Word: humored
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...water onto a diving board or running backwards at full throttle wears off-and that's pretty soon. But the film at the Brattle uses visual foolery in the same intelligent way that a good farce uses its rudimentary pot: as a string for its gems of humor. Spice of Life is a series of sketches examining a variety of pests and bores. Logically unconnected, except by the fact that the poorest of them are quite amusing, these little episodes are narrated and acted in by Noel-Noel. Since he also wrote the film, it seems that the gentle...
...narrator introduce the next sketch. But no matter how clever the camera gets it's no match for the author, who never gives trick photography the impossible task of seeming hilarious all by itself. Instead, photography is always in support of some well though-out gag, reinforcing its humor to give the dividend of trickery. For instance, the narrator lists the subjects of his study on a blackboard, by pointing his finger the writing appearing by itself. But the blackboard gets uppish and keeps listing lecturers along with the other categories of ores and pests. The author...
...read a line," work on a trapeze and do acrobatics. He is pleased that Lois Hunt, once a junior soprano with the Met, "has come out of complete stuffiness to rise to any occasion." Carol Bushman, one of the four Chordettes, wins his praise for her "farm-type humor...
...last night's uninterrupted dress rehearsal, there was only one high point, one performer, one reason for watching Candida: that was Miss Cass. She was always Shaw's wise, strong woman, speaking the celebrated dogma with sweetness and humor. Particularly in the mashy last act is she at top form, supplying the pace which other performers and director David Green neglected. She seemed to have thought about her lines and her part, weighing the author's intent and then blending them into a spirit and charm which is irresistible...
...best things about an Addams cartoon is its abruptness. The Honeys suffers mainly because it is not abrupt enough; the macabre spirit wears off too early in the evening. The play's humor reaches its peak in the second act, when the freshly killed Bennett, his head covered with a lampshade, sways back and forth in the living room while the female Honeys entertain a guest. From this point on, the author's morbid inspiration slowly flickers out, and the humor of the last act consists largely of geographical jokes ("Sinning is in its infancy in Boston") and the standard...