screen voices of a British and a U.S. soldier philosophizing vaguely about the postwar world, signing off with a glad, excruciating: "Wot a job! Bringin' back the smiles to kids' faces...