Word: plot
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...pattern of musical comedies is nearly always the same. After a fast opening chorus, the romantic male lead meets and wins the romantic female lead, all to the tune of a ballad. Then comes the comic subplot, generally introduced by means of a specialty number. After that, the plot takes over for a while, and by the time the first-act curtain falls, the lovers are parted. The second act, which also opens with a chorus number, is shorter and more sketchy than the first. All that is necessary now is to get the lovers back together again...
...complete sadist, whose quiet, corrosive words prick at Miss Lonelyhearts constantly. Pat O'Brien, tested veteran of countless barrel-bottom films, shouts. Playwright Howard Teichmann has promoted the novel's Shrike, with name changed to Spain, to rank with Miss Lonelyhearts himself, boring more holes in the plot's tight belt, as if to accommodate O'Brien's bulk...
...second story suffers from the same agonizing lack of fulfillment and completeness. Her characters are little enough developed to be above flatness, and the plot does not proceed or end. Though these stories may be eminently unsatisfying, they do show a refreshing empathy for people and their behavior...
...with low-budget Lizzie (TIME, March 25), the first of the three-ring personality circuses. And such-despite careful writing and direction by Nunnally Johnson and some fancy acting in the title roles-proves to be the case with big-budget ($1,750,000) Eve. What went wrong? The plot, which attempts to dramatize all the important episodes of the published case history, is explanation enough...
Space pioneers of the comics are usually large and knobby with muscles. They are almost always male, though decorative females may be taken along for plot purposes. According to a symposium of psychologists which met in New York last week to discuss the public's notions about space flight, this athlete-type spaceman is miscast for the part. Every ounce of weight and every cubic inch of volume will be precious on a spaceship. Big, strong crewmen will not be welcome. Only brains to act as computers will be needed, plus an absolute minimum of supporting tissue...