[A Hole in the Head] is bound to disappoint some of Frank Capra's admirers, but they can console themselves, between laughs, by reflecting that if Capra isn't making the kind of pictures he once did, they aren't seeing them as they once did. Much of his earlier work relied on a stereotype of the good little people resisting the bad big people; it belonged to the 'thirties and would seem out of place today (He Who Must Die notwithstanding). The goodness, however, remains, and accounts for some sticky passages, most of them centering on Eddie Hodges, a nice youngster but too patently an emblem of vulnerable innocence. He doesn't cry much, but you know he could, and shouldn't have to.

Missing, too, is the kind of ready-made conflict that many of Capra's earlier pictures had in common. (pp. 50-1)

[Unfortunately], the film, or rather its plot, has no direction, and its origins in television and the stage are only too apparent. There is simply too little conflict and much too little motivation for a picture nearly two hours long. The hero isn't willing to be a "little man"; he has plans…. The only suspense hinges on whether Tony will realize the folly of his dreams in time to save his hotel from bankruptcy and his son from the living death of adoption by a miserly uncle. This is melodrama without the drama. In the end he keeps the boy, apparently keeps the hotel, gets a girl not only prettier but more sensible than the "wild bird" he's been playing around with, and so infects his brother that they're both convinced that hope is enough. Well. It isn't much, and it doesn't go anywhere, and the laughter-through-tears approach backfires. Leaving what? Mainly laughter.

For this is a funny picture, getting its laughs often and nearly always legitimately. (p. 51)