Word: griffith
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...recognizable and cherished figure. Chaplin deserved no less; his poignant one-reel comedies taught the world how to love movies. Pickford, with her ringlets and coquettish ways, was hardly less popular, and no less resourceful. In 1909 the little girl from Toronto cadged an audition with Film Pioneer D.W. Griffith; by 1916 she could tell the bosses at Paramount Pictures, "No, I really cannot afford to work for only $10,000 a week" (which is precisely the fee she settled for). This sudden affluence did not short-circuit the masses' identification with the movie stars. It merely confirmed the public...
...suavity from France; Marlene Dietrich (Germany), Hedy Lamarr (Austria) and Ingrid Bergman (Sweden) helped Garbo flesh out the fantasy of the European woman. From south of the border Carmen Miranda brought her fruity headdresses, Gilbert Roland his purring machismo. Half of England, it seemed, played cricket every Sunday in Griffith Park. And with bitter thanks to Adolf Hitler, Hollywood welcomed hundreds of refugees from the Third Reich. As performers, writers, directors or technicians, they would animate and dominate Hollywood for its next 30 years...
...Neill (Eugene's father) adapted and toured in for 30 years, was just the first of Sellars' bold choices. In program notes, he proclaims that "the evening contains at least five different plays, each with its own method and tone"; cites influences as diverse as Bertolt Brecht and D.W. Griffith; and even warns patrons that "there is no seat in the house from which the entire production can be seen. After all, this isn't television...
...Andy Griffith gives a suitable hokey performance as a misguided bad guy and Patrick Wayne displays a suitable honesty as the misguided good guy that the bad guys hire. There's not much to work with, though. The characters are two-dimensional, which makes things difficult for the actros and deadly dull for the audience...
...tangles with content here. Thematically, Strange Interlude is a tragedy about the dilemma of convention vs. desire, decorous actions vs. lancing passions. Formally, it is a tart ! comedy of contrasts between what we say and what we tell ourselves we believe. The tragedy is as hoary as a D.W. Griffith silent romance; the comedy is as up to date as The Real Thing. Appropriately, Keith Hack's production finds its tone in waggish irony, as established by Charlie, the eternal old maid. Bitching genteelly about his rivals, flouncing through life with wet rancor, Charlie is the play's most modern...