Word: humorous
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Germany in 1946, raised him to archbishop in 1950 and apostolic nuncio in 1951. As the first foreign diplomat to present his credentials to the German Federal Republic in 1951, stocky, grey-haired Archbishop Muench became dean of the Bonn diplomatic corps. His easy charity and folksy Midwestern humor have made him popular. Once when Chancellor Adenauer admired a purple cape he was wearing, Muench said: "I'll see that you get something purple," promptly delighted the Chancellor with a necktie made of the same material...
Richards makes this sketch, Bontche Schweig, and the first one, The Tale of Chelm, worthwhile. In making Bontche's request, his one line in the play, he must walk the tightrope between melodrama and pathetic humor, and he does it in perfect balance. The other actors, however, seem too rigid in their parts, as if they were not really communicating with each other; and the directing seems too light, as if it were not forcing the actors to work together. The music of Hovey and de Cornier, and a narrator, help to integrate these two sketches, but the result...
...Carnovsky's magnificent outbursts take on meaning from his more frequent displays of quiet resignation before wife's and fate's hand: "Did I say no?" he asks, seeking reconciliation. "The only thing was I didn't say yes loud enough...." This is a tremendously funny play. But the humor is warm, so close to life that it could not possibly be transmitted without the people. The humor exists in the tangled logic of the Jews' existence at this time of history, in late nineteenth century Russia. The existence itself had to be rationalized and joked about, and what...
...strength of the film lies in its patchwork humor: rock 'n' roll in an air raid shelter, the Fenwickian girls waiting for the victorious American soldiers with signs, such as "Gum Chum," and Big Four ministers playing the board game "Diplomacy." What mars the film, apart from acting flaws, is chiefly an over-reliance on corn and gag lines, like Miss Seberg's "I always thought you were a snake, you snake." If the script is supposed to be satire on the usual Hollywood cliches, it does not come off as such, but sounds merely trite itself...
...supporting roles are adequately handled and the humor is played to the utmost. As Andromache, Johanna Shaw overcomes a certain flatness of tone to portray the concerned and anxious wife of Hector. John Beck, doubling as the crafty Ulysses, presents a fine portrait of the experienced and uningenuous Greek ambassador. Christopher Rawson's portrayal of Paris as a complete sensualist involved an excessive number of effeminate hand-on-hip gestures...