Word: slapsticking
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...line three times as well. The spirit of Woody Allen is sometimes summoned forth: "That which is crooked cannot be made straight, although with that one I believe there are psychotherapists who might disagree." When all else fails, a common enough occurrence in this narrative, Heller turns to the slapstick of Mel Brooks circa the comedy routine "The 2,000-Year-Old Man" and the film The History of the World-Part I: pointless anachronisms (" 'Send a wire!' I shouted. 'We have no wires,' Jehoshaphat recalled for me") and noises in descending orders of rudeness...
...stream of dreams and warnings builds to a sort of surreal slapstick that makes it difficult to see why Reve doesn't just get the hell out of Christine's beachhouse inferno. He is, infact, put in the position of playing straight man to all the outrageous "clues" the plot offers Krabbe's magnificent portrayal of a very un-straight obsession keeps the character from being an imbecile, even given the vacuous tackiness of Herman, Christine's lover and his object of lust. Herman turns out to be a German plumbing contractor who not only looks, but sounds, like...
...that book on stage--an ambitious transplanting, to say the very least. Rather than amplifying a few key events or themes of the story. Big River presents most of it as a series of vignettes interspersed with musical numbers. Some of the scenes work splendidly, drawing on the sardonic, slapstick and drawling wit of the original story. Others, however, become a tribute to Cliff Notes by capturing the plot but losing the content as well as the excitement of the story...
...late Peter Sellers in the lead, Unfaithfully Yours works largely because of Moore's tremendous comic talent. Without resorting to the clownish absurdity of a Steve Martin or the profanity punctuated anger of a Richard Pryor. Moore delivers a comic performance rich in warmth and charisma. Even at slapstick, Moore delivers, pathetically catching his foot in a wall that he kicks in. In some jokes, you just have to be there, in Unfaithfully Yours, just Dudley Moore has to be there...
...second act that the comedy begins to become slapstick. At the same time Innaurato tries to get serious. Aggy pleads with Tom to return to North Carolina, leave his wife, and rebuild his pathetic life. Resentful of her condemnation of his life and his values. Tom reacts first with anger and then with tears. He turns to his wife for solace, moaning "Maybe Aggy's right. Maybe I am a failure. "Francine sharply gives sarcastic voice to Innaurato's view of the clash of values: "You're right. You're a wop in a WASP. society. You're heavier than...