Word: oaf
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...boobeoisie," the "bloody English," the "stinking frogs," the "dirty wops" and the "Irish monkeys." New Hampshire and Vermont were "the varicose veins of New England," and New York was "a sewer, a cesspool, a garbage can . . . the hickest of all hick towns." Of U.S. Presidents, there was "no viler oaf" than Woodrow Wilson. "You know what I think of Hoover. Turn him upside down, and he looks the same." As for the Roosevelts, Teddy "had the manners of a saloon bouncer and the soul of a stuck pig, and FDR is the synthesis of all the liars, scoundrels, and cheapskates...
Burt Lancaster, however, makes a brave try at a part somewhat beyond the means of his talent, and manages at least to convince the spectator that half an oaf is better than none. As for Anna, nothing like her kind of corset farce has come out of Hollywood since the late Marie Dressier delicately tucked a pint of hooch in her grandmotherly bosom. One moment Actress Magnani comes lurching on-camera as shapeless as a burlap bag full of cantaloupes; the next she is sleazing through the dusk in black lace with the toothsome glitter of a backstreet-walker...
Many of us who find football exceedingly dull were amazed at the insights of Herr Beyer. Not only does the "sport" seem to be an instrument of aggression for these oaf-like creatures who are too unintelligent to shoot off their excess energy elsewhere, but sociologically, the mass extravaganza is another of the modern "spectaculars" (similar to the late Roman gladiatorial combats) which are so much a sign of decadence...
Along with its taming of an oaf, Bus Stop chronicles the far more offhand and slightly more underhand amour of the proprietress and the bus driver (Elaine Stritch and Patrick McVey), records the spoutings, slitherings and slumbers of a drunken professor (Anthony Ross). There is also the wide-eyed high-school girl who finds the professor wonderful, there is an unrambunctious cowboy with a guitar, and there is a local sheriff who perhaps stands for law and order in the world as well as on Main Street. In a beautifully paced and harmonized production, every part is well played...
Probably the only thing wrong with The Rainmaker is the rainmaker. When Playwright Nash is chronicling the family affairs of the Currys-the amours of a lively young oaf, the wrangles and tangles over getting Lizzie hitched-or when Lizzie herself mimics the wiles of the gals who know how to lasso men, the play has a brisk air and an engagingly humorous smack. And as Lizzie, Geraldine Page plays with charm and verve, and exhibits an unexpected comic gusto. It is popular stuff, and deservedly popular...