Word: hyer
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...this three more major characters (Joan Crawford, Brian Aherne, Martha Hyer), three other office romances, a script loaded with schoolgirl sophistication and half-aphorisms ("Old is when you know all the answers." "No, old is when you don't even bother to ask the question"), and an understandably bored performance by an old Hollywood pro, Director Jean Negulesco. The result is just about the dullest retelling of the old cautionary tale since Bertha, the Sewing-Machine Girl...
...just where the millions lie: in fictionalized history, resplendently costumed, sexed up, and heavily flavored with religion. There are sumptuous orgies in palaces that look like the new banks of Beverly Hills; John the Baptist is beheaded in 70-mm. Panavision, color and stereophonic sound; and "the temptress" (Martha Hyer) moves about murmuring to Herod Antipas, "You thrill my inmost being." There is also the Sermon on the Mount, delivered by an offstage voice in soft-sell tones. There are stabbings, hurricanes, ambushes, chases, the miracles of Christ, racial conflict between Arabs and Jews, one case of polio...
Between the excellent Method acting of Academy Award Winner Joanne Woodward, 28, and the thinly silverplated style with which Martha Hyer, 34, attempts to replace Princess Grace, the town's new crop of females comes in assorted types and talents. Some examples...
...hillbilly Jim Curley. He waves his false teeth in the air and slobbers: "Them N-double-A-C-P goons knocked my teeth out." When a heckler asks about $14,000 grafted from a power contract, Massie chuckles, slaps his back pocket and says, "I got it right hyer . . . an' you ain't gon' git a nickel of it neither...
...employers. Arrived in Paris ("Say, that's the biggest TV tower I've ever seen"), Hope discovers that his room opens on the very same balcony as Anita's-a coincidence that could easily prove fatal, or even embarrassing. Hope is in love with Martha Hyer, a mighty jealous girl who works for the U.S. embassy when she is not repulsing his amorous advances ("This is the mating season for shellfish, you know"). Anyway, things get worse before they get better, and in the end, Hope makes a desperate attempt to get the comedy off the ground...