Word: belter
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Angel Baby (Madera; Allied Artists) is a Bible Belter that brings to the movies Salome Jens, whose performance as the range "whorse" in Jean Genet's Balcony captivated New York's off Broadway last season. Now there is reason to believe that her seductive hallelujahs as a prurient evangelist may well make her the toast of the movie tabernacles. For Salome (she pronounces it Sal-o-way) is that rare actress whose vernal essence comes from within, breathing innocence, poignancy and a strange soft beauty into an otherwise wooden face...
Eventually, of course, the ooze began to flow again. Judy wound up with Over the Rainbow, and her children were hoisted, blinking, onstage while the believers covered themselves with lather. A nonbeliever could only edge quietly out of the hall, knowing that he had heard the best belter in the business...
...falls in love with a white boy, loses him when he discovers her race, goes into a hysterical spin. The older brother, a man about 30, steadies her down, tries to straighten the boy out too, tries to get on with his career as a no-talent ballad belter. At the end, things are still pretty much as they were at the beginning...
...Hispanos, Billy Graham con nosotros," the signs proclaimed in buses and stores and the old favorite hymns they sang would have startled many a Bible-belter: The Old Rugged Cross was La Cruz de Jesus, What a Friend We Have in Jesus was Oh, Qué Amigo!, and Wonderful Words of Life was Oh, Contádmelas Otra...
...hero, by the way, is now being played by Barry Sullivan. Don Ameche will take over the role soon, and this may be just as well because Mr. Sullivan can't sing. His co-star, Elaine Stritch, has quite a reputation as a belter-out of songs, but she was not impressive on Wednesday night. Neither were Russell Nype or Pat Stanley, though all four of them are skilled professionals...