Word: charm
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Twentieth Century: Tersely titled FBI and scripted by bestselling Author Don (The FBI Story) Whitehead,* the latest edition of CBS's new documentary series bulged this week with mystery, mobsters and storied shots: closeups of Killer John Dillinger spreading his dimpled, farm-boy charm counterpoised with his hairy, half-covered corpse in the morgue; the sad-faced mourners at his funeral (where a photographer got slugged for being "disrespectful"); a Hollywood extortionist waiting on a street corner for money from Actress Betty Grable, getting caught by agents disguised as gardeners. There were absorbing glimpses of malefactors from George ("Machine...
...Palmer, who was hanged in 1856 for what was rumored as his thirteenth murder by poison. Graves argued that Palmer was the victim of circumstantial evidence. Intentionally or not, the TV version left no doubt of his guilt, and it tried to mitigate Palmer's villainy with the charm of skilled Actor Jack Lemmon. All the Lemmon twists could not make palatable a character who genially blackmailed his loving mother while planning the death of his brother for the insurance. Lacking either the spoofing playfulness of Kind Hearts and Coronets or the intrigue of the Borgia capers, the play...
...peeled yards of satin from Bewitched, I Get a Kick Out of You and The Lady Is a Tramp−smearing nostalgia and responding to each lyric with subtle emotion. It was Frankie's guest crew (Kim Novak, Peggy Lee, Bob Hope) who somehow failed to return the charm and sincerity he oozed, though Hope was spasmodically funny: "The State Department is sending me to Asia to spread the American flu." Frankie Boy's most effective helpers appeared with him earlier in the week on the Edsel Show, a fluid, funny musical tour with Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong...
Misfires & Shrugs. One reason for such achievements: Adler knows music as few opera managers do: he used to be a conductor. A man of charm and inexhaustible energy, Adler spends weeks each winter combing Europe for talent, works 18 hours a day during the season. The logistics for his short season are tricky, with 31 productions of twelve operas scheduled in the San Francisco area in 38 days, and 16 performances of 13 operas set for 17 days in Southern California...
...late thirties and early forties, Sidney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre starred in a series of exceptional mystery films. The Mask of Dimitrios, like The Maltese Falcon, On Green Dolphin Street and Casablanca, follows modern fairy-tale characters through intriguing morasses of international espionage, murder, and blackmail with a charm that remains fresh...