Word: brilliant
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Fitzgerald's] This Side of Paradise an immediate [hit] was no doubt its ... expose of the immoralities of the younger generation . . . Unfortunately, things have progressed so far that [today] one wishes that one's own children behaved as sensibly and nicely . . ." But Paradise was still "an exceptionally brilliant piece of work...
...real mystery was still not solved. Why should anyone bother to forge a piddling 254 ballots in overwhelmingly Democratic Bourbon County? Why should brilliant Ed Prichard, a man with a future, try to pull a clumsy fix that would give pause to the lowliest ward heeler...
...Dancer Dunham did not wear a pearl in her navel (as she did in Tropical Revue), but some of the audience were nevertheless overcome by all the pelvic commotion, hesitated in bewilderment before applauding. Most of the audience, however, got the idea: they were seeing precise dancing and brilliant choreography. The Dutch critics were two-minded about her. Wrote one: "Mostly it is sheer vitality, but sometimes sheer corn...
...have called George Washington as a character witness." Murphy shouted: "Alger Hiss was a traitor. Another Benedict Arnold. Another Judas Iscariot. Another Judge Manton, who was in high places and was convicted right here in this building . . .* Someone has said that roses that fester stink worse than weeds. A brilliant man like this man, who betrays his trust, stinks. Inside that smiling face is a heart black and cancerous. He is a traitor...
There the movie's resemblance to Dostoevsky ends. The rich, exuberant flow of dialogue, incident and atmosphere characteristic of the Russian master has been choked to a pedestrian trickle. Dostoevsky's brilliant insights into the tortured motives and emotions of his lovers have paled into klieg-lighted stereotypes. Much of the time Peck and Miss Gardner act as if they had been stranded at a sedate costume party. In other scenes, when they try for a truly Slavic intensity, they seem to be acting out a burlesque on the whole school of Russian novelists. A few supporting players...