Word: comical
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...easier. See Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953). So simple a janitor (Bud) and a half-wit (Lou) could stumble onto a big silver sausage of a rocketship, flip a few switches, and go all the way to . . . Mardi Gras. Then Venus, with all the usual misadventures and comic contortions along the way. The code term for this is "classic comedy." It's a warning, because it's dated. Soft spots, stiff acting by supporting players, and yet A & C fans (you know who you are) are watching for a reason. The slapping. The double-takes. Watching Costello bounce...
Director Richard Kwietniowski, adapting Gilbert Adair's novel, uses Priestley's fretful blankness to handsome comic effect. But Hurt is the big news here. Dignified and dithery, he makes Giles one of the most charming predators in ages. Like Von Aschenbach in Death in Venice, like Lolita's Humbert Humbert, he is a man of culture finding beauty in youth, in coarseness--in "all that I myself have never been." To Giles, ecstasy comes in small packages. For viewers, this film is one of them...
...contestants, went through make-up and, after many comments on my resemblance to actor Peter Gallagher, walked onto the set. I was immediately assailed by the art-deco-neon-overload-meets-industrial-constructi on set, complete with a live band, stacks of old books as props, local stand-up comic Greg Fitzsimmons as host, two attractive brunette "hostesses" (Heather and Shonda) in tight pastel blue outfits and a giant brain sitting in the center of the set. "`Jeopardy' on acid," I thought...
...where her long-time, recently married ex-boyfriend--who left her for Michigan Law (after awhile, we cease questioning this point)--also works. The script is hilarious, including countless witty repartees. Most importantly, the show employs the creative device of acting out Ally's inner thoughts to great comic effect...
...audaciously termed a debate by the Harvard Political Union (News, Feb. 4). Amid the worn jokes and vacuous slogans, several people of more noble and gracious intent than me tried bravely to provoke an intelligent discussion of the budding scandal in Washington. Sadly, they were doomed by the near-comic choice of topic...