FARBER, MANNY FILE UNDER

I’ve been planning a post devoted to some of the screamers I’ve been compiling from the Farber anthology, but first Duncan Shepherd from the San Diego Reader:
“It is highly salutary to read what was written about such movies before any ossification of critical orthodoxy. The close-up and in-context view of, let’s say, Casablanca from Farber and from Agee will offer a truer perspective than its placement on a pedestal in spot number two on the AFI list of the 100 Greatest American Movies. Observes Farber: “Bogart’s humanitarian killer, who was disillusioned apparently at his mother’s breast, has to say some silly things and to play God too often to be as believably tough as he was in his last eight pictures.” The titles of the articles alone can be priceless: “Blaboteur” for Saboteur, “Tinkle” for For Whom the Bell Tolls, “Hamburger Hell” for The Postman Always Rings Twice…”
See also: Ken Tucker in EW, Dante A. Ciampaglia in Forbes