Word: ritt
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...conventional destination, but the film makes some fascinating stops along the way. There are some barracking good family quarrels and a couple of memorably steamy scenes of decadence. The direction, by Martin (The Long, Hot Summer) Ritt, is sure and vigorous. The acting is excellent. Actor Brynner, once the mind stops boggling at his henna-rinsed toupee, tugs powerfully at the sympathies. Actress Woodward, despite her tendency to develop mannerisms instead of a style, gives a winning and intelligent impression of an ugly duckling at the moment when she becomes a swan...
...seems a sensible idea, and it might have been the theme of a sensible attempt at row-house realism, but Scriptwriter Joseph Stefano has loaded this piece of pizza with a mess of indigestible sentimentality, and Director Martin Ritt has turned it out half-baked. In the last half of the story, even Actor Quinn, usually a rock-solid performer, comes apart like a discouraged anchovy...
...first production of the play had the requisite terror but lacked the element of pity. One could only loathe Eddie; and the production suffered further from Martin Ritt's faulty direction (especially in the last scene) and the disgracefully poor acting of Gloria Marlowe as the niece. But now the play has both pity and terror. The new portions, particularly in the doorstep scene between Eddie and his wife in act one, clarify the characters' motivations; and, though we still cannot condone Eddie, we do understand and pity...
...Flowering Peach a degree below superlative, it doesn't destroy its advanced merit. Berta Gerson, as Noah's wife, almost matches Skulnik's expertness, and Mario Alcalde should grow into a top-flight actor. Janice Rule is awfuly pretty, if slightly monotonous in her interpretation, and both Martin Ritt and Leon Janney enter into Odets' idea of the Flood as a human parable as sons Shem...
Actually, the best features of the play are its lighting and its single set, the inside of a rooming house. The set is partitioned into a basement, a ground floor, and a stairway leading to the upper stories. And director Martin Ritt uses the set and lighting, especially in scene openings and closings, to achieve startling effects...