The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures

The National Board of Review Magazine was published monthly (except for July and August) from 1926 to 1948. Each issue contains reports from committees, critical studies about film and the industry, features by directors and scholars, and film reviews from the NBR Exceptional Photoplay Committee. Below is a description of the EPC as taken from the magazine.

THE EXCEPTIONAL PHOTOPLAYS DEPARTMENT
This department seeks to include all photoplays of outstanding merit in the artistic development of the screen, with the object of bringing such pictures to the attention of discriminating readers. The opinions of a committee composed of trained students and critics of the screen are combined in an impartial review which aims to convey a comprehensive idea of the picture, covering both its excellencies and defects.

EXCEPTIONAL PHOTOPLAYS BY YEAR
Full review available for titles in red


1926
Lady Windermere's Fan

The Exquisite Sinner

A Kiss for Cinderella

The Sea Beast

La Boheme

Mare Nostrum

The Black Pirate

Oh! What a Nurse!

The Greater Glory

Variety

Nell Gwyn

The Marriage Clause

Don Juan

The Show-Off

Beau Geste

Secrets of the Soul

The Scarlet Letter

Faust

The Sorrows of Satan

The Temptress

Michael Strogoff

So's Your Old Man

Potemkin

Hotel Imperial

What Price Glory

The Return of Peter Grimm


1927
Old Ironsides

Flesh and the Devil

The Night of Love

Rose Bernd

Stark Love

The Music Master

The Yankee Clipper

Metropolis

White Gold

Madame Wants No Children

Chang (doc?)

The Street

Crime and Punishment

Seventh Heaven

The Way of All Flesh

Moon of Israel

Underworld

The Loves of Carmen

Power of Darkness

Wings

The Student Prince

Sunrise

Carmen

Wild Geese

The Golden Clown

Uncle Tom's Cabin


1928
The Gaucho

The Private Life of Helen of Troy

The Last Moment

The Circus

The Last Command

Sadie Thompson

The Crowd

The Trial of Donald Westhof

Tartuffe, The Hypocrite

The End of St. Petersburg

The Strange Case of Captain Ramper

Lonesome

The Legend of Bear's Wedding

The Patriot

Homecoming

The Yellow Ticket

The Wind

Sins of the Fathers


1929
The Fall of the House of Usher

The Passion of Jean D'Arc

Ten Days That Shook the World

The Man Who Cheated Life

Piccadilly

Krassin

Bondage

The Village of Sin

The Valiant

She Goes to War

Broadway

Paris Bound

Hallelujah

Arsenal

Disraeli

Applause

The New Babylon

The Trespasser


1930
The Love Parade

General Crack

Anna Christie

Street of Chance

Men Without Women

Sarah and Son

The Vagabond King

The Man From Blankley's

All Quiet on the Western Front

Old and New

The Silent Enemy

Journey's End

The Melody of Hearts

White Hell of Pitz Palu

The Devil's Holiday

Outward Bound

Abraham Lincoln

Old English

Morocco

Zwei Herzen im 3/4 Takt

Tol'able David

Soil

High Treason


1931
The Blue Angel

The Birth of a Nation (in sound)

Cimarron

Sous les Toits de Paris (Under the Roofs of Paris)

Rango

Playful Pan

City Lights

Father's Son

Ten Cents a Dance (Stanwyck's first)

East Lynne

Comrades of

Tabu

Trader Horn

Dishonored

The Front Page

A Connecticut Yankee

The Public Enemy

City Streets

Quick Millions

Skippy

The Beggar's Opera

Le Million

Cain and Artem

Bad Girl

Street Scene

The Guardsman

Das Lied vom Leben (The Song of Life)

Romance Sentimentale

Surrender

Around the World in Eighty Minutes


1932
Arrowsmith

Elizabeth von Oesterreich

Road to Life

Zwei Menschen (Two Souls)

Der Andere (The Other Self)

Broken Lullaby

The Battle of Gallipoli

Grand Hotel

Golden Mountains

Der Raub der Mona Lisa (The Theft of Mona Lisa)

A Nous, la Liberte

As You Desire Me

Bring'Em Back Alive

Madchen in Uniform (Girls in Uniform)

I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang

Payment Deferred

A Bill of Divorcement

Kameradschaft


1933
Cavalcade

Ivan

M

Topaze

Der Hauptmann von Koepenick (The Captain of Koepenick)

Hell on Earth

Zoo in Budapest

Hertha's Erwachen (Hertha's Awakening)

Poil de Carotte (The Red Head)

Morgenrot (Dawn)

Berkeley Square

Private Life of Henry VIII

Night Flight

Little Women


1934
Catherine the Great

Queen Christina

Eskimo

Lot in Sodom

The Constant Nymph

No Greater Glory

Viva Villa

Man of Aran

Madame Bovary

The First World War


1935
David Copperfield

Chapayev

The Gilded Lily

Sequoia

Thunder in the East

Les Miserables

The Man Who Knew Too Much

The Informer

The Youth of Maxim

Anna Karenina

La Maternelle

Maria Chapdelaine

Peasants

Mutiny on the Bounty

Crime et Chatiment (Crime and Punishment)

The New Gulliver

Le Dernier Milliardaire (The Last Multi-Millionaire


1936
The Story of Louis Pasteur

Ceiling Zero

The Petrified Forest

Modern Times

The Prisoner of Shark Island

The March of Empire

Three Women

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

The Plow that Broke the Plain

We Are From Kronstadt

Lady Vampire

Cloistered

Romeo and Juliet

The Devil is a Sissy

La Kermesse Heroique (Carnival in Flanders)

Winterset

As You Like It (opposing reviews)

Rembrandt

The Plough and the Stars


1937
Black Legion

The Eternal Mask

Camille

Janosik

Revolutionists

The Robber Symphony

The Good Earth

The Man Who Could Work Miracles

Elephant Boy

The Golem

Golgotha

Razumov

The Wedding of Paolo

A Star is Born

Marked Woman

The Wave

Night Must Fall

Make Way for Tomorrow

Captains Courageous

The Last Night

The Life of Emile Zola

They Won't Forget

Dead End

The Lower Depths

Baltic Deputy

The Spanish Earth

The Thirteen

The River

Stage Door

Conquest

Mayerling

Victoria the Great

Boy of the Streets

The Life and Loves of Beethoven

The Return of Maxim


1938
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Of Human Hearts

In Old Chicago

Peter the First

Merlusse

Jezebel

Un Carnet de Bal (Life Dances On)

To The Victor

The Adventures of Chico

General Without Buttons

Test Pilot

Troopship

Three Comrades

Yellow Jack

The Adventures of Robin Hood

Sing You Singers

Grand Illusion

The Edge of the World

The Citadel

The Lady Vanishes

The Beachcomber

Submarine

Ballerina

Professor Mamlock


1939
Stagecoach

Crisis

Weathering Heights

Love Affair

Alexander Nevsky

Confessions of a Nazi Spy

Juarez

Dark Victory

Young Mr. Lincoln

Goodbye Mr. Chips

Golden Boy

Ninotchka

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Le Quai Des Brumes (Port of Shadows)

La Fin du Jour (The End of the Day)

The Roaring Twenties

Drums Along the Mohawk


1940
Gone with the Wind

We Are Not Alone

Robert Koch

The Grapes of Wrath

Of Mice and Men

Abe Lincoln in Illinois

The Shop Around the Corner

Pinocchio

The Fight for Life

Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet

The Human Beast

The Baker's Wife

Lights Out in Europe

Rebecca

The Primrose Path

The Biscuit Eater

The Mayor's Dilemma

Foreign Correspondent

The Great Dictator

The Long Voyage Home

They Knew What They Wanted

Heritage

Fantasia

Power and the Land


1941
Night Train

High Sierra

The Lady Eve

Pepe Le Moko

That Hamilton Woman!

Meet John Doe

Rage in Heaven

Citizen Kane

The Road to Zanzibar

The Flame of New Orleans

Major Barbara

The Little Foxes

All That Money Can Buy

Dumbo

The Forgotten Village

How Green Was My Valley

The Maltese Falcon

Swamp Water

Target for Tonight

The Land


1942
Sullivan's Travels

H.M. Putnam, Esq.

Woman of the Year

To Be or Not To Be

The Male Animal

Native Land

In This Our Life

My Favorite Blond

Moscow Strikes Back

The War Against Mrs. Hadley

The Major and The Minor

Bambi

The Pied Piper

Wake Island

The Moon and Sixpence

Across the Pacific

One of Our Aircraft is Missing

Journey For Margaret

The Palm Beach Story


1943
In Which We Serve

Casablanca

Saludos Amigos

Tennesse Johnson

Shadow of a Doubt

Air Force

The Human Comedy

Desert Victory

The Moon is Down

This Land is Mine

Hangmen Also Die

The Hard Way

The Next of Kin

The Ox-Bow Incident

Prelude to War

For Whom the Bell Tolls

The North Star

Watch on the Rhine

Corvette K-225

Sahara


1944
The Battle of Russia

Guadalcanal Diary

Lassie Come Home

Happy Land

Madame Curie

Destination Tokyo

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek

The Song of Bernadette

Lifeboat

Phantom Lady

Going My Way

The Purple Heart

Address Unknown

The Adventures of Mark Twain

Gaslight

Double Indemnity

Wilson

Hail the Conquering Hero

Dragon Seed

None But the Lonely Heart

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo

The Woman in the Window

Thunder Rock

Meet Me in St. Louis

Guest in the House


1945
National Velvet

The Keys of the Kingdom

The Suspect

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Objective Burma

The Three Caballeros

Mr. Emmanuel

Colonel Blimp

The Picture of Dorian Gray

A Royal Scandal

Without Love

The Southerner

A Medal for Benny

I'll Be Seeing You

The Clock

Along Came Jones

The Way Ahead

The Body Snatcher

The Story of GI Joe

The Lost Weekend

The True Glory

The House on 92nd Street

Pride of the Marines

Spellbound

They Were Expendable

The Last Chance


1946
The Diary of a Chamber Maid

A Walk in the Sun

It Happened at the Inn

The Spiral Staircase

Burma Victory

The Seventh Veil

Open City

Three Strangers

The Sailor Takes a Wife

Henry V

From This Day Forward

Two Sisters From Boston

The Stranger

The Kid From Brooklyn

The Dark Corner

The Green Years

Make Mine Music

Spector of Rose

Dead of Night

Anna and the King of Siam

The Searching Wind

Till the End of Time

Caesar and Cleopatra

The Killers

The Big Sleep

Notorious Gentlemen

Brief Encounter

Portrait of a Woman

The Dark Mirror

The Jolson Story


1947
The Best Years of Our Lives

My Darling Clementine

Johnny Frenchman

The Welldigger's Daughter

The Yearling

It's a Wonderful Life

The Overlanders

Stairway to Heaven

13 Rue Madeleine

Lady in the Lake

Odd Man Out

Boomerang!

This Happy Breed

The Sin of Harold Diddlebock

Monsieur Verdoux

Great Expectations

Crossfire

Possessed

The Macomber Affair

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

The Hucksters

The Long Night

The Perils of Pauline

I know Where I'm Going

The Guilt of Janet Ames

Kiss of Death

Life With Father

Black Narcissus

Frieda

The Fugitive

Ride the Pink Horse

Song of Love

Tawny Pit

Shoe-Shine

Body and Soul

Man About Town

Gentleman's Agreement

The Roosevelt Story

Mourning Becomes Electra


1948
The Paradine Case

To Live in Peace

Panic

Paisan

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Road to Rio

A Double Life

Beauty and the Beast

The Raven

The Search

The Naked City

The Pearl

Call Northside 777


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