Word: plot
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...excessive length. Act One moves briskly. There are no awkward lulls between songs and dialogue. Ruddigore further avoids monotony by alternately tingling and tickling the audience's spines. The overture and an early number that re-enacts the original curse freeze the viewer's blood, but as the plot progresses the mood shifts to a more comic melodrama, complete with Dracula-like capes and ominous laughter. The chills resume in force during Act Two's climactic portrait scene, in which the paintings of deceased Murgatroyds literally come alive--a moment that is as visually dazzling as it is technically brilliant...
...After you've seen your fortieth Peter Lorre imitation that's not even close, enthusiasm simply wanes. Nonetheless, "Casablanca" (1942) remains one of the best films to emerge from Hollywood in the age of talkies. This film is a stellar example (oops) of great acting rescuing an otherwise mawkish plot. Bogie crystallizes his persona in "Casablanca" as Rick, the disillusioned, cynical tavern-keeper. Ingrid Bergman was never more beautiful, and Claude Rains, the aforementioned Lorre, and Dooley Wilson head a marvelous cast. Really great films can be rated by how many times one can sit through them and truly enjoy...
Thomas Middleton managed to pack every one of these devices into the main plot of The Changeling, the story of a gentlewoman whose refusal to marry according to her father's wishes plunges her into a tangle of murder and deceit. It's not a deep play, and except for a few climactic moments the poetry isn't particularly inspired. But it is a thrilling blood-and-thunder melodrama. The Leverett House production succeeds when director Wendy Smith and the actors swallow their doubts and accept this fact, playing some of the gruesome scenes in a high-serious stage manner...
...course, the greatest site is undoubtedly Lowell Park. This famed plot of land facing Mt. Auburn Street in front of Lowell House has provided thrills for Claverly bleacher bums for years. The diamond itself fits neatly into the surrounding with a spectacular setting for home runs. The right field wall is constructed of two wooden tiers, three-feet high, allowing outfielders a chance to rob hitters of four-baggers by snaring balls clearing the fence...
...Faye's Madam Nell, the whorehouse madam. She delivers a series of deadpan wise-cracks with the dry timing of a George Burns, and this cool sexual sarcasm produces a clever variation on Mae West's old routines. But in the end the bit doesn't mesh with the plot; it is precisely because of her toughness that we fail to be touched her Madame Nell goes crazy after the authorities shut down the brothel. The house's black piano player, played by Antonio Fargas and presumably modeled after Jelly roll Morton, provides the other. Yet his relation to Violet...