Word: deviled
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...TALENT SCOUT, by Remain Gary (209 pp.; Harper; $3.75), is a potboiler with a difference. The difference is the devil. Not that he ever appears, but he is at the heart of a readable but contrived political allegory which talented Novelist Gary (The Roots of Heaven, Lady L) could have written only in a state of boredom. Gary's Faust is Jose, a South American adventurer who figures that if he is bad enough, the devil will see that he makes good. Relatively ordinary vices (pimping, incest) do not seem to work, but when he turns to politics...
...with talented people whose only god is their narrow talent. And he even makes the devil seem a doubtful presence. But only once does he manage to sound like Remain Gary: "An idealist is a son-of-a-bitch who thinks that the earth is not a good enough place for him." THE MAN-EATER OF MALGUDI...
...Devil's Advocate (adapted from Morris L. West's novel by Dore Schary) asks the largest questions raised on Broadway this season-the largest questions, whether of Catholic theology or of living in the world, that man can ask. The play begins with a dying man sent off to ask questions about a dead one: a cancer-ridden English monsignor at the Vatican journeys to a mountain town in Calabria to serve as devil's advocate in the matter of a possible canonization. He is to investigate-in terms of his role, as critically as possible...
...play's individual scenes-some of them flashbacks that put Nerone on the stage-have dramatic color and impact; several performances-Sam Levene's as the doctor, Leo Genn's as the monsignor-are striking. But though its theological concerns often acquire theatrical force, The Devil's Advocate seems discrete and unfocused in the theater...
BRATTLE: The last two days, ever, of BEAT THE DEVIL. Go see it another time...