Word: gruffness
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Word from Portugal. Gruff, heavy-spending Achille Lauro, multimillionaire owner of a huge merchant shipping fleet, staunch friend of the late Benito Mussolini and now the popular mayor of Naples, was the party's nominal head and principal bankroller (about $3,000,000 in contributions). Ex-Professor (of law) Alfredo Covelli, an expert parliamentarian and a good organizer, was secretary-general and real leader of the Monarchists...
...waited, an aide noticed the book, said to Allen. "The old man's in a bad mood today. I don't think you have much of a chance." However, as Allen and his passengers were about to leave, Sir Winston turned to Allen and grumbled in a gruff voice, "D'you want me to sign that?" Allen smiled, nodded and got his autograph...
...cast is deservedly well known, mostly playing roles that have since become types for them. Barry Fitzgerald signed on board as a comic Irish cook, and Thomas Mitchell as a gruff Irish bully-with-golden-heart. In the company of such genuine specimens Ward Bond changes nationality, if not character, and is a tough, simple-hearted swabbie named yank. The only real surprise is John Wayne who plays Ole. Replete with standard grin and a Swedish accent, Wayne is amazingly good, doing his part with a skill and delicacy that somehow rubbed off by the time he got around...
...Becket the joys of past dissipations. As the two temptors who offer various forms of temporal power, Louis Begley and John Docker are only fair. Begley over-acts to the point of appearing a scheming spy, and Docker's offer of a coalition between bishop and barons seems too gruff and intense. All four share the same fault in the last act speeches, when the knights suddenly abandon their roles of drunken killers and become apologists for their deeds. Although their explanations are fantastic, Eliot included them to show the earnest fervor with which the murder was done...
Bach and Scarlatti were precise contemporaries yet the coupling of their works produced a striking juxta-position. The immensely powerful, almost gruff joyfulness of Bach's final variation and the lofty simplicity of the closing aria still lingered in my mind as Mr. Kirkpatrick returned after intermission and performed in immediate succession three 1) major Scarlatti sonatas which displayed to an extreme degree elements of exotic Spanish fury. These elements are all the more powerful in Scarlatti because they seem to burst forth from the refined and lyrical Italian style in which he was trained. For me, Mr. Kirkpatrick...