- Born
- Died
- Birth nameFrancis Bosley Crowther Jr.
- Bosley Crowther was born on July 13, 1905 in Lutherville, Maryland, USA. He was married to Florence Marks. He died on March 7, 1981 in Mount Kisco, New York, USA.
- SpouseFlorence Marks(January 20, 1933 - March 7, 1981) (his death)
- Became rather notorious for being one of a handful of critics (John Simon was another) who wrote a negative review of the 1967 film classic "Bonnie and Clyde", an act which singlehandedly almost caused the film to fail at the box office. Crowther was at that time film critic for the New York Times. He had previously written a highly critical assessment of Laurence Olivier's acclaimed performance in his 1965 film version of Shakespeare's "Othello", because Olivier played the role in blackface - this despite the fact that Olivier was eventually Oscar-nominated for his performance.
- Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume One, 1981-1985, pages 197-199. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998.
- Commentators tend to pinpoint Crowther's pan of Bonnie and Clyde (1967) as triggering the end of his career as a critic. However, Andrew Sarris's Village Voice article "The Fall of Bosley Caesar," about Crowther's isolated rave review of Cleopatra (1963), shows how out of step with younger New York critics he already was by 1963.
- After his retirement, he championed the low-budget independent comedy The Plot Against Harry (1989), which did not go on nationwide release until after his death.
- The most exciting disclosure is the new and advanced construction pattern of those two projects on Third Avenue. They are to be not single, but 'double-deckers' - or two theatres - beneath one roof, one theatre above the other... The conception of an outright duplex theatre, or two complete facilities in one, is, indeed, the most original and dynamic conception advanced for movie-theatre construction since the great movie palaces came...and went: September 3rd, 1961. New York Times.
- [on 'Bonnie and Clyde'] It is a piece of bald-faced slapstick that treats the hideous depredations of that sleazy, moronic pair as though they were as full of fun and frolic as the jazz-age cut-ups in 'Thoroughly Modern Millie'. Evidently,there are people, including some critics, who feel that the deliberately buffoonized picture achieves some sort of meaningful statement for the time in which we live.
- [reviewing Eva (1962) in 1965] There's not much wonder that practically everybody who had anything to do with the making of this film was offering excuses and alibis when it opened in Europe in 1962. Mr. Losey said the producer ruined it by cutting. The rejoinder is: He didn't cut it enough.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content