Word: formula
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...long hinged on the fortunes of the restless, landless peasants whose rebellion against an intolerable feudal way of life was one of the original causes of the war. In the 1950s, the Viet Cong cut a wide swath through the Vietnamese countryside by importing Ho Chi Minh's formula of routing the landlords and distributing "land to the tiller." Today, the leading advocate of Ho's thesis is none other than President Nguyen Van Thieu...
...play consists of that mild formula of sterectypes, gimmicks, and murder which Ms. Christie always feeds her readers. This one dates from the mid-forties and, more often than not, acts its age: On a desolate island cut off both from England's mainland and its sense of fair play eight strangers gather for a holiday. Their host, they learn, is delayed in London. As the guests introduce themselves, a ghostly voice breaks in to accuse each one of a specific murder. It even throws in one for the butler and his wife, the cook...
...woman were the candidate, she would probably, like most male candidates, be in her 40s or 50s. Her children would already be at least adolescents, thus sparing the nation bulletins from a maternity hospital ("The President and baby are doing well") and jokes about the latest White House formula or diaper pins. It might well be that a cigar-smoking, oddsmaking computer would opt for a widow as the ideal candidate, since that would remove the husband question yet endow her with a patina of nonthreatening domestic respectability. Throw in a couple of grown children, the computer might...
...couples as well as non-Catholics. But since the Lorettos are still under the authority of Rome, these lay people, called "co-members," take no vows and thus are not officially part of the congregation. The sisters no longer make vows of poverty, chastity and obedience in the old formula, but write their own expressions of dedication, which retain the essence of all three vows. "Poverty," says Sister Luke, "should mean detachment, not dependence. Obedience should be to the needs of people, and to the community, not just to superiors...
...staring out of an imaginary window with significant facial expressions but Casey does best with her clever humor and is rarely credible as a serious character. Mann has tried to conceal this with fancy, and attention-absorbing, footwork. But with fourteen scenes, her steps rapidly grow familiar. The formula is for a surprise or hanging suspense finale in every episode. This would be fine if it ever relented, but finally predictability pushes The Bull over the edge of serious comedy to a surprisingly brazen brand of melodrama. "Teddy you can't do this to me," Casey tells her manager when...