Word: hallelujahs
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...Hallelujah Trail is bigger but not better than any of the recent comedies that are supposed to milk laughs from the sacred cows of the Hollywood western. The sheer bulk of the opus is one clue to its failure. Given a plot with several droll twists, Director John Sturges (The Great Escape, Bad Day at Black Rock) lets his camera roam freely over the Cinerama landscape, too often striving for epic effects when antic effects are needed...
...trio, shifting the mood with the spirit of the prayer. "Lord, Have Mercy" is crisp and plaintive, with a syncopated Latin rhythm; the Communion anthem is a waltzlike blues with a flowing melodic line. The "Theme for Grace" at the Offertory, with a chorus crooning the syllables of "hallelujah," reminded some listeners of mood-setting supper music. "That's the idea," says Episcopal Father Charles Gompertz, who persuaded Guaraldi to undertake the Musical Setting. "What does Communion represent but the Last Supper-the last time these men ate together...
Movies parodying movies were all the rage last year. The French began the fad with Zazie Dans le Metro and two nutty Yalies continued with Hallelujah the Hills. Both works snatched sequences from well-known films and spoofed them in crescendos of utter nonsense. Those versed in the history of the cinema had a gay time recognizing various snippets and whispering snobbish comments to their dates...
Zazie and Hallelujah remained plotless, but Theodore Flicker, who made The Troublemaker, constructed his parody film around the story of a naive chicken farmer named Jack Armstrong who comes to New York to open a coffeehouse. Jack's refusal to pay off the various authorities was meant to echo Marlon Brando's fight with the Longshoremen's Union in On the Waterfront. The touch is far too heavy, and what could be somewhat effective humor gets bogged down in weary detail...
...main problem remains that parody movies had more than run their course after Hallelujah the Hills, and The Troublemaker was doomed to triteness before it was filmed. Thus humor disintegrates into a mechanical game of recognition which becomes very tiring after the first ten minutes...