Word: overact
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...chic. As the murdered lover's widow, Mary Astor offers an ashen portrait of a woman who is not quite dead but already appears embalmed. Oscar Nominee Agnes Moorehead, as Charlotte's loyal drudge is a snarling, scratching sound-and-sight gag who seems determined to out-overact the best of them. But Bette meets the challenge in a climactic staircase scene, a horrendous ham classic. Sobbing, she crawls to the top of the steps, sees something, freezes like a psychotic spaniel, then goes howling down backward and sideways, all matted curls, eyeballs and quivering flesh...
...small parts, as are Arthur Friedman and Peter Weil as Lancaster and Warwick. They shout too much sometimes, but they pace their dialogues briskly and well. Mark Bramhall, Michael Sargent, and David Evett also play with distinction. Other minor characters tend to forget their blocking or to overact...
...chief missing element is poetic delicacy. Many of the players, especially the minor ones, are allowed to overact; they are trying too hard. And although most (but not all)of them have learned their Oriental movements and gestures, they have not rid themselves of a variety of strictly American regional accents...
...booby roles, Mr. Chapman has been most fortunate. Mr. Lyons (Donald, is it not?) has been great before, but as the astrologically minded Foresight he has a chance to overact to perfection. This ancient of days has a small and ugly beard which just horizontally from his chin, a tottering gait, and a bottomless stock of half-completed, fluttering and totally impotent hand gestures. To which is added an unpredictable voice that shouts its superstitions in a surprising variety of registers. Mr. Abbott, actor, director, and critic, is Sir Sampson Legend, Valentino's Squire Western of a father. Occasionally...
...play's end, when the planes are flying over Heartbreak House and bombs are falling, the East House show crumbles right before your eyes. The play proceeds at an agonizingly slow pace until the final scene; then it races at breakneck peed over important and meaningful lines. The actors overact and over-scream consistently throughout most of the play; then there is an almost total lack of noise of excitement when the bomb falls. The bomb itself hits with a ping, instead of with a shattering roar. In short, the terrifying final scene that shows the horrible picture of Europe...