Word: griffith
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...WAIST-HIGH CULTURE (275 pp.) -Thomas Griffith-Harper...
These are not the questions of an Angry Young Man. They are "pebbles at the window" of complacency thrown by Thomas Griffith, 43, TIME'S Foreign Editor. Equable tempered, well wrought and carefully thought out, The Waist-High Culture is more inquiry than indictment, utters its qualms with conviction and its convictions with some qualms. It is not a call to the cultural barricades, but an invitation to ponder and reflect on the occasionally wayward American...
...Belief in Disbelief. In the first third of the book, Author Griffith offers his autobiographical press pass to American life. Seattle-born, Griffith had a boardinghouse boyhood more apt for the pen of Dickens than the brush of Norman Rockwell. Entering the University of Washington in the Depression year of 1932 as a journalism student, he learned, he admits, precious little about journalism or anything else. In such "vast, endearingly inadequate academic ballparks," Griffith argues, "the indulgent curse of mediocrity in American life begins...
After rising from police reporter to assistant city editor of the Seattle Times, Griffith went east in 1942 on a Nieman fellowship, then joined TIME. When foreign news duties took Griffith to Europe, he, like many another American, fell under the spell of the Continent's ancient glories, but coolly assessed its caretaker, rather than dare-taker, cultures. He admired the well-bred aplomb of knowledgeable Englishmen whose ease of manner gives "the impression of having already lived once," but found "too many reserved seats" in English life. He was drawn to the independent French spirit of live...
...this time the picture has stumbled along for i^ hours, and the moment has come for it to fall flat on its face. Griffith renounces adultery, plans to marry the girl from back home, helps his ship subdue a German sub, and exposes a crooked executive officer, all at flank speed. Director Norman Taurog, whose recent efforts have been largely limited to Martin and Lewis comedies, heaves enough whisky-pourings to float the Coast Guard for a week, but viewers may find some of his other humorous inventions less familiar. He seems to think it is laugh-provoking to throw...