Word: kaufmans
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Directed by PHILIP KAUFMAN...
...brighter in the film than onstage-features the visible shade of Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, plus several unseen ghosts. "I never had a teacher who made the least impression on me," Woody says. "If you ask me who are my heroes, the answer is simple and truthful: George S. Kaufman and the Marx Brothers." In Play It Again, Sam, they are all over the screen; yet somehow Woody's strabismic vision always remains completely his own. Even Groucho Marx declares, "They say Allen got something from the Marx Brothers. He didn't. He's an original...
...plays hold up? It is difficult to tell from reading them. The right actors, stage business and timing are essential to their success. In Kaufman's offstage humor there is the persistent delight of his famous pun, "One man's Mede is another man's Persian." But there is also an unleavened cruelty. After one of Dorothy Parker's unsuccessful suicide attempts, he remarked, "Dorothy, you've got to be careful. Next time you might hurt yourself...
...fear of death and disease often underlay the Kaufman style. Son of an overprotective mother whose first boy died in infancy, Kaufman grew up to be a devout hypochondriac. He ate oatmeal nearly every day of his life; he hated casual human contact and touching doorknobs. One of his many mistresses recalls that when she once innocently tasted his soup in a restaurant, Kaufman promptly ordered another bowl. When she asked him how he could kiss her, Kaufman replied, "Well, Miss S., your tasting my soup was one kind of risk. My kissing you was another. Let's concentrate...
...that time, Kaufman was a rich, famous author-collaborator of more than two dozen comedies and musicals, including You Can't Take It With You, Of Thee I Sing and Silk Stockings. His career as a critic, playwright and director spanned nearly 40 years, and his influence was enormous. Brooks Atkinson credited Kaufman with making the wisecrack part of our language. Groucho Marx claimed that "Kaufman gave me the walk and the talk...