Word: gruffness
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...bathos, he explores his characters' psychology until their frailties and strengths become a sum of humanity itself. Despite his pretensions, the young doctor is as flawed-and believable-as his patients. If Red Beard himself is a heroic figure, he is nonetheless cast in a decidedly human mold: gruff and sometimes violent-as when he forcibly takes the girl from her captors-he keeps the clinic open by such inglorious expedients as coercion and extortion. Kurosawa seems to share with Red Beard the knowledge that the price of compassion is often compromise...
...domain the venerable cliches about naive little Ruby who comes to the Broadway "jungle" determined to "tap her way to stardom." All the familiar old friends are on hand-the bitchy established star who tries to steal Ruby's sweetheart, the warm-hearted floozy who befriends her, the gruff, tough director who puts her on at the last minute with those classic words: "It's a chance in a million, but it just might work." Everything else is there too-the whiplash body English and frenetic tap routines, the hard-times songs about riches-to-rags and good...
Peter O'Toole fights hard, beneath padding and a gruff bark, and makes some of it work: "Oh God, I do love being King!" But John, the son he is supposed to love, love enough to risk kingdoms and wars, is portrayed as a slobbering cretin; their relationship, central in the film's setting of alliance and ambition, is implausible. Henry's mistress, his "true love," is played by high-bosomed but wooden Jane Merrow--another problem for O'Toole...
...hate relationship. The ghost, Captain Gregg, is a crusty old salt (when he materializes), who scares people away from his beach house. Along comes Mrs. Muir, her two children and a Hazel-like housekeeper. After a couple of showdowns, Mrs. Muir decides that Captain Gregg is more bluff than gruff, and he concludes that a spiritual affair is better than nothing at all. The Muirs stay. Even for viewers who don't turn on to ghosts, especially in sitchcoms, the show is still a considerable improvement over flying nuns and disappearing Jeannies...
...first press conference after the battle of Chicago, Mayor Richard Daley was gruff and to the point. "Gentlemen," he said last week, thrusting his jaw out for angry emphasis, "get this thing straight for once and for all. The policeman isn't there to create dis order. The policeman is there to pre serve disorder...