Critic Crist dies at 90

Film critic Roger Ebert in 1999 admitted to the Chicago Tribune in 1999 that “the high profile of film critics can be traced to Judith Crist at the New York Herald Tribune in the early ’60s.”

No doubt, today’s film critics look to Judith Crist as the father or rather mother of film criticism. Her bitter commentary changed the face of movie criticism over 50 years ago. Crist however passed on Tuesday. She was aged 90. Judith died in New York after a long illness according to her son, Steven Crist.

The late Judith began her career in film critic and journalism with the New York Herald Tribune 67 years ago. She eventually became the newspaper’s full time critic becoming the first woman to occupy the slot in a major American newspaper. She flourished in her duty maintaining her office for twenty years. Crist’s critics virtually caused filmmakers to quake in fear.

Her success with the Herald Tribune elevated her even further to being the first film critic for New York magazine. NBC Today show was her next platform of excellence where she thrived between 1964 and 1973.

Crist was excellent at her work, combining her bluntness with funny comments. Some movies such as “The Sound of Music” and “Cleopatra” were victims of her strong criticism. Famous filmmaker Billy Wilder admitted that “Inviting her to review one of your pictures is like inviting the Boston Strangler to massage your neck.”

Crist’s attack on “Cleopatra” earned her a ban from screenings by Fox. This virtually “led to every newspaper in the country saying, ‘Hey, we ought to get a real movie critic.’”

Before her demise, Crist was an adjunct professor at the Columbia School of Journalism from 1958 until last February, teaching critical and expository writing. She was married to William B. Crist a public-relations executive and educator who died in 1993. Their marriage was on for 47 years. She is survived by her son and two nieces, Helen McGough and Edith Klein.

One of her lines; “The distinction of Hud is that it presents the unpleasant truth about people without the pretty packaging…. And perhaps the most encouraging aspect is that the making of such a film and our appreciation of it indicates that we are getting out of the lollipop stage at last.”