Word: deft
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...degree seldom achieved in Hollywood. When a high-school graduating class sings America the Beautiful, the voices are touchingly inchoate, the singers' faces as stolidly reverent, and the shot of the Lincoln statue which begins the song and the meowing cat which ends it, are a deft, valid blend of showmanship, humor and yard-wide Americanism. The wounded men in Since You Went Away really look wounded, for almost the first time in a U.S. fiction war film. There are scores of such evidences of a smart showman's eye, mind and heart. Added up, they give...
...selling democracy to Italians. He saw all callers. In wrinkled uniform, slouched behind a huge desk, he listened to complaints, cracked jokes, gave out facts, usually ended interviews with a pep talk reminding Italians of their responsibilities and opportunities. Visitors were flattered by hearing their own language, by the deft touch...
...Deft Direction. Mrs. Dilling was defended by her ex-husband. Those without funds were represented by court-appointed lawyers. On behalf of their clients, who have shown little enthusiasm for democratic ways, the 22 lawyers energetically demanded every final democratic safeguard. All week long the legalists bobbed up & down, objecting, concurring, complaining. They protested because the court reporter worked for a firm with an allegedly Jewish executive. They applied for a writ of mandamus to have the whole thing dropped. They said there were too many policemen in court for a "relaxed" atmosphere-and FBI agents had been "persecuting...
Recently the Russian choreographer Igor Schwezoff brought The Poppy up to date. With a deft tour-en-l'air of the choreographic party line, Schwezoff abolished the evil British commander, converted Tai Hoa's murderer into a Japanese, added a British and a U.S. sailor (both very agreeable fellows), ended with the murder, not of Tai Hoa, but of the Japanese. The Manhattan audience did not seem to mind these alterations. As the Internationale burst from the City Center's orchestra, the crowd broke into cheers...
...into the songs Now I Know, Tess' Torch Song. But the heart, liver & lights of this cinemusical is Danny Kaye (of Broadway's Lady in the Dark and Let's Face It), making his screen debut. Kaye's mimicry, patter and general daftness are as deft as a surgeon's incision...