66
Metascore
9 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- Zowie! What a picture! Humor, drama, romance, action, thrill! And how!
- 90Film ThreatBobby LePireFilm ThreatBobby LePireThe film, directed by Harry Beaumont, is considered the first-ever musical, creating a template that is still followed nearly a century later.
- 75USA TodayMike ClarkUSA TodayMike ClarkTime has marched on for the second ''best-picture'' Oscar winner, but this is still a seamy story about two Midwestern sisters (Bessie Love and Anita Page) singing, hoofing and (in Page's case) teasing their way to success. [24 Feb 1989, p.3D]
- 70Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesChicago ReaderJ.R. JonesThe staging is wooden, the story insipid, and the dialogue sequences mostly painful, but the film’s integration of song, dance, and story (“100% All Talking! 100% All Singing! 100% All Dancing!”) was a clear narrative advance over the music pictures being released by Warner Brothers and Fox, and the score is great.
- 60The New YorkerPauline KaelThe New YorkerPauline KaelWhen talkies were new, this was the musical that everyone went to see.
- 50ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliAnyone approaching it today will find it horribly dated, badly produced, and filled with uninspired musical numbers and over-the-top performances. This is the kind of movie that turns off children of today's generation from titles made during the early talkie era.
- First musical to win Academy Award reeks of mothballs, but is undeniably the basis of perhaps a hundred others. At least there's an old curiosity shoppe charm and a few classic tunes.
- The story was written by Edmund Goulding, and it is one that has not taxed his imagination severely, for it merely concerns the shattered illusions and hopes of two small-time dancing and singing girls who, having been successful in their sphere, decide to give Broadway the benefit of their talents.