Word: nightmarish
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Many of the scenes of The Fifth Column would make hair-raising melodrama on almost any stage, and the nightmarish confusion in which the whole thing takes place is something new in Hemingway's writing. But it breaks off abruptly just as it gets well under way; Dorothy is such a dunce that an incredibly handsome actress would be necessary to explain her hold on Philip; big scenes-like the shooting of a captured German officer-take place off stage; and all Philip's long explanations of his reasons for aiding the Loyalists prove nothing except that...
...versatile to have made a successful picture from a story as fantastic as James Hilton's Lost Horizon. But as a master of pace, he is certainly no better in his department than England's enormously fat, lethargic Alfred Hitchcock (Thirty-Nine Steps) in the department of nightmarish melodrama. For sheer sentiment he is probably no match for pudgy, high-voiced George Cukor (Camille, Holiday). For action pictures he is topped by John Ford (Hurricane), or Victor Fleming (Captains Courageous, Test Pilot). For capitalizing girlish sweetness at the box office, he is certainly no rival to Viennese Henry...
Some years ago polished Card Shark Ely Culbertson, scrawny titan of contract bridge, talked his way into the Tall Story Club. His tall story: a nightmarish bridge game in which Satan sat at his left. When Ely, holding the red & black dream hand- spades AKQJ, hearts AKQ, diamonds AKQ, clubs AKQ-bid a grand slam in no trump, Satan doubled. When Ely redoubled, Satan grinned impishly, reeled off a hellish new green suit to take all the tricks...
...exhibition at Paris' Galerie Billiet last fortnight, called L'Art Cruel. The usual fate of such intentions has seldom been illustrated better than in the shallow frissons and Grand Guignol giggles with which swank Parisians responded to it. Contributors of the 48 paintings included Picasso, with his nightmarish Dreams & Lies of Franco (TIME, Dec. 27); Salvador Dali, with The Specter of Sex Appeal, in which a nai've little boy regards an enormous figure, half-flesh, half-bone, straddling an idyllic background; Andre Masson, with Dilettantes of Corpses, showing gowned ecclesiastics leaving a corpsy battlefield with expressions...
After this nightmarish episode, which is followed almost immediately by a nightmarish encounter with police, they escape to the U. S., where Howard climbs slowly back to fortune by way of unpaid radio appearances in Los Angeles, a chance to fill in during an operatic emergency, a role in a cheap movie that turns into a hit. When he is on top of the world again, with Juana in a Gramercy Park hideaway in Manhattan, his evil genius appears-a suave, wealthy, possessive conductor and music patron named Hawes. Although Howard struggles in increasing panic, Juana guesses what is wrong...