"...despite its technical shortcomings, and despite too many passages that simply stall out - moments during which it feels as if Carey himself had lost focus - The World's Greatest Sinner is more often enjoyable than not...there's more to the film than its camp fizz, namely real passion. It may be terrible, but at least it's not dishonest."
- Manohla Dargis, LA Weekly

"You won't believe his performances. He just starts shaking and his hair falls down...he must have watched Jerry Lee Lewis or something. He starts rolling around on the stage; he's just shaking all over. It's a live performance and he's just smashing his guitar; he's really beating on it real loud. This is one of the greatest rockabilly movies ever made. If you get a chance to see it, it'll just change your life. Wow!"
– Lux Interior, lead singer of The Cramps

"A curious experimental film that predates the spirituality and rock 'n' roll messiah mumbo-jumbo of Tommy by over a decade...Dopey, poorly acted, scripted with a dull pencil, and outdated, the film is still a little bit of fun."
- TV Guide

"All independent filmmakers and cult-flick fans must bow down to the low-rent majesty that is Timothy Agoglia Carey's The World's Greatest Sinner."
– efilmcritic.com

"The World's Greatest Sinner is an amazing, love-it-or-hate-it kind of film."
– filmmaker Gerry Fialka

"Iconic character actor and inimitable personality Timothy Carey's eccentrically flawed, indescribably lowbrow, and madly egocentric, yet indelible satire, The World's Greatest Sinner, is a commendable exposition on opportunism, moral bankruptcy, and idolatry as a bored insurance salesman, Clarence Hilliard, re-invents himself as a youth attuned, hip-gyrating pop star..."
- Strictly Film School

"..possibly the World's Greatest Movie!...this is the one film that not only SAYS IT ALL, but also manages to deliver the real truth about rock & roll and its place in a wildly undulating universe... the thrust of the film becomes a bizarre probe into the soul of man...The movie is not only recommended, it's required."
- Miriam Linna, Kicks

"Far ahead of its time, The World's Greatest Sinner is a disturbing reflection on religion, politics, and fascism; the Manson-like aspects of Hilliard's character are all too apparent to today's audiences. Carey is supremely creepy in his role as the greasy Hilliard; almost every line is delivered straight from the diaphragm, but filtered through a bottle of bourbon first (actually, subtitles would be handy at times) as he slurs his way through at full-cry. Words like "offbeat" are far too mild for this disconcertingly sleazy and base idiot-savant oddity that I cannot recommend highly enough for fans of the bizarre."
- Jerry Renshaw, The Austin Chronicle

"Run, do not walk, to check out this movie!...This is seriously whacked stuff, folks, and Carey pulls off one of the most intense, overwrought performances of all time (putting novice scenery-chewers like Dennis Hopper to shame)...Though lacking in little things like coherency, Carey packs this volatile tale with venom toward modern politics, the media, dried-up religion, and the entire sorry state of the human race. It's even narrated by The Devil, represented by a snake!...this is a work of warped genius."
- Steven Puchalski, Shock Cinema

"A three-year labor of . . . love? . . . completed in 1962, barely released then and rarely shown since, Sinner is a work of demented genius, DIY crudity crossed with unfettered ambition to produce a film so audaciously subversive and bone-deep weird it's almost intoxicating, All the King's Men as re-imagined by Jerry Lee Lewis and Edward D. Wood Jr."
- Andy Markowitz

"This bizarre, homemade labor of blood is the work of one of cinema's most criminally underused and underappreciated character actors, Timothy Carey. An extended parody of religion, sex, rock & roll, and politics (and by extension, America herself), The World's Greatest Sinner is a flawed but fascinating piece."
- Fred Beldin, All Movie Guide

Compiled by Millie de Chirico