Word: falstaffian
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Welles was not made for that more contemporary medium, TV. His Falstaffian girth, so impressive on stage and screen, seemed grotesque when stuffed into the small tube. The voice that shivered the old Philco during the ( Depression sounded hokey when it was used to seduce would-be sophisticates of the '70s. "Paul Masson will sell no wine before its time" joined the fleeting body of marketing folklore and spun off into dozens of jokes. (In one, the Welles impersonator intones the line, glances at his watch and says impatiently, "It's time...
...been terribly successful at exercising personal discipline in recent years. He regularly smokes two packs of cigarettes a day, despite promises to himself to quit. After breaking his arm in an accident on icy steps outside his home two years ago, he began losing control of his now Falstaffian weight. A series of exercise machines -- a rowing machine, cross-country machine, stationary bicycle -- sit broken or largely unused in his attic. Bork has taken up poker in a floating game that regularly includes Scalia, Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Education Secretary William Bennett and others. Bork is a popular addition...
...flip side, Papageno, played by George Shepherd, stole the show with his energetic and comic display of Falstaffian humor. Shepherd's rendition of Mozart's comic bird catcher with a heart of gold kept the audience howling with his playful comedic routines and impish humor, making up for his mostly inadequate voice. On the whole, his playful antics and spirit added greatly to the production which tended to drag on as the hours progressed...
There is more to Guilford than meets the eye, however, as Elwes is careful to point out in his interpretation of the character. Removed to the solitude of a country priory after his marriage to Jane, his formerly Falstaffian antics are revealed as a cover for his profound discontentedness at the current state of affairs in the country. His emotional grasp of the politico-economic situation complements Jane's intellectual ponderings--they are, as Guilford later points out, "two sides of the same coin...
Wicked irony dogged every turn of his career. If his theater magic had been preserved on film, Welles might be known today as a great actor-manager who also dabbled in movies. If the films had not been preserved, Welles' trim exuberance would not have so cuttingly mocked the Falstaffian corpulence of his maturity. One generation knows him as the brilliant light that Hollywood failed and as the guy Rita Hayworth married before Aly Khan. Another generation thinks of him as a wine salesman, ballast at a Dean Martin Roast table and butt of Johnny Carson's "fat" jokes...