Variety Film Reviews

Variety Film Reviews is the 24-volume hardcover reprint of feature film reviews by the weekly entertainment tabloid-size magazine Variety from 1907 to 1996. Film reviews continued to be published in the weekly magazine after the reprints were discontinued.

Original series

From 1983 to 1985, Garland Publishing, was responsible for the first sixteen volumes of this series. Garland is now wholly owned by Routledge, which has since been purchased by Taylor & Francis. Their first 15 volumes consisted of review reprints. Their 16th volume is an alphabetical index of more than 50,000 titles. Perhaps 10% are alternate titles and original foreign titles, so 45,000 review reprints is a realistic estimate for the first 15 volumes.

Bi-annual supplements

The eight additional bi-annual volumes (for 1981–1996) have at least 15,000 additional reprinted film reviews, making an estimated total of 60,000 or more film reviews in the 24-volume series. Volume 18 has the title index for 1981–1984. Each subsequent volume includes its own title index.

Edition binding

The 19 volumes published by Garland are bound in green (Variety's traditional color) cloth with gold stamping. Each book measures 31.2 cm. (12¼ inches) high by 24 cm. (9¼ inches) wide.

Subsequent publisher

Garland's rights expired after publication of Volume 19, and publication rights were acquired by R.R. Bowker, then owned by Reed International, which also owned Variety. Bowker undertook a complete reprint of Volumes 1 through 19, changing the title page of each volume to reflect their own imprint, and changing the series name to Variety's Film Reviews. The re-titled series was bound in brown Kivar, or a similar imitation leather binding material. Bowker published the original editions of Volumes 20 through 24 before discontinuing the series.

Alternate binding

Some copies of Volumes 20 through 24 are bound in green cloth with gold stamping similar to the original Garland editions. Apparently Bowker allowed a distributor that bought the Garland inventory of Variety Film Reviews to bind post-1986 volumes to match the earlier books.

Volumes and years covered

Variety Film Reviews

Volume	Date Range	Garland ISBN	Bowker ISBN
1	1907–1920	978-0-8240-5200-3	978-0-8352-2779-7
2	1921–1925	978-0-8240-5201-0	978-0-8352-2780-3
3	1926–1929	978-0-8240-5202-7	978-0-8352-2781-0
4	1930–1933	978-0-8240-5203-4	978-0-8352-2782-7
5	1934–1937	978-0-8240-5204-1	978-0-8352-2783-4
6	1938–1942	978-0-8240-5205-8	978-0-8352-2784-1
7	1943–1948	978-0-8240-5206-5	978-0-8352-2785-8
8	1949–1953	978-0-8240-5207-2	978-0-8352-2786-5
9	1954–1958	978-0-8240-5208-9	978-0-8352-2787-2
10	1959–1963	978-0-8240-5209-6	978-0-8352-2789-6
11	1964–1967	978-0-8240-5210-2	978-0-8352-2790-2
12	1968–1970	978-0-8240-5211-9	978-0-8352-2792-6
13	1971–1974	978-0-8240-5212-6	978-0-8352-2793-3
14	1975–1977	978-0-8240-5213-3	978-0-8352-2794-0
15	1978–1980	978-0-8240-5214-0	978-0-8352-2795-7
16	Index 1907–1980	978-0-8240-5215-7	978-0-8352-2796-4
set	Volumes 1–16	978-0-8240-5216-4	—
17	1981–1982	978-0-8240-5217-1	978-0-8352-2797-1
18	1983–1984	978-0-8240-5218-8	978-0-8352-2798-8
19	1985–1986	978-0-8240-5219-5	978-0-8352-2799-5
20	1987–1988	—	978-0-8352-2667-7
21	1989–1990	—	978-0-8352-3089-6
22	1991–1992	—	978-0-8352-3273-9
23	1993–1994	—	978-0-8352-3577-8
24	1995–1996	—	978-0-8352-3851-9

Other reprints of film reviews

Variety is one of the three English-language periodicals with 10,000 or more film reviews reprinted in book form. The other two are

• The New York Times as The New York Times Film Reviews (1913–2000) in 22 volumes.
• Harrison's Reports as Harrison's Reports and Film Reviews (1919–1962) in 15 volumes.