Word: bassanio
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Laurinda Barrett was an admirable Portia, and Robert Blackburn a forceful Bassanio. But Basil Langton failed to give much color to the title role of Antonio...
Robert Blackburn brings plenty of verve to the role of the play's hero, Bassanio. Basil Langton fails to give much color to the flat title role of Antonio. Malocclusive sibilants unsuit Thomas Hill (the Duke of Venice) for classical speaking; he should stick to playing Willy Loman and other such parts, which are ideal for him. Of the smaller roles, Robert Jordan's Solanio is outstanding...
...Honey ..." Waldron still spins such platters as Bebop Baby and Black Slacks, still chatters on about his sponsor's solid products, still gives the latest news bulletins every half-hour. But in between, he must find out whom Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice married, define "scyphus," reel off the precautions that should be taken when making an atomic reactor or ponder such posers as how fast a snowball of a given diameter must go to melt on impact with a wall of a given temperature. Though he sometimes postpones the more difficult questions, he usually finds something...
...other actors tend to pall a little beside Loeb, but nearly all of them redeem themselves in the truly funny final scene. Here Edith Iselin, as Portia, and Paul Schmidt, as Bassanio, lose their initial remoteness and become recognizable as lovers. Jean Loud, in the part of Nerissa, is charming throughout, gaining stature as the play progresses. As Launcelot Gobbo, a clown, Michael Pollatsek injects some humor into the early scenes by cleverly contrived pomposity and overacting. Ernest Eugene Pell, on the other hand, gives a somewhat too unobtrusive, if competent, performance as Antonio, the Merchant. Yet the only serious...