Word: haplessness
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...that used to be standard fare on TV sitcoms: the emasculated American male who blusters and protests while remaining the tool of his pert, soft-spoken but granite-willed wife. Here he is played by Joseph Bologna, she by the adept but woefully misused Barbara Harris. Hubby coaches a hapless professional basketball team, the Phoenix Suns. He makes a good enough living, however. His suburban home is roomy, wellappointed, and chock-full of kids-three when the movie begins and three more by the fadeout. Since Mixed Company covers only about six months and is not science fiction...
...sneak preview in San Diego on Nov. 27, just two weeks before the world première, Coppola, his wife Eleanor, John Cazale (who is superb as the hapless Fredo), a crew of film editors and a contingent of buddies watched a packed house respond enthusiastically. But the assembled loyalists all knew the film was seriously flawed; the last hour seemed jumbled, confused, cold. All during the showing Coppola muttered notes to himself into a pocket tape recorder. Some scenes needed lengthening, others were dropped. The idea of an intermission was scrapped...
What happened? Did Satch use the hapless Newton squad as a tune-up for the Volunteer Basketball tournament this weekend? Was this a practical joke by somebody in the scheduling office...
...Crimson came out flying in the second as Jimmy Thomas continued to play excellent, aggressive hockey which paid off in a score only 1:54 after the face-off. Thomas took a pass from Leigh Hogan and fired a backhand past the hapless Devlin...
...overacted stylishly, if not always enjoyably. Ironically, what works best for him are his eyes. They escape the whim of makeup and never play him false. Finney fills them with irony and cunning in a struggle against all the shabby artifice that surrounds his face and smothers this hapless film...