Word: cronyn
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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HAMLET. Although Richard Burton as Hamlet and Hume Cronyn as Polonius burnish all the richness of language, wit and humor of the play, this revival, and specifically Burton's Hamlet, lacks the burning passion, the mind-tossed anguish, the self-divided will that Hamlet must have to be a true prince of tragedy...
With a few exceptions the supporting cast might be accused of nonsupport. Hume Cronyn's Polonius is devilishly fine, a battered human filing cabinet of platitudes who has achieved diplomatic immunity to everything but the sound of his own voice. And George Rose's First Gravedigger is a roguish, low-comic word prankster. But Alfred Drake's King Claudius is too suavely ingratiating to have killed a brother and seized a crown. He is more like mine host of the Elsinore Hilton. Eileen Her-lie is a middle-aged matron with diction; it is easier to imagine...
...Polonius, as Hume Cronyn sees him, is a buffoon, who turns most of his scenes with Hamlet into slapstick comedy. Cronyn wrings from the part all the humor that is there and a good deal, I think, that is not. He is Polonius from Hamlet's point of view, a "tedious old fool," without a trace of the skilled counselor who had been invaluable to Denmark...
...play, and it stresses what is sheen-deep in Molière's wit rather than what is skinflinty. Still, in a glancing way, the master French comic moralist's point does get made-that a sin is called deadly because it deadens. Mock-Hero Harpagon (Hume Cronyn) is dead to his children's hope of love, dead to his servants' grievances, dead to any generous stirrings of heart or mind. He counts the world well lost for money. Skittering about like a drunken sandpiper, Hume Cronyn is a dizzy delight. His Harpagon is a sprite...
...Cars. Three police roles are the regular substance of the cast (Paul Burke, Horace MacMahon, Harry Bellaver). But the best evidence that Naked City is not just another cop show is its list of guest stars, which has included Eli Wallach, Lee J. Cobb. Maureen Stapleton, Eric Portman, Hume Cronyn, George...