Reception
Steamboat Bill, Jr. received mixed reviews upon its release. Variety described the film as "a pip of a comedy" and "one of Keaton's best." The reviewer from The Film Spectator appointed it "as perhaps the best comedy of the year thus far" and advised "exhibitors should go after it." A less enthusiastic review from Harrison's Reports stated "there are many situations all the way through that cause laughs" while noting that "the plot is nonsensical." Morduant Hall of the New York Times called the film a "gloomy comedy" and a "sorry affair."
Over the years, Steamboat Bill, Jr. has become regarded as a masterpiece of its era. Currently, review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 100% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 16 reviews, with an average score of 9.1/10, with an audience rating above 90%. The film was included in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.
Many modern audiences may be most familiar with the film for its inspiring the title of Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie, the debut of Mickey Mouse.
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Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own; which is the chief reason for that kind of reception it meets in the world, and that so very few are offended with it.”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)
“I gave a speech in Omaha. After the speech I went to a reception elsewhere in town. A sweet old lady came up to me, put her gloved hand in mine, and said, “I hear you spoke here tonight.” “Oh, it was nothing,” I replied modestly. “Yes,” the little old lady nodded, “that’s what I heard.””
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“To aim to convert a man by miracles is a profanation of the soul. A true conversion, a true Christ, is now, as always, to be made by the reception of beautiful sentiments.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)