Word: ferrere
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Bucking the hard realism of France at the turn of the century, Rostand came on the theatrical scene as an entertainer. His flamboyant wit, despite its aborted, cloying idealism, makes for brilliant entertainment in, the deft hands of Jose Ferrer in this week's opening of Cyrano de Bergerac...
Strange Fruit (adapted from Lillian Smith's novel by the author, with the assistance of Esther Smith; produced by José Ferrer), on the stage, as in book form, pulls no sociological punches. But the play lacks dramatic punch. A fledgling Broadway playwright, Lillian Smith too often wobbles in her storytelling, too often fails to pick up the dramatic scent. An unconverted novelist, she has gamely but unwisely tried to transfer to the stage the whole life of a Georgia town. The result is far less spacious than sprawling...
...well-known story of Strange Fruit is, to be sure, a steadily enlarging one. The star-crossed love of white Tracy Deen (Melchor Ferrer) and Negro Nonnie Anderson (Jane White) widens out beyond personal tragedy into social tragedy. The rooted Southern prejudices, the rankling inequalities, the violence that leads Nonnie's brother to murder Tracy, the feeling that leads a mob to lynch an innocent Negro for the crime-all these are like pieces in a sociological puzzle...
...Jose Ferrer, playing the wily villain of the play, Iago, threatens at various moments to steal the show from Robeson. He portrays with evil genius the wicked shrewdness and the twisted mind that produces the tragedy of "Othello" by mastering the simple strength of the Moor. By a crook of the finger, a clearing of the throat, a lift of the eyebrow, Ferrer probes the depths of the villain's complicated character more thoroughly than could a less capable actor by an entire speech...
...Oklahoma! Highest acting honors were almost solidly male. In a dead heat for first place were Elliott Nugent for his superbly natural sergeant in The Voice of the Turtle, Oscar Karlweis for his delightfully rueful refugee in Jacobowsky. Best brace of actors were Paul Robeson and Jose Ferrer as an eloquent Moor and supple lago in Othello. The most engaging performance by an actress turned up in musicomedy-Mary Martin's in One Touch of Venus. Nimble performances: Elisabeth Bergner (The Two Mrs. Carrolls), Margaret Sullavan (The Voice of the Turtle), Mary Philips in Chicken Every Sunday. Actresses...