Word: lined
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Many things in this script tax to the umost the oft-stated "willing suspension of disbelief" that every playgoer is supposed to bring with him into a theatre. Shakespeare was never primarily concerned with story line, anyway; he was more interested in character than in plot. For All's Well he just snapped up a Boccaccio tale from a secondary source, complete with the trite gimmick of identification of rings. But he failed to expend the necessary effort on characteriaztion as well. Pascal once said, "Every author has a meaning in which all the contradictory passages agree...
...performances themselves are excellent almost down the line. Nancy Wickwire gives us a radiant Helena; and if she does not show quite the blazing drive desired, she does still bring a good deal of the proper Shavian sheen to the part. John Ragin, moving from a series of small parts to take over the important and impossible role of the scornful cad Bertram on very short notice, showed no visible signs today of trouble, and will doubtless continue to make a favorable impression...
...swaggering braggart Parolles, an exhibitionist in sartorial as well as vocal matters. Larry Gates is a first-rate King of France, and nearly succeeds in making his sick-bed scene credible. Will Geer is a lovable Lafeu, and has come up with some very original and effective line-readings. Aline MacMahon is aptly warm-hearted as the Countess; and Barbara Barrie's Diana is properly wily yet pure. Hiram Sherman has fun with the Sergeant's mumbo-jumbo; and among other commendable jobs are Jack Bittner's Clown (though his most difficult passage is cut) and Sada Thompson's Widow...
...Daneel and Tad Danielewski are husband and wife in real life, but that is about where the adherence to precedent ends, I fear. They both have pronounced European accents, which might have added an interesting quality to the produce of a Dutch playwright. However, they make for some strange line readings and an improper inflection often kills a good laugh...
Saved: $19 Million. Founded in 1857, North German Lloyd was one of the world's major passenger carriers before World War II; its queenly Europa and Bremen IV competed with British and French ships on equal terms. But the war cost the line 99.5% of its tonnage. The task of reconstruction fell to brisk Director Richard Bertram, 55, and pfennig-pinching Co-Director Johannes Kulen-kampff, fiftyish, who personally picks through the company's discarded files to salvage used paper clips...