Word: curmudgeoned
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...creation in a mellow mood. Oh, he can still total a liquor store in the course of rescuing hostages, and he still has the fastest lip in the business when backtalking a superior. But in The Enforcer, Harry appears halfway along the road to becoming a lovable old curmudgeon...
...Atlanta World (circ. 19,500), the other black daily, is the fief of a curmudgeon, C.A. Scott, 62, editor, general manager and resident tyrant. Founded in 1928, the World was once the flagship of a chain of papers with a circulation of 80,000. Says Scott: "Man, we were trailblazers. It's only in my old age that I realized what we done." What he is doing now is publishing a well-designed and well-edited paper that espouses a conservative posture that confounds progressive blacks; the World, for example, has never supported a black against a white...
Witness for the Prosecution. Great actors often hit a stretch in their careers when they get picked up exclusively for curmudgeon roles. Charles Laughton does his here, and does it with conviction and wit. Playing a sly and grumpy barrister with a heart condition, he sometimes tips his actor's hand by a little too much of the loveable Churchillian bit; generally he is unforgettable. Almost as important here is his wife Elsa Lanchester who mostly pipes at Laughton and confiscates his cigars. Yes, it's true that even in middle age Marlene Dietrich has terrific legs...
What makes Macdonald original, perhaps irreplaceable as a pan-critic (in both senses of "pan") is in fact a latent romanticism. More than his victims can appreciate, he is a genial curmudgeon, teetering on the very edge of hope. He growls partly to keep from being played for a sucker. Macdonald might even be called an American Bernard Shaw, if Shaw had written only prefaces or if Macdonald had written plays. Besides, that is to say, these marvelous little one-act monologues, featuring the persona he made of himself. ·Melvin Maddocks...
...Curmudgeon and New Christian Malcolm Muggeridge (see BOOKS), one of the speakers at the congress, was more direct. Muggeridge, a nondenominational believer who thinks that many Christians have sacrificed the spiritual message of the Gospel in pursuit of temporal liberation, spoke feelingly about the inevitable disappointments that follow upon "fantasies of power." As for setting up a rival organization, he told TIME bluntly, "Anything that does damage to the World Council of Churches is a step in the right direction...