Word: muny
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...finest motion picture effects with many of the worst. Scenes of sheer poetry are juxtaposed with others of outrageous banality; splendid camera work is sometimes ruined by the most needless background music; several beautifully delivered speeches are muted by close-ups on the wrong faces. Only Paul Muni's performance as Dr. Samuel Abelman--the title figure--is consistently good...
...Abelman, though, as Muni portrays him, is magnificent. A sort of lower Flatbush Thoreau, he has spent most of his 68 years fighting the 'galoots' ("people who take, and give nothing in return"), and proving that he, at least, is uncorrupted by the 20th century mania for money. Played by an ordinary actor, Dr. Abelman might have appeared a caricature of some wistful or long dead ideal. But Muni in perfect; he never wastes a gesture or an expression, the timbre of his voice is always exactly appropriate to the speech he is delivering...
When director Daniel Mann works with experienced actors, such as Muni and Luther Adler (Abelman's closest friend, Dr. Max Vogel) his touch is sure and often imaginative; but the rest of the cast seems unable to carry out his suggestions. The worst of the group is Betsy Palmer (Woody Thrasher's wife) who is about as inspired as a deep sea diver in the Charles River...
...Last Angry Man (Columbia), the hero of Gerald Green's cinemadaptation of his bestselling novel, is a cranky, kindly, old-fashioned family doctor with the sort of character that practice makes perfect. Dr. Sam Abelman (Paul Muni) lives and works in one of the worst neighborhoods in Brooklyn, loves and cares for his patients day and night, though most of them are too ignorant to appreciate him and too poor to pay his bills. The thing
...long as the picture tells Sam's story, it is pleasantly entertaining. It is good to see Paul Muni again-Stranger on the Prowl (1953) was his last picture-and the folksy, matzo-barrel humor is fun. Unfortunately, the picture tells Sam's story for only 20 minutes or so. The rest of the time (about 80 minutes) the audience watches a big wheel (David Wayne) go round in circles trying to get Sam to appear on television and talk pretty for the people. Sam himself makes the only adequate comment on all this. He gets so sick...