Word: formulaic
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Hollywood, where he has written his first original screenplay, Murder by Death, an affectionate spoof of popular detective fiction, and something of a change from the more urbane, comedy of manners subject material of his earlier stage works. But like the plays, Murder by Death follows the Simon "formula"--lots of gloss and not much substance--and suffers as a result...
Died. Arnold Gingrich, 72, longtime editor and publisher of Esquire magazine; of cancer; in Ridgewood, N.J. A former advertising copywriter, Gingrich became Esquire's founding editor in 1933 and developed the success formula for the nation's first modern "man's magazine": slightly risqué cartoons, articles about sports and politics and polished short stories by such topflight authors as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe. Gingrich resigned in 1945. Returning to a floundering magazine in 1952 as its publisher, he hired some freewheeling young editors and gave the magazine its characteristic bold, jaunty tone...
...Even under the influence of his first love affair in years, the detective manages to toe the line between world-weariness and sentimentality. If The Blue Hammer does not rank with Macdonald's best, the blame can be laid partially to earlier successes. The author's formula has by now entered the public domain. Not only do his characters seem to know this-and to act out their parts according to the rules-but fans are likely to know who did what to whom pages before Archer does. That kind of discovery will not necessarily diminish public appreciation...
...Formula. Last year the legislators passed a new education act that 1) increased the state's share of costs, meaning that more money would come from sources other than local property taxes, and 2) provided for a more equitable distribution of the money. In January, the supreme court decided that the new law would do-if it were fully funded. Trouble was, when the state budget came out, the act was not funded at all. The court finally imposed a July 1 deadline, and the legislature tinkered for months with ways of raising the money, including trying to pass...
...Princes−26,000 lines of bad poetry on the miseries that beset rulers. Something in human nature cannot resist being told that the richest, most powerful and most beautiful are also the most miserable. The plain fact that this is often not true has never weakened the formula's appeal, and Tryon plays it for whatever it is worth. No facet of his characters' exquisite unhappiness remains unbuffed. "There are better ways to amuse oneself than by being a movie star," Fedora pouts. "Movie star," Willie Marsh snarls. "It's a crock...