In the words of Bosley Crowther: A Birthday Tribute

Bosley Crowther was a film critic for the New York Times during much of Hollywood's 'golden age', 1940-1967, and an author.  In his NY Times obituary from 1981--not unbiased, obviously--it was suggested that he was "the most influential commentator in the country on the art and industry of motion pictures".  I've come across dozens of his reviews online in the years that I've been a classic film enthusiast.  If you agree or don't agree with his assessment of the films, you can't help but admire his use of language.  It's his constant breezy and often brilliant and cutting wit that make his reviews a joy to read, and in some cases will induce a hearty belly laugh.  His birthday is July 13, so on this day I celebrate him with quoting a tiny sampling of his reviews, with links to the reviews and dates of publication indicated.

SANTA FE TRAIL (12/21/40):  "'Santa Fe Trail', Which is Chiefly a Picture about Something Else, Opens at the Strand."

"Mr. Flynn plays Jeb Stuart, who was famous for his flowing red beard, with but the trace of a moustache on his lip. A shorn and fragile Jeb, one may complain; yet think what the fans would say if Mr. Flynn had to play a romantic role behind a mess of herbage!"

AND NOW TOMORROW (11/23/44)

"As the lady, Miss Loretta Young gives a performance which may best and most graphically be compared to a Fanny Brice imitation of a glamorous movie queen. Whatever it was that this actress never had, she still hasn't got. Alan Ladd, just returned from the Army, plays the doctor with a haughty air that must be tough on his patients—and is likely to be equally tough on yours."





THE SONG OF BERNADETTE (1/20/44)
"Faith has the strength to move mountains, but it is sorely taxed in sustaining this mountainous film."

ALL ABOUT EVE (10/14/50)"If anything, Mr. Mankiewicz has been even too full of fight—-too full of cutlass-edged derision of Broadway's theatrical tribe. Apparently his dormant dander and his creative zest were so aroused that he let himself go on this picture and didn't know when to stop. For two hours and eighteen minutes have been taken by him to achieve the ripping apart of an illusion which might have been comfortably done in an hour and a half."


IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (12/23/46)
"For a turkey dinner, with Christmas trimmings, is precisely what's cooking at the end of this quaint and engaging modern parable on virtue being its own reward. And a whole slew of cozy small-town characters who have gone through a lot in the past two hours are waiting around to eat it—or, at least, to watch James Stewart gobble it up."




THE THREE MUSKETEERS (10/21/46)"The abundant talents and resources of Alexandra Dumas, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the Technicolor company and Lana Turner's couturier contribute just about equally to the over-all effect of Metro's splendiferous production of Dumas' 'The Three Musketeers.'"





THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI (6/10/48)
"As producer of the picture, Mr. Welles might better have fired himself—as author, that is—and hired somebody to give Mr. Welles, director, a better script."


BONNIE & CLYDE (4/14/67)
"It is a piece of bald-faced slapstick that treats the hideous depredations of that sleazy, moronic pair as though they were as full of fun and frolic as the jazz-age cut-ups in 'Thoroughly Modern Millie'.