Word: offscreen
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Since network television rules forbid any act of violence to be shown (after all, Greek tragedy had the same convention), Georgia was done in just offscreen. A man's voice murmured: "What nice lipstick you use . . ." Georgia shrieked and dropped the phone she was using. The camera panned blankly at the phone while the dirty work was done...
Live Today is unquestionably an earnest picture on a serious theme. Thanks largely to the charm and skill of Florence Eldridge (offscreen, Mrs. Fredric March), it is also at times quite poignant. But, considering how well Michael Gordon directed Another Part of the Forest, this is a surprisingly uneven job; notably, Gordon squeezes much less than he might out of the buildup to the "mercy killing" itself. The picture is also disappointing because it dodges and neglects so much. The pros & cons of euthanasia are presented in the round; a distinction is made between moral and legal guilt; and something...
...harried bloodhound, Ray Milland is as surefooted as ever. Laughton falls to with relish on the great chunks of deep-dish villainy that the script feeds him. Elsa Lanchester (Mrs. Laughton, offscreen) does a good bit of broad comedy as an emancipated artist with four children and no husband...
...several easy-hearted songs, some lines as quietly wicked as an icepick stab, and a few fine jokes. Good joke: at one point, Hope enthusiastically explains the rest of the picture: they'll Get-The-Papers and Stop-the-Marriage; "Boy, what a finish!" There is a frightful offscreen growling that sounds like a couple of nauseated tigers. Crosby, disconcerted: "What was that?" Hope, casually: "Oh, just the Warner Brothers; they're terribly jealous...
...Havoc (M.G.M.) has lost its most blood-chilling cries-the offscreen screams of the U.S. nurses on Bataan surrendering to the Japanese, which were a high point of the stage play. The cryless Cry Havoc is a less sensational So Proudly We Hail (TIME, Sept. 27). It is harsher and more perfervid than Paramount's star-struck version of nurses on Bataan...