Tom Milne

"It is pleasant enough, but somehow - despite excellent performances by Poitier [and Belafonte] (...) it never quite clicks."  

"This was never quite the major assault on sexism and male chauvinism it set itself up to be. For one thing (...) [the parts] are much better than the whole"  

"A marvellous Western (...) [A film with] visual splendour and muscular poetry"  

"Huston skilfully breaks up the action (...) working subtle variations on his groupings with the aid of superb deep-focus camera-work by Karl Freund"  

"A caustically witty look at the American South (...) [A] brilliantly idiosyncratic script"  

"Interminable plod through the story of Henry the Eighth and Anne Boleyn"

"Finely crafted, though, with some marvellous camerawork (Franz Planer), an outstanding performance from Heston"  

"As a diatribe against all that is worst in human nature, it has moments dipped in pure vitriol"  

"It's still great: half comic fairytale, half brutal fact, it reflects the essential ambiguity of its heroes (...) It has the true quality of folk legend."  

"It works magnificently because Kozintsev has thought his interpretation right through to the end with complete consistency, and gives the film a genuinely exciting epic sweep."  

"What makes it a prototype 'film noir' is the vein of unease missing from the two earlier versions of Hammett's novel (...) [Never] quite losing sight of this central abyss of darkness"  

"A hugely enjoyable thriller (...) It is studded with great scenes (...) Terrific camerawork from Russell Metty throughout."  

"Lang later made much better, much less touted films. Still impressive, all the same, especially in the build-up to the lynching sequence."  

"A marvellous movie, shot in stunning black-and-white by Freddie Francis."  

"A dazzlingly balletic comedy (...) The rocks make for one of the great Keaton action gags"  

"An incredible technical accomplishment, but also an almost Pirandellian exploration of the nature of cinematic reality."  

"You are unlikely ever to see a better version than this, caressed by Gregg Toland's deep focus camerawork, embalmed by Wyler's direction and (...) galvanised by some superlative performances."  

"Certainly one of Vidor's best films, a silent masterpiece which turns a realistically caustic eye on the illusionism of the American dream."  

"An elegant and eloquent film"  

"The film bowls along magnificently in a weird mixture of genuine emotion, absurdity and poetic fantasy."