Word: marlon
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...mean provincialism that it is supposed to be preaching against. Taking a Horton Foote novel adapted by Playwright Lillian Hellman, Producer Sam Spiegel (Lawrence of Arabia) hired Director Arthur Penn (The Miracle Worker) to whip up a scathing, lopsided indictment of a small town somewhere in Texas. With Star Marlon Brando as chief jeer-leader, the movie smugly points an accusing finger at all the wrong, wrong deeds done by precisely the right people...
Miss Kael proposed Marlon Brando's career as a thermometer to the general decline of our film industry. His "On the Waterfront" lament "Oh, Chollie I cudda had class! I cudda binna contenda!" she called "The Great American Lament." She feels that his recent career has mocked this early promise as a tragic hero...
This winter, for instance, Paul Newman will enter his 41st year. So will Jack Lemmon. While nobody was looking, Charlton Heston, Marlon Brando and Doris Day turned 41, Ava Gardner 42, Judy Garland 43. Montgomery Clift and Mickey Rooney are 44. Robert Stack has reached 46, Joey Bishop and William Holden 47. Dean Martin and Raymond Burr have hit 48, Gregory Peck and Kirk Douglas 49, Ingrid Bergman 50. Loretta Young could now be properly billed as Loretta Middle-Aged at 52. And as for Gary Grant...
Morituri starts off promising something nautical but nice. Tough British Agent Trevor Howard smoothly snares German Deserter Marlon Brando into agreeing to a perilous bit of World War II secret agentry. He must find and disarm the demolition charges placed on a German freighter, so that in the event of Allied capture, the Germans will not be able to scuttle their precious rubber cargo. Equipped with forged Nazi credentials and the suavest German accent since Erich von Stroheim. Brando climbs aboard the freighter, captained by Yul Brynner, and loses no time in going on the prowl...
Zazie and Hallelujah remained plotless, but Theodore Flicker, who made The Troublemaker, constructed his parody film around the story of a naive chicken farmer named Jack Armstrong who comes to New York to open a coffeehouse. Jack's refusal to pay off the various authorities was meant to echo Marlon Brando's fight with the Longshoremen's Union in On the Waterfront. The touch is far too heavy, and what could be somewhat effective humor gets bogged down in weary detail...