"Perhaps because this is a story about movie-making, and thus very real and close to home for Tourneur, he doesn't give it his usual deliberate theatricality and artifice. The symmetrical framings and groupings are still there, but they arise naturally out of the backgrounds, and do not contrive to look like paintings transferred to celluloid, (while) Tourneur is still unobtrusively meticulous about all his light sources... The characters are...all possessed of weaknesses as well as likeable qualities, and there's a satisfying humanity to their motivations and actions. Obviously though, the film's major interest and value are in its detailed documentation of movie-making at Fort Lee's Paragon Studios: exterior shots of workers arriving in the morning, and detail shots of interior stages and equipment. Would that similar films existed on Hollywood's early days!" -William K. Everson