Word: proteus
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...flaws lie in Shakespeare's clumsy handling of the central plot. The two gentlemen, Proteus and Valentine, represent two conventional types of young Renaissance men: Proteus, the languid romantic, and Valentine, the seeker after honor. In the first scene, Valentine chides Proteus for wasting his youth on love and idleness before sailing for Milan to attend the Emperor--who later turns out to be a Duke in an odd but minor discrepancy. After an interlude with Proteus's lover, Julia, Shakespeare has Proteus sent off to Milan to follow in Valentine's footsteps...
...PROTEUS...
...least not in the pasteboard parable that West contrives. John Spada. an Italian American, runs his multinational conglomerate in the style of a medieval prince, but he is also, in the best potboiler parlance, "a man living a double life." When not wheeling and dealing, he heads Proteus, an apparently vast and clandestine club that liberates political prisoners. Proteus prefers handing out carrots to achieve its ends, but will use the stick when other means fail. Spada's crusade becomes a vendetta when his daughter and her Argentine husband are arrested in Buenos Aires and brutalized by security police...
...possible to ignore the moral issues that West himself raises and then drops, Proteus can be clear sailing. Connoisseurs of page-turners will feel right at home in a world where a woman can still be described as a "leggy redhead," where grins are "crooked," where a Jewish character says "oy vay" and a Scotsman says...
...Valentine boasts a wonderfully resonant baritone, and he eases into a hint of falsetto and sly diction worthy of an Al Green. He tends to mumble over Shakespeare's lines, but there's a certain gullible, soft-hearted appeal in his stage presence. Cliff Richmond plays the treacherous Proteus with appropriately self-centered determination. At times he comes on to himself a little bit too strongly, wiping out the supporting cast through sheer force of neglect. But he displays admirable versatility, tripping with facility from the Spanish pronunciation and non-verbal cries of his Puerto Rican phrases to the controlled...