--- title: "Cavalcade: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/cavalcade/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/cavalcade" critics_score: 71 critics_reviews: 7 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Cavalcade (1933): what the critics said Critics' score 71 from 7 reviews: 5 positive, 0 mixed, 2 negative. Most critics admire Cavalcade, and the warmest notices are the ones written on its release. The praise clusters on Frank Lloyd’s direction and on the scale of the production: the sweep of the narrative across decades, the restraint with which it is handled, and the care taken over settings and casting. Diana Wynyard is named again and again as the performance that carries the picture, with Clive Brook and Frank Lawton also singled out. The spread is wide and it runs along the years. The two negative reviews are the recent ones. Time Out finds the film sunk by snobbery, sentimentality and jingoism, with a staginess inherited from Coward’s play. Film Stories calls it sickly and pandering, its melodrama wearing thin early, while conceding some robust performances. Even the broadly approving New Yorker notes that the plot drags and that most of the acting is ordinary. There are no mixed verdicts: critics either warm to it or do not. ## Los Angeles Times Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 8 January 1933. Cavalcade is the greatest picture Fox has ever made and many believe it to be the finest achievement of the talking film, with an unbroken sweep and flow of narrative that gains from its transfer to screen. It has universal appeal due to its humanness and enormous sympathy captured by the cast, with Frank Lloyd cheered for his intelligent, inspired guidance. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/story/2022-09-20/from-the-archive-template-do-not-publish) ## The New York Times — Mordaunt Hall Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 6 January 1933. The Fox adaptation of Noel Coward's stage panorama is a most affecting and impressive picture, unfurled with marked good taste and restraint that leaves many eyes misty. It excels in meticulous attention to detail in settings and casting, with standout performances by Clive Brook, Diana Wynyard, and Frank Lawton. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/movies/bestpictures/cavalcade-re.html) ## Variety — Kauf. Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 1933. Cavalcade is about as well made as that subject could have been made for the screen and will call forth all the adjectives critics can think up, bringing Fox and Frank Lloyd eulogies and artistic praise. It is the way the thing was put on celluloid that counts, with very good performances by almost the entire cast, especially Diana Wynyard, and unison created by the producer and director. [Read the review](https://variety.com/1933/film/reviews/cavalcade-1200410655/) ## The Hollywood Reporter — THR Staff Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 5 January 2018. The review praises the film as a fine, splendid document of war's follies and an effective historic pageantry. It singles out Diana Wynyard's exquisite performance as the standout element carrying the picture. [Read the review](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/cavalcade-review-1933-movie-1071879/) ## The New Yorker — John C. Mosher Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 7 January 1933. Cavalcade is a highly memorable picture and extraordinarily adept bit of showmanship, spectacular often and more satisfactory than the London play on which it is based. It thrills and strikes with the anguish and triumphs of an English family across historical events, though the plot drags somewhat and most acting is ordinary except for Diana Wynyard's finesse. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1933/01/14/the-twentieth-century) ## Time Out — TM Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 10 September 2012. The critic finds the film overwhelmed by snobbery, sentimentality and jingoism in its pageant of a British family's experiences across decades of war and loss. The staginess, dictated by Noël Coward, compounds the tear-jerking contrivances. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/cavalcade) ## Film Stories — Sarah Cook Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 12 March 2024. The critic views the Best Picture winner as a sickly and pandering mess whose melodramatic shtick quickly grows old, though it has some high points and robust performances. It is best suited for Oscar completists. [Read the review](https://filmstories.co.uk/features/cavalcade-a-best-picture-oscar-winner-that-hasnt-aged-too-well/) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/cavalcade.md