Film History

The key is to find articles written when the film was being produced or when it was released. Many of our standard resources are great for finding articles from the 1990s to the present, so I'm going to suggest some specialized resources or individual websites.

Searching Advice

• You can keyword search the whole collection. Type in your film title "in quotes."
• Once you see the results, you can limit your results to the relevant date range -- top left corner. I would go for a year before (perhaps even earlier for animation) and a year after the release date, to capture articles during production, and/or if the review didn't come out until the following year.
• If you get a lot of results, add more keywords to find articles about a particular actor or actress in the film or some production detail you are interested in.
• The thumbnail next to the snippet of text is usually the image of the article. This helps give you a sense how much text there is, though it is possible that the article begins with a page of images, then the text.
• Quickest way to view is to choose "Download This Page [choose size]." 
• If it is a multipage article, choose the Read in Context - it will allow you to flip through the pages.

Relevant Titles for Film Reviews

• Film Daily - 1918 to 1948
• Motion Picture Herald - 1931-1956
• Photoplay - 1916-1963
• Variety - 1905-1964

Searching Advice

• The links to Variety go directly to the article, save the advertisements. For the New York Times, you may have to retype in your film in the search box.
• If you haven't already created a free New York Times account with your EWU email address, go to https://research.ewu.edu/newspapers/nyt

Searching Advice

• Change the date range to a couple years before and after the release date of your film.
• While there aren't many scholarly journals in Readers' Guide, you can limit to Magazine if you do get too many.
• Type in your film, and change the Select a Field (Optional) to TX All Text Fields -- this is to pick up any full text articles that mention your film. You might luck out and find an article in the Saturday Evening Post or Time Magazine.
• Some of the records overlap with what is in the EWU Library Catalog, but enough are unique to make it worth searching.
• Most of the results aren't full text in EBSCOhost -- use the Check for Full Text button to see if we have it elsewhere, if we have it in paper/microfilm, or to Interlibrary Loan it. Just use the request it link that appears in the EWU Library Catalog record.

Searching Advice

• Link is for the search for "snow white and the seven dwarfs." Erase and type in your film.
• Use the limiters on the left and change the date range to a year or so before and after the film release. I have already limited to English, eliminated the scholarly articles, and expanded to articles that we do not have full text.
• Some of the full text articles are in Free E-Journals. You'll have to use that source's search or browse function to find the article. Try keyword searching the title. Note the date of the article and volume/issue/page numbers if you have to browse issues.
• If we don't have the full text, we may have it in paper or microfilm and we'll scan it for you, or you request the article via Interlibrary Loan. Just click on the full record, and click on the link under Can't Find It? and fill out the online form.

Searching Advice

• You are keyword searching thousands of newspapers. Type in the "title of the film" plus "review" or other specific keywords.
• Narrow by date to a year before and a year after the film's release.