Bosley Crowther

Bosley Crowther Bosley Crowther was an American film critic and journalist whose reviews for The New York Times shaped public and industry perceptions of cinema during the mid-20th century. Known for a vigorous prose style and firm convictions about the social purpose of film, he exerted influence over audiences, filmmakers, studios, and institutions across the Hollywood studio era, the British New Wave, and the international festival circuit including Cannes Film Festival and Venice Film Festival. His tenure intersected with figures and movements such as Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Frank Capra, Billy Wilder, and Akira Kurosawa.

Early life and education

Crowther was born in Lutherville, Maryland, and raised in a milieu connected to regional institutions such as the Johns Hopkins University and the cultural life of Baltimore. He attended preparatory schools in the Northeastern United States before matriculating at the University of Michigan, where he studied journalism and engaged with campus publications influenced by national outlets like The New York Times and The Washington Post. After graduation he undertook reporting positions at regional newspapers associated with chains such as the Newspaper Enterprise Association and worked briefly in advertising agencies connected to firms in New York City and Chicago. His early career brought him into contact with editors and writers from publications such as The Saturday Evening Post, Time, Life, and local bureaus of wire services including the Associated Press.

Career at The New York Times

Crowther joined the film criticism staff of The New York Times in the 1930s and ascended to chief film critic in 1940, succeeding predecessors who had covered cinema for the paper during the transition from silent film to talkies. During his tenure he reviewed releases from major studios including Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, and RKO Radio Pictures, as well as independent producers such as United Artists and distributors active in the postwar era. He reported from and critiqued films at major festivals including Cannes Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, and the Berlin International Film Festival, and commented on works by directors spanning continents: Charlie Chaplin, John Ford, Howard Hawks, David Lean, Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Luis Buñuel, Satyajit Ray, Akira Kurosawa, Jean Renoir, Andrei Tarkovsky, Carl Theodor Dreyer, Yasujirō Ozu, Sergei Eisenstein, and Robert Bresson. Crowther’s reviews were syndicated and discussed in outlets such as The New Yorker, Variety, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and trade publications like The Hollywood Reporter.

Critical style and influence

Crowther’s prose blended moral urgency with formal analysis, often invoking comparisons to critics and intellectuals such as H.L. Mencken, A. O. Scott, James Agee, Vladimir Nabokov, Dwight Macdonald, Clement Greenberg, and Pauline Kael. He prioritized narrative clarity, ethical themes, and performance in evaluations of actors like Marlon Brando, Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Meryl Streep, Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant, and James Stewart. His commentary intersected with debates over censorship addressed by institutions such as the Hays Code and bodies like the Motion Picture Association of America, and he frequently engaged with industry controversies involving producers such as Samuel Goldwyn and studio heads like Louis B. Mayer and Jack Warner. Crowther influenced critics, readers, and filmmakers while stirring responses from directors including Orson Welles, Elia Kazan, John Huston, Billy Wilder, and Nicholas Ray.

Major reviews and controversies

Prominent controversies included his reviews of films that became flashpoints in cultural debates: his negative appraisal of The Godfather era films and wartime films; his criticisms of On the Waterfront, which intersected with discussions involving figures like Elia Kazan, Senator Joseph McCarthy, and unions such as the International Longshoremen's Association; his reception of socially charged works by Rossellini, Bergman, and Fellini; and clashes with auteurs including Alfred Hitchcock and Akira Kurosawa over artistic intent. His reviews of adaptations of literary works by Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Steinbeck, Graham Greene, and Thomas Hardy provoked responses from authors, publishers such as Simon & Schuster and Random House, and theatrical producers on Broadway including David Merrick. Crowther’s stance on race and representation was contested in critiques of films addressing civil rights issues involving activists like Martin Luther King Jr. and organizations such as the NAACP and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), prompting debate in periodicals such as The New Republic and The Nation.

Later life and legacy

After retiring from active review duties in the late 1960s, Crowther continued to influence film discourse through essays, interviews, and mentorship of younger critics associated with outlets like The Village Voice, The Atlantic, Sight & Sound, Film Comment, and academic journals tied to film studies programs at institutions such as New York University, Columbia University, and the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. His career has been reassessed in histories of criticism alongside figures like Pauline Kael and Andrew Sarris in works published by presses including Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press. Collections of his reviews and correspondence circulate in archives at repositories such as the New York Public Library and university special collections, and his influence is cited in retrospectives curated by institutions like the Museum of Modern Art and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Crowther died in Mount Kisco, New York, leaving a contested but indelible mark on 20th-century film criticism and cultural debate.

Category:American film critics Category:People from Maryland