Word: humorously
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Doctor in the House (J. Arthur Rank; Republic) is a delightful example of formaldehyde humor, the kind of grisly, hospital-corridor hilarity that makes a patient wonder, in the darkness of the night, if that jovial doctor of his really understands that a man's only liver is a very serious organ...
Aside from this defect, Cocteau has clevery combined realistic passions and humorous dialogue. His characters, hysterical as they are, manage to remain credible and funny at the same time. Their humor derives principally from the ancient method of dramatic irony-as when Madelaine tells Michael, "I was as found of George as I shall be of your father," and only the audience knows that George is Michael's father; and partly also from a simple exaggeration of emotions, as in the opening scene, when Yvonne's possessiveness and then Michael's naivete combine in a virtual parody of the Oedipus...
Experts in any field, however, have the characteristic faculty of making their work look easy. Cadillac does this for comedy-writing precisely because it is an expert comedy, skillfully contrived to wrest a maximum of humor from every topic it touches...
...even Teichmann and Kaufman have over-reached themselves in the girdle episode, which, besides being irrelevant, is largely unfunny. But on the whole, Cadillac's material stays admirably cohesive. The authors may be using a shotgun instead of a rifle, but their target is the large one of sustained humor rather than the pin-point of specific ridicule. And the laughs are constant all evening...
...acting, like the plot, is distinguished by competent humor in all directions. Loring Smith, as the ex-business tycoon ("I don't get ulcers; I give 'em!") whose life in the Pentagon is made miserable by "the damned ole Senate, epitomizes this comic versatility. He delivers everything from vaudeville gags to a farcical high school oration, and is so unabashed a comedian that he laughts at his own material. The audience does too, of course. Ruth McDevitt plays Mrs. Laura Partridge, the ex-actress who attends a stock-holders meeting on the advice of her horoscope and ends up controlling...