The Film Daily

The Film Daily

September 3, 1922 cover of The Film Daily with child actress Baby Peggy
Categories	Film
First issue	1913 (daily in 1915)
Final issue	1970
Country	United States
Language	English

The Film Daily was a daily publication that existed from 1915 to 1970 in the United States. For 55 years, Film Daily was the main source of news on the film and television industries. It covered the latest trade news, film reviews, financial updates, information on court cases and union difficulties, and equipment breakthroughs.

Publication history

The publication was originated by Wid Gunning in 1913 (though not as a daily), and the publication retained "Wid" in the title until 1922.^[1]

The publications were broken into five parts:

• Part One: Wid's Film and Film Folk, 1915–1916, Wid's Independent Review of Feature Films, 1916–1918; Wid's Daily, 1918–1921; and Film Daily, 1922-1927
• Part Two: Film Daily, 1928–1937
• Part Three: Film Daily, 1938–1948
• Part Four: Film Daily, 1949–1959
• Part Five: Film Daily, 1960–1970
• Series Two: Film Daily Yearbook and Predecessors, 1915–1970

No index of Film Daily currently exists, though Primary Source Microfilm did republish the entire periodical on microfilm in 1990, in a 125 reel set.

The Media History Digital Library has scans of the archive of Film Daily from 1918–48 available online as of 2015.

Annual Critics' Poll

Film Daily was best known for its annual year-end critics' poll, in which hundreds of professional movie critics from around the country submitted their votes for the best films of the year, which the magazine then tallied and published as a top ten list. It was not uncommon for a film to win for a year that actually came after the year it first premiered, since the rollover date for each year's eligibility cycle was typically November 1 and the film was required to be in general release.^[2] Gone with the Wind, for example, premiered in 1939 but didn't become eligible until 1941 when it switched from a roadshow format to a general release.^[3] No winner was named in 1950 because for that year only, separate categories were polled for Drama of the Year and Musical of the Year (won by Sunset Boulevard and Annie Get Your Gun, respectively).^[4]

Critics' Poll Results

Year	Winning film	Runner-up	Cite(s)
1922	Orphans of the Storm	Grandma's Boy	[5]
1923	The Covered Wagon	Merry-Go-Round	[5]
1924	The Thief of Bagdad	The Sea Hawk	[5]
1925	The Gold Rush	The Unholy Three	[5]
1926	Variety	Ben-Hur	[5]
1927	Beau Geste	The Big Parade	[5]
1928	The Patriot	Sorrell and Son	[5]
1929	Disraeli	The Broadway Melody	[5]
1930	All Quiet on the Western Front	Abraham Lincoln	[6]
1931	Cimarron	Street Scene	[7]
1932	Grand Hotel	The Champ	[8]
1933	Cavalcade	42nd Street	[9]
1934	The Barretts of Wimpole Street	The House of Rothschild	[10]
1935	David Copperfield	The Lives of a Bengal Lancer	[11]
1936	Mutiny on the Bounty	Mr. Deeds Goes to Town	[12]
1937	The Life of Emile Zola	The Good Earth	[13]
1938	Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs	You Can't Take It with You	[14]
1939	Goodbye, Mr. Chips	Mr. Smith Goes to Washington	[15]
1940	Rebecca	The Grapes of Wrath	[16]
1941	Gone with the Wind	Sergeant York	[3]
1942	Mrs. Miniver	How Green Was My Valley	[17]
1943	Random Harvest	For Whom the Bell Tolls	[18]
1944	Going My Way	The Song of Bernadette	[19]
1945	Wilson	A Tree Grows in Brooklyn	[20]
1946	The Lost Weekend	The Green Years	[21]
1947	The Best Years of Our Lives	The Jolson Story	[22]
1948	Gentleman's Agreement	Johnny Belinda	[23]
1949	The Snake Pit	The Red Shoes	[24]
1950	category not polled	-	[5]
1951	A Place in the Sun	A Streetcar Named Desire	[25]
1952	High Noon	The Quiet Man	[26]
1953	From Here to Eternity	Shane	[27]
1954	The Caine Mutiny	On the Waterfront	[27]
1955	Mister Roberts	Marty	[27]
1956	The King and I	Giant	[27]
1957	Around the World in 80 Days	Sayonara	[28]
1958	The Bridge on the River Kwai	Cat on a Hot Tin Roof	[27]
1959	Anatomy of a Murder	The Diary of Anne Frank	[27]
1960	The Apartment	Elmer Gantry	[27]
1961	The Guns of Navarone	The Hustler	[27]
1962	The Manchurian Candidate	The Music Man	[27]
1963	Tom Jones	Hud	[29]
1964	My Fair Lady	Becket	[30]
1965	The Sound of Music	Ship of Fools	[31]
1966	Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?	The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming	[32]
1967	In the Heat of the Night	Bonnie and Clyde	[33]
1968	The Lion in Winter	Rosemary's Baby	[34][35]
1969	Midnight Cowboy	Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid	[36]

References

1. "The Film Daily (January – March 1935) Description". Media History Digital Library. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
2. "53 Feature Find Places on Poll Honor Roll". Film Daily: 4. January 14, 1941.
3. Aitchison, Marion (January 14, 1942). "Times Reviewers Again Pick Eight Out of Ten Winners". St. Petersburg Times (St. Petersburg, Florida): 13.
4. "Holden and Swanson Get Film Daily Nod". Spokane Daily Chronicle (Spokane, Washington): 16. November 6, 1950.
5. Gottesman, Ronald; Geduld, Harry M. (1972). Guidebook to Film: An Eleven-in-one Reference. Holt McDougal. pp. 190, 192. ISBN 9780030852923.
6. "The Ten Best Pictures of 1930". January 22, 1931: 1.
7. ""Cimarron" Heads Ten Best Films". Film Daily: 1. January 18, 1932.
8. ""Grand Hotel" Leads Ten Best List". Film Daily: 1. January 11, 1933.
9. ""Cavalcade" Heads Ten Best Films". Film Daily: 1. January 10, 1934.
10. ""Barretts" Leads Ten Best Pictures". Film Daily: 1. January 3, 1935.
11. ""Copperfield" Heads 1935 'Ten Best'". Film Daily: 1. January 9, 1936.
12. ""Mutiny on the Bounty" Heads '36 "Ten Best"". Film Daily: 1. January 7, 1937.
13. "Critics Vote "Emile Zola" Year's Best". Film Daily: 1. January 6, 1938.
14. "Critics Vote 'Snow White' 1938's Best". Film Daily: 1. January 12, 1939.
15. "Critics Vote "Mr. Chips" As '39's Best". Film Daily: 1. January 12, 1940.
16. ""Rebecca" Wins Critics' Poll". Film Daily: 1. January 14, 1941.
17. "Times Picks Six of Ten Best Films". St. Petersburg Times (St. Petersburg, Florida): 13. January 13, 1943.
18. "'Random Harvest' Voted Best Film". San Jose Evening News (San Jose, California): 16. January 18, 1944.
19. ""Way" First in 10 Best Poll". Film Daily: 1. January 15, 1945.
20. ""Wilson" Tops "10 Best" Poll". Film Daily: 1. January 14, 1946.
21. Bahn, Chester (January 8, 1947). ""Lost Weekend" Voted Best Film Feature From Hollywood in 1946". The Florence Times (Florence, Alabama): 8.
22. ""Best Years" Tops 1947 Poll". Film Daily: 1. January 12, 1948.
23. "Film Daily Lists Ten Best Movies". Evening Independent (St. Petersburg, Florida): 24. December 20, 1948.
24. "'Snake Pit' Wins Top Place in National Movie Poll". The Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh): 10. January 23, 1950.
25. "'A Place in Sun' Wins Film Poll". The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Washington): 2. March 6, 1952.
26. "Western Voted Top 1952 Film". Spokane Daily Chronicle (Spokane Washington): 11. March 9, 1953.
27. The 1963 Film Daily Year Book of Motion Pictures. New York: Wid's Films and Film Folk, Inc. 1963. pp. 119–125.
28. "Todd Movie Voted Best Of Year". Daytona Beach Morning Herald (Daytona Beach, Florida): 1. March 17, 1958.
29. "Tom Jones Film Picked as Best". The Day (New London, Connecticut): 1. April 10, 1964.
30. Reid, John Howard (2010). British Movie Entertainments on Vhs and DVD: A Classic Movie Fan's Guide. Lulu. p. 204. ISBN 9780557582754.
31. "'Sound of Music' Named Best". Daytona Beach Morning Journal (Daytona Beach, Florida): 2. April 11, 1966.
32. "Bits of Show Business". Milwaukee Journal (Milwaukee): Part 2, p. 6. February 5, 1967.
33. Cohen, Harold V. (March 8, 1968). "Over 300 Critics Pick 'Heat of the Night,' Too": 15.
34. "'Lion in Winter' Selected As Best Film by Reviewers". Albuquerque Journal (Albuquerque, New Mexico): 33. March 20, 1969.
35. Reid, John Howard (2006). Cinemascope 3: Hollywood Takes the Plunge. Lulu. p. 273. ISBN 9781411671881.
36. "'Cowboy,' Hoffman, Voight, Liza Win". Deseret News (Salt Lake City): 10A. March 3, 1970.

External links

• Media History Digital Library