Word: deadpan
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Ominous Specific. From Moscow came the most remarkable reaction of all. For more than 24 hours after President Truman's announcement, the Russians maintained silence. Then Tass released a deadpan communiqué deploring the "alarm among broad social circles" which the Washington news had caused. Tass suggested that the West had, just possibly, been fooled. "In the Soviet Union . . . building work on a large scale is in progress-hydroelectric stations, mines, canals, roads-which evokes the necessity of large-scale blasting . . . It is possible that this might draw attention beyond the confines of the Soviet Union." As for atomic...
...Adeline. Today, their hundreds of props fill three baggage cars, their cast of 90 includes 35 stooges. For all its size, the show is still essentially a family vaudeville act. Johnson's pretty daughter, June, and his son-in-law, Comic Marty May, have leading roles. So does deadpan Ole's deadpan son, J. C. Olsen. Johnson's wife and Olsen's mother used to be in the act and are still on call. "We're more laugh manufacturers than comedians," says Ole Olsen, 56. "Our gags are kind of living cartoons with spoken captions...
...second-rater without punch or drive. Just before they squared off in Chicago's Comiskey Park last week, a hanger-on wriggled in to where Joe Louis sat in the fourth row and asked breathlessly: "Champ, have you got a last-minute pick?" Deadpan Joe, the front man for boxing's new promotional monopoly, mumbled forthrightly: "Ain't doin' any pickin' . . . I didn...
Quite as impressive as his mind-reading is Dunninger's deadpan claim to have split the atom singlehanded in 1929. He carries about with him the results of his experiments, a few dark-colored grains that look something like Sen-Sen. "This stuff could ignite the atom and send it off," he remarks casually. "It's enough to destroy the little globe called the universe." Dunninger wanted to share his spectacular discovery with the Government, but "they paid no attention to me." During the war, Dunninger tried to give the Navy a method of making battleships invisible...
Raft, whose natural deadpan registers not the slightest difference between one script and the next, takes these exotic frills in his usual dapper stride. He seems happy puttering about among his orchids and potted petunias until the government sends him off on a mission. His job: to ferret out the where and how of a counterfeit operation so gigantic that it threatens the national economy. Practically overnight, Raft latches on to the right blonde (Nina Foch), who leads him to the right tropical island, where he meets the Master Mind (George Macready), an underworld exquisite with a passion for fine...