Word: ravenously
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Raven (Westport International), a cross between a whodunit and Spoon River Anthology, is an excellent story idea and an extremely good movie. The story: someone in a French provincial town begins writing painfully wellinformed poison-pen letters, signed "The Raven." Gradually, The Raven's malice eats into every chink and crevice in the town's uneasy conscience. By the time the culprit is exposed, the community is on the verge of a collective nervous breakdown...
...Raven comes to the U.S. under a cloud that is mostly hot air. The picture was made with German financing during the occupation. Rumor said that it was so ruthless an exposure of French decadence that it was shown in Germany, as anti-French propaganda, under the title A Small French City. Actually, the film is neither more nor less anti-nationalist than the work of any intelligent, morally responsible artist, in time of peace or war. Propaganda or not, the picture was not shown in wartime Germany; indeed it was banned there (Germans, after all, might observe that...
...insensitive to its taps." Counting on his fingers, he said: "There's him, there's his wife Maria, his daughter. Think of it, three votes for the Communists. What a disgrace for all of us." Then he brightened. He had hit on a scheme. He knew that raven-locked Maria Conti, the only woman in Riofreddo who wore modern clothes, hated the drudgery of housework: she was a career woman at heart. Swinging his green umbrella. Father Francesco promptly departed to make Maria Conti head of the women's branch of Catholic Action...
Mystery in the Tower. But, as always, the big news of the week was a story of mystery, gore and violence. In the blood-stained Tower of London, MacDonald the Raven had been found brutally murdered, his head severed from his body. When the ravens leave the Tower, says an old legend, Britain's majesty will topple. As it searched in vain for MacDonald's murderer, Scotland Yard suspected the worst. Another raven was hastily imported to maintain the garrison, and an extra guard of six troops thrown about the remaining ravens. Solemnly and in full state...
Visitors, on entering, found themselves dodging a whirling lighthouse powered by an old Victrola motor. They moved on to a "Hall of Superstition," containing a 14-foot hand made of chicken wire, plaster and canvas. In a hole in the wall, an owl, a bat and a raven played whist. In another room, artificial rain fell steadily and one dry corner was reserved for a billiard table where passersby could stop and play...