Word: laughter
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...PRESENT LAUGHTER by Noël Coward
...other housebreaker merits note. As a calf-eyed aspiring playwright with a manic giggle and an iron handshake, Nathan Lane is the kind of disciple who could drive a deity to drink. Doubling as director of Present Laughter, Scott favors a whirlwind pace and high-decibel delivery. Casting himself against type is a bonus. This is a Patton pistol-whipped by endless frustration. There is high glee in watching George C. Scott do a fast burn of impotent, unutterable rage. - By T.E. Kalem
...doctors were available for 100 patients. Five specialists had to work on one patient alone, so much of the man was either injured or missing. The patients who were transferred from the shelled mental hospital presented a particular problem. They would stare at their wounds and break out in laughter, or they would tear at their bandages...
Richard Scammon, the elections analyst, came home from the first and last 1964 campaign meeting held by President John Kennedy just ten days before his assassination in November 1963. Scammon sat down with his wife Mary and with great snorts of laughter recounted that by his tally there were, around the table, eight Irish Roman Catholics and two Unitarians from the Middle West...
...handling of this theme is its tone. Horovitz seems slightly confused by his chosen form: the comedy-drama. Allowing the film to teeter between pathos and slapstick, he treats the material too lightly to evoke a poignant response from the audience, yet not satirically enough to inspire much laughter. Moreover, the overly cheerful conclusion results from a painfully contrived plot twist...