Word: snidely
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...were all that counted, the agent may have given good advice. The Boys' boys were so convincing that many people incorrectly thought they were all gay, an assumption that cost Luckinbill, for one, a cigarette commercial worth $15,000. Said the casting director: "No fags smoke our fags." That snide comment did not stop Luckinbill from taking two subsequent gay parts, however...
...should be confused by The Manchurian Candidate today. Axelrod's urbane cynicism plays like aces Wilde. Frankenheimer's aptly flashy technique is now a part of Hollywood's visual vocabulary. The performances are daring and assured, especially Lansbury's holy terror of Momism and Harvey's snide, pathetic pawn, brainwashed by both KGB AND CIA. And the movie's theory of endemic political corruption, which read as seditious in 1962, now feels like the sweet breath of reason. Few movies attempt to anatomize a whole sick society, to dissect the mortal betrayals of country, friend, lover and family; fewer films...
...stand-outs in the rest of the cast include Jeremy Bollinger, who ably captures the self-officiating nature of Fowler, a priggish "Twenty Two" club member. David McConaughy, as Delahay, also does a convincing job with his role of a self-centered snob. His snide comments and vicious glances could make even William F. Buckley cower in his chair. Mark Kessler inspires a chuckle for his performance as the lisping literary critic. The problem with most of the other actors is that they don't play up the viciousness of their roles--they fade into the background because they...
...high comedy is to construct sitcom-like scenarios of marital tension and infidelity, milking all the lame laughter he can get out of it. In California Suite, four couples come at different times to the same suite of a posh hotel. They proceed to harangue each other, making snide remarks about their mates' sexual prowess, and to show how very un-funny California life...
Maybe the book was written before plots like this had been beaten to death by poor imitators of Chandler and Hammet, but today it reads more like a parody of snide tough-guy novels than a true milestone of the genre. Anybody who's read an old mystery novel or seen a few gangster movies will feel he's seen it all before...