Word: jerker
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Performed with unbridled Neapolitan gusto by Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni, this hilarious, sentimental, fiercely moral old tear-jerker is only a cousin by marriage to Pietro Germi's memorable comedy, Divorce-Italian Style. Its inspiration is the same rigid divorce laws that make marriage a last resort for Italian males and a Sisyphean challenge for the women who have to weep, cheat, wheedle and trick them into it. Under Director Vittorio De Sica (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow), the two stars pour themselves into their work and set charm flowing like strong red wine...
Vaughn Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis could have been received either as a magnificent catharsis or as an offensive, over-extended tear-jerker. The audience chose the cathartic interpretation, even though the members of the string orchestra did not end their chords together, did not play their pizzicati together, and did not all tune to the standard of pitch habitual in civilized countries...
Averting a Lynching. On the touchy issue of race relations, the Independent was remarkably outspoken for its time. "The Jew and the Negro are not unlike our own people." said the Bank Clerk, a front-page character who held weekly colloquies with the Soda Jerker. "We have our own ignorant, vulgar, loudmouthed, swaggering, chiseling white Christian Nordics." Soda Jerker: "Yes, but with this difference: the Jew and the Negro are minorities and we are in the majority. Our own breed of jackasses so far outnumber us that we long ago gave up the idea of handling them." When a twelve...
...Millionairess (Dimitri de Grunwald; 20th Century-Fox) is made from an old show-business recipe for success: when the joke is bad, make the worst of it. The joke, written in this case by George Bernard Shaw, was a 1936 profiteer-jerker that parodied the plight of those who have money and think it will buy anything. In this revival, Director Anthony Asquith makes a parody of the parody, and where the play becomes too talky, he has the good sense to decree that the Shaw must not go on. He also makes the most of Sophia Loren, who consistently...