Word: jewison
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Russians Are Coming were as good as its best actor, the laughter might reach gale force. Sad to say, Director Norman Jewison and Scenarist William Rose, working from a novel by Nathaniel Benchley, seem too anxious, or too unsubtle, to sound the depths of a delightfully quirky human comedy. Instead they try too often for ding-dong farce, calling on a corps of hard-sell comedians to transform the townfolk into strident cartoons. Jonathan Winters as an addled police officer, Ben Blue as an irrelevant drunk, and Paul Ford as a sword-swinging Legionnaire are the chief offenders, since their...
...card duel between the two hot-handed pros generates all the expected tension, and Director Norman Jewison exploits it fully. The grim-to-garish background seems authentic. The jargon sounds right. And McQueen v. Robinson put on a bristling good show whenever they interrupt their marathon long enough for a few words of subtly guarded small talk-about health, luck, woman trouble, anything that might make an opponent's mind wander...
However, nearly everything about Cincinnati Kid is reminiscent of The Hustler. Director Jewison can put his cards on the table, let his camera cut suspensefully to the players' intent faces, but a pool shark sinking a tricky shot into a side pocket undoubtedly offers more range. Kid also has a less compelling subplot. Away from the table, McQueen gambles on a blonde (Tuesday Weld) and on the integrity of his dealer pal, Karl Maiden. Pressure comes from a conventionally vicious Southern gentleman (Rip Torn), whose pleasures include a Negro mistress, a pistol range adjacent to his parlor, and fixed...
Displayed to Broadway audiences as a comedy of character (TIME, Dec. 19, 1960), Flowers seemed artificial and soon wilted under critical disesteem. Rearranged for moviegoers as a formula farce, the show still seems artificial but the artifice somehow seems right-in a puppet show, who needs reality? Director Norman Jewison deserves three small cheers for the skillful manipulation of his principal puppets. Actor Randall, who as always looks like an unsolicited testimonial for psychoanalysis, achieves a socko series of belt-stretching belly laughs. Actor Hudson, who is sensitively cast as the half-dead hero, has seldom performed so inoffensively...