Word: joans
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...exactly tear down the goal-posts with its fig-leaved presentation of "Adam the Creator," either, but the competition hadn't really begun in those early days--the two groups even offered each other helpful hints from time to time. It wasn't until the heady aroma of "Saint Joan" began to fill the local columns and airwaves that the HD worries began...
...Saint Joan" publicized and played its way into the biggest hit in Harvard history. Its gross $5000 take smothered the simple if effective rival offering, "Waiting for Lefty," into a dusty corner, and the failure of a last-ditch HDC presentation of "Juno and the Paycock" didn't add any blue stars for prestige to that side of the ledger. Fat with its "Joan" power and profits, the Theatre Workshop bounded into 1947-48 like a herd of swollen gazelles...
...rate the edge for a power struggle. The Veterans outnumber the HDC in total active membership and particularly in the number of stellar performers they seem able to attract. They also seem to have a consistent monopoly on ambition, with their tackling of the scenic and casting problems of "Joan" and "Henry" as opposed to the Dramatic Club's sketchy "Lefty" and proposed bare-stage production of "Enemy of the People." On the other side of the line the HDC wields its name and a store of home-owned lighting equipment...
...wealthy gentleman described by her father as being "as old as I am." However, before reaching the altar she encounters a storm and a naval officer and each has an equally turbulent effect upon her. Fortunately it's not as trite as all that, for Wendy Hiller portrays Joan Webster, the calculating wonan, with a poise and effectiveness that makes much out of not much of anything. Roger Livesey and the supporting east also contribute an occasional worthwhile moment and, with the assistance of Scottish folk dances and Gaclic singing, the picture becomes quite enjoyable...
...even the acting suffers from failings of the plot when situations arise which either couldn't or just wouldn't happen. Joan Webster setting to sea in a small boat with the North sea equivalent of a typhoon approaching is almost credible. The naval officer going along against his better judgment is somewhat less credible. But when they are being swept into a whirlpool with the engine completely waterlogged, it requires a stretch of the audience's credulity to accept a last minute repair job that permits the boat to chug blithely away from the whirling maelstrom. Similarly, the happy...