What was the first-ever movie reviewed using a star rating?
Almost as soon as the movie debuted as an art form, there were people ready to write about it. One of the earliest outlets dedicated to film criticism was The Optical Lantern and Cinematograph Journal, which was first published in the early 20th century. Over time, the medium has become just as popular and important as the movie business itself. Although we would say that, wouldn’t we…
One of the most recognisable parts of any professional criticism is some form of rating. Websites like Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic amalgamate various reviews into one percentage score. Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert famously gave their movies ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’, often while shouting at each other. However, when it comes to film ratings, there is one system that stands head and shoulders above the rest: stars.
Usually dished out on a scale of one to five—unless you’re the aforementioned Mr Ebert, who rather unhelpfully used a four-star system—stars have become the method du jour for ranking films across almost all forms of media. Most newspapers give out star ratings, Letterboxd puts the power in the hands of ordinary folk, and some outlets even go as far as to hand out zero or negative stars to movies they deem completely worthless. But where did this trend begin? And who do we have to thank for it?
The answer to both questions can be found via the Daily News. First published in 1919, this local New York paper might seem like your typical tabloid, but one of its earliest employees helped pave the way for a critical revolution. Irene Thirer joined the paper in 1921 as a picture caption writer. Four years later, she moved into film journalism, becoming notable for her softer, more considerate review style. In a piece on her from the New York Times, she was described as “respected and liked by both colleagues and by people who worked in the film industry, where sharp criticism and venomous gossip were as often the rule as the exception.”
According to the Wall Street Journal, Thirer was one of, if not the first critic to assign star ratings to movies. “The one-star review of The Port of Missing Girls launched the star system,” they write. “Which the newspaper promised would be ‘a permanent thing.’” Boy, they weren’t wrong about that one.
According to the WSJ, “Three stars meant ‘excellent,’ two ‘good,’ and one star meant ‘mediocre.’ And no stars at all ‘means the picture’s right bad.’” All of those quotes were attributed to none other than Irene Thirer.
The origins of the now-conventional five-star system are much murkier, although French magazine Cahiers du Cinéma may have had something to do with it. Siskel and Ebert were among the first to truly popularise the star system, although that doesn’t mean they enjoyed it. “I don’t know where the stars come from,” the WSJ quotes Ebert as saying. “But they’re absurd.”
Irene Thirer moved to the New York Post in 1935 and also served as the vice chair of the New York Film Critics Circle. She died in 1964, likely unaware of the major impact her and her team would have on the world of film reviewing.
