Word: leer
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...laid down in the Ginzburg decision-which was based not so much on the content of his publications as on the way he peddled them. Speaking for the court in all three cases, Justice William J. Brennan said that Ginzburg's "titillating" advertising was so permeated with "the leer of the sensualist" that he was guilty of "the sordid business of pandering." Brennan took dead aim at "those who would make a business of pandering to the widespread weakness for titillation by pornography." The result: a stiff new rule for obscenity cases that may make a peddler...
...theater produced such a successful and spectacular producer-star. To the millions who follow his exclamatory career on the front pages and the late shows, he gleefully presents himself as the meanest man in town-as "the Abominable Showman," a bold, bad Broadway producer with a rubber leer, a big black Groucho Marx mustache and a tongue that can tirelessly slice baloney and burble ballyhoo about such Merrick productions as Look Back in Anger, La Plume de Ma Tante, Gypsy and Luther. To publicize his shows, Merrick with truly hippopotamic cheek has sent sandwich-board men into the streets...
...When she entertains a bid from Harvey, walking barefoot atop a boardroom conference table in tantalizing finery, Christie evokes an image of corruption that might well tempt a gentleman to corporate risks. She is the apotheosis of trumped-up celebrity, an authentic contemporary creature whose every misstep makes thousands leer. Because her passions are only skin-deep, her tragedy is trivial. But at every toss of her blonde mane, every shard of a smile, all else on the screen becomes mere backdrop. Her stunning presence-and Schlesinger's stylish tracking of a playgirl's progress -makes Darling irresistible...
...Newley and Ritchard hold the show together. Newley is a perfect clown, a graceful pantomimist whose range is limited but effective, especially when he's staggering under self-pity or belting out self-encouragement. And Ritchard, though there is still too much of Captain Hook in his giggle and leer, matches Newley's pantomime with a mocking, sophisticated farce that at times shines through the hazy book, lyrics, and music...
...most of it screechingly funny and played by knockabouts who know that the slapstick was invented for keeping an idea aloft, not for beating it into the ground. Jack Lemmon, too often compelled to flail around in boudoirs as the All-American lecher, demonstrates that he can wipe the leer off his face and make homicidal impulses more hilarious than hard breathing...