Word: humphreyism
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...about his commitment to Scientology (about which he's increasingly ardent--there was a Scientology tent on the War of the Worlds set), Cruise has frolicked in the clean mainstream. For ages. His claim to fame, Risky Business, was 22 years ago. He's been a star longer than Humphrey Bogart...
...might wonder a bit about his depth, but in Daniel's dry croak, generalities and absurdities seem to take on meaning. He sounds a bit like Paul Westerberg, but Daniel's irony stems from an excess of feeling, not an absence of it (think of the difference between Humphrey Bogart and Robert Mitchum), and his cadence makes words feel hard earned and universal. Being beaten down by love is an old act, of course, but then so is rock 'n' roll. Gimme Fiction has an amazing way of making both feel new. --By Josh Tyrangiel
...well, and Richard Nixon displayed a strange combination of obsession and guilelessness. Gerald Ford, of course, "made golf a contact sport." Reagan "once broke 100 and that's pretty good for a man on horseback." Hope saves his real affection for celebrities little known for their low handicaps, including Humphrey Bogart and Ruby Keeler. The wildest amateur: Babe Ruth. The smoothest: Joe Louis. Even nongolfers can enjoy the gossip, the jokes and some 100 black-and-white photographs of performers and politicians. Although Hope claims that his scores are now closer to his weight than his age, his follow-through...
...more reverent he feels, the more irreverent the throwaway lines: "Even the Christian God tactfully divides his roles into three, and Frank did his damnedest to divide himself into at least two, but he lacked the infinite capacity." It can all get a little like Woody Allen playing Humphrey Bogart playing St. Augustine...
...Wind sold a million copies in its first seven months. After the movie appeared, Rhett Butler was irreversibly Clark Gable. Scarlett O'Hara was Vivien Leigh. Mitchell's prose withered to the irrelevance of an architect's blueprint after the house is built. Dashiell Hammett created Sam Spade. Humphrey Bogart became Sam Spade. The idea of a character becomes imprisoned in the body of the incarnator, and even the creator cannot liberate the prisoner. The character has acquired features and hair and costume. But something valuable, the subjective suggestiveness that hangs around the edges of words and comes alive only...