Word: detract
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There are four incumbents we are not endorsing for reelection. Above all, we urge you not to vote for William H. Walsh, who will soon stand trail on 57 counts of bank fraud. His political maneuverings have repeatedly stalled the council, and his questionable ethics--pending charges aside--detract from the legitimacy of city governance...
Business Club Treasurer Richard A.Leigh-Pemberton '95 said yesterday that he isconcerned that too many changes could detract fromthe main purpose of the club...
...scenes, when Newland sees the Countess at the opera. The Countess reminds Newland that as a child he had tried to kiss her behind a door: more kisses to come, one understands. Then at the post-opera ball Newland hurries to announce his engagement to May, so as to detract attention from the newly arrived Countess and her questionable past: this man will never throw reponsibility and convention to the winds for the passions of the heart, one realizes...
...voice-over, though, that shows Martin needs some kindly but firm advice. Throughout the movie, sections from the novel are narrated to explain the images appearing on-screen, but instead serve to detract from them. Martin doubted either his ability to illustrate the plot, or the viewer's ability to understand it solely through images and dialogue. Since one can hardly believe that Martin would insult one's intelligence, one must question his faith in his own ability. One wishes that this were not the case...
...musicalizing Sunset Boulevard does not detract, it does not add much either. Of nine songs centered on Norma, just one achieves what dialogue alone could not. When she returns in what she imagines is triumph to the studio that dropped her two decades before, she envisions glories to come in As If We Never Said Goodbye. If the scene were spoken, her delusion would be pathetic. The song, in effect an interior monologue, defers her disillusionment to celebrate her undiminished presence. The assertive With One Look and the lilting, wistful New Ways to Dream are engaging paeans to bygone achievements...