Word: excepts
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...which got under way as soon as the first delegate hit the city, would go down in political history. It was as quiet as a snowfall and, like a snowfall, it covered everything. On Monday, a handful of reporters on Dewey's eighth floor saw little to report except serenity. But if they had listened carefully they might have heard the hum of wheels...
There is little novel interpretation of character: even that might distract from the great language, or distort it. There is no clear placement in time, no outside world except blind sky, faint landscapes, ruminant surf, a lyrical brook. The camera, prowling and peering about the cavernous castle, creates a kind of continuum of time and space. Such castles were almost as naked of furniture as the Elizabethan stage; Olivier uses both facts to the film's advantage. Not even the costumes are distracting; they are close to the simplest mind's-eye image: a King & Queen like playing...
Tradition & Invention. Any production of Hamlet stands or falls, in the long run, by the quality of its leading actor. Most productions have little to recommend them except a good Hamlet; few have that. This one, in every piece of casting, in every performance, is about as nearly solid as gold can be. It is hard to imagine better work, along traditional lines, than that of Felix Aylmer, snuffling and badgering about as Polonius; or of Basil Sydney (who once played a memorable Hamlet, in modern dress) as the corrupt, tormented usurper; or of Norman Wooland as a gentle, modest...
Rational Sharpness. Short of such majestic challenges, Olivier is as sure in his work, and as sure a delight to watch, as any living artist. No other actor except Chaplin is as deft a master of everything which the entire body can contribute to a role; few actors can equal him, in the whole middle register of acting. He takes such little words as My father's spirit in arms! and communicates and is worthy of their towering poetry. He can toss off lines like For every man hath business and desire in a way to make Shakespeare congratulate...
...Hobby. Nowadays, the fully-booked Ritz is as fashionable as ever-but not because of its prices ($4 to $20 a day). Even at that, the hotel manages to make a "reasonable" annual profit (which is never announced by the private ownership), maintaining a record that has been unbroken except for two years during the depressed...