Word: hokum
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...told by an ancient leprechaun to convince a group of young pixies that there really are such creatures as humans. The oldster begins his story by saying: "Lay back your skeptical ears-and listen with your heart." The line keynotes a movie that is brimming with Irish whimsy, unabashed hokum and the indisputable talents of Margaret O'Brien...
Some of the fabrications are reasonably white. No more than standard hokum is transfused into healthy Dana by inventing Hero Alan Ladd, even though he practically crowds Author Dana (Brian Donlevy) off the screen. And since Mr. Ladd is on deck, love interest (Esther Fernandez) has to be expected, though Author Dana and his shipmates somehow did without...
...behind New York University's late-blooming Violets was modest, blunt, hokum-hating Coach Howard ("Jake") Cann. Scornful of modern mastermind "systems," for 22 years he has coached the same kind of ball he played a quarter-century ago, when he was one of basketball's greats. He seldom diagrams a play. Once, pressed to explain his "N.Y.U. system," he deadpanned: "Well, we throw the ball around a lot and do our best to put it in the basket." His real formula: hold the score down, wear 'em out, then pour...
...romantic hokum of Show Boat's well-known story-with its dashing gambler, its deserted young wife who troupes to stardom, its pretty mulatto who tries to "pass"-calls up the color of Mississippi River life, of the 1893 World's Fair, of grimy furnished rooms and glittering music halls. It fetches up a lot of gay, happy dancing, much of it with a period touch of cancans and cakewalks. Only toward the end of the show, when the plot runs down, does the Show Boat revival lose its lure...
What is to the point, however, is that the student will be wrong. Faure's music has an individuality of communication, an absence of pompous hokum and fraud which makes it highly valuable in these and days. It is wholly charming and completely sincere...