Word: melodrama
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...spirited pacing and exaggeration Director Montgomery has made the most of his synthetic plot-which is still not quite enough. There are hints that the picture was intended as a burlesque of a familiar type of grade B melodrama. But with its air of sly sophistication it could also be taken as a subtler parody of standardized featherbrain farce. Every now & then, in unexpected bits of dialogue and situation, the film shows a fresh comic touch, but most of its effort is frittered away in indecision...
...time she has had her way, the plot has encompassed a torture scene and the remarkable regeneration of the heroine. It has also been looped and twisted into a tricky knot of complications and double crosses. Rope, in fact, proves only two things: 1) given enough plot, any Hollywood melodrama can be counted on to hang itself, and 2) when it comes to acting, Miss Calvet, for all her diamantine Gallic glamour, is only a rhinestone in the rough...
...Steal (RKO Radio) is a melodrama with some real assets: 1) it was handsomely photographed against handsome Mexican backgrounds; 2) it has one of the fastest and longest chases of the current season; 3) it never once pauses long enough to draw a serious breath...
Comedian Danny Kaye had a prominent role in a real-life melodrama. He was aboard a transatlantic airliner, 600 miles off Ireland, when one of its engines caught fire and a propeller fell off. While the plane lost altitude, Danny and 53 fellow passengers put on life jackets. Turning back, the plane managed to reach Shannon, and Danny got into comedy again: "I can swim," he cracked, "but not 600 miles...
...Doctor is no trumpet call to noble deeds; it is largely a winking kaleidoscope of Oriental reminiscences, studded with startling clinical notes. Dr. May found that just as tropical forests outgrow and outbloom Western vegetation, so do some diseases in the tropics flourish with a luxuriance that amounts to melodrama. An ovarian cyst, Annamite-style, has been known to weigh more than the half-starved body in which it grew. Hernias often achieve a size "so gigantic as to have lost all possibilities of residence inside the abdomen...