Word: firstness
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Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
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Woody Allen may well be the funniest man in America. But he is not the funniest writer in America, and between the two titles lies a profound gap. At the bottom of the gap is Don't Drink the Water, the film version of Woody's first stage play...
...been crippled in an auto accident. It is a shocking indictment of the auto industry, engineering groups, governmental agencies and traffic-safety organizations for failing to make automobiles more "crash-worthy." Written by an unknown 31-year-old, the book did not make much of an impression at first. But G.M.'s investigation into Nader's life?and the public apology to him by the president of the company?made Nader famous overnight...
...rights to the man's own personality! It was easy to get angry after that." It is to Reiner's credit that he was able to propel his anger with so much force. It is to his studio's debit that for the film's first run Reiner was not able to fling it farther than second-run movie houses...
...Newark caterer named Walter Hollander (Jackie Gleason) and his family (Estelle Parsons and Joan Delaney) find themselves aboard a hijacked plane. Bound for Paris, it lands instead in Eastern Europe, where the Hollanders are charged with spying. "First no movie in the plane and now this!" moans the wife. "Nobody can be dragged out and shot," counters the suspicious junior American ambassador (Ted Bessell), "without written consent of the American Government." But from this intriguing negative nothing develops. Gleason merely settles in for an extended Honeymooners skit, swinging on the billingsgate with his wife and rolling fried-egg eyes skyward...
...body English into a complete, expressive grammar of feeling. From his bulbous nose and porridge face to his spindly legs, the controlled disarray of Lahr's features and physique could point up ludicrous resonances even in a simple hello. Lyricist Johnny Mercer once wrote Lahr: "This is the first time I've ever seen a performer do my material better than I meant it. You find laughs where the laughs aren't even there...