Word: hackwork
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...sets to work-it is 1939-with a younger Depression-age writer who has admired Halliday's books but quarreled with his values. But beyond having no stomach for short-order hackwork, Halliday has no resources. Daystpass in California and New York as he fishes for ideas in water that has gone over the dam, as he tosses crumpled typewriter paper after crumpled memories, as he struggles against a deadline that is indeed an obituary...
...quiz show proves to be pregnant by an unknown soldier: to save the show's honor, the girl must be married at once. At once the motor whirs, in dash the characters, and out bounce the gags, off falls the handle. It is pure, dedicated hackwork, with no sign that the authors ever once are writing down. There are two or three good mad situations, a dozen or so funny gags. Topping a helpful cast is Sam Levene, has both a born knack and an acquired skill at low comedy. He cannot come close to saving the show...
...proving that a movie-director hero is not "a common, on-the-make hustler," but an idealist and an artist. For my money, he's still a common, on-the-make hustler, loaded with moral earnestness in an attempt to season a piece of high-quality hackwork with maladroit and dubious "social comment." (This pseudo-moralism is the second-worst vice of the commercial theatre, right after the sleazy sentimentality in which Goldilocks also abounds...
Yankee Bums. Finally, when a slump hit New York in 1857, the Tribune started cutting back on all foreign coverage. Though kindhearted Editor Dana still gave them hackwork writing jobs. the comrades were convinced that they had been betrayed and exploited: "Diese Yankees sind dock verdammt lausige Kerle [Those Yankees are damned lousy bums]." Marx's last signed dispatch appeared in the Tribune in December...
Clear trends in fiction were as absent as greatness. The novels were a mixed bag that included some good storytelling, an occasional commentary on contemporary life that reached the mark, an unceasing flow of hackwork by old, bestselling pros. Among the best, the most popular and the most interesting...