Word: messe
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Criss Cross (Universal International] is fairly routine gangster melodrama in which the hero (Burt Lancaster) is led into a whole mess of trouble by his alluring ex-wife (Yvonne de Carlo). But it is sharply directed by Robert Siodmak and enlivened with some fresh bits of business. Samples: a jug-nursing old gentleman (Alan Napier) who makes a specialty of planning complex holdups; the robbery of an armored car (in which Lancaster is a guard), a rare sport among real-life or cinema crooks; so much double-crossing that the cast almost needs military maps to remind them...
These relatively minor points-minor compared with the national welfare strikes and closed shop-illustrate the mess that Congress must untangle in the months ahead. The primary need is for action on the big points, and the sooner the pressure groups and politicians stop name-calling and realize that the best they can hope for is a direction of policy towards compromise, the sooner a workable law will be enacted...
...Awful Mess...
LoPresti also made plain his views on penology. "Everybody seems to agree that the institution there (Framingham) is in an awful mess. But, they all add,what can you do about it?" he complained. He had opposed Dr. Van Waters' methods "in legislative hearings and from the floor of the Senate," but "no previous Commissioner has dared to differ with Dr. Van Waters. Even members of the legislature kowtow to her." LePresti's interest in Framingham was hardly limited to an investigation of the suicide. He felt that the Reformatory was a sinkhole of immorality and favoritism...
...became a mascot for the 43rd, a New England National Guard division, and he also scrubbed pots & pans in the mess tents. One night, seeing some Japs lying in ambush, José raced back to a G.I., saluted stiffly and cried: "Sir, Japanese sniper-this way, please!" Often he slipped at night to his parents' home, returned with roasted chickens, fresh eggs and bucayo (bits of coconut fried in brown sugar) for his G.I. pals...