Word: so-so
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Mark Ritts as the hotel proprietor is so-so. He is miscast -- a bigger, older man should play the retired army bully -- and it is difficult for him to achieve the ponderous viciousness he needs. As it is, he sounds like one of those characters who stuff tin cans in their boots and go kill people. Baptistin (Joshua Rubins), his uncle, is up to his vocation: groaning in a rheumatic passion on a revolving bed which swings into view in case of a raid...
...surprise is Elena Suliotis, a 23-year-old Greek soprano who has arrived like a gift from Olympus for opera fans who want Msria Callas reborn. Their voices have striking similarities: three-octave range, "white" tone, unflinching attack. But whereas Callas used all her skills and wiles to project a so-so voice, Suliotis is blessed with a strong, clear instrument that never quavers. It will be some time before she matches Callas' artistry, but in the florid role of Abigaille, her "Tomorrow be damned" approach is wonderfully exciting...
...public" trainer for as many as 14 owners at the same time, earned a reputation for spotting hidden talent in horses that other trainers had given up on. In 1963, he invested $125,000 of Gedney Farm's money in a promising colt named Gun Boat-plus a so-so horse named Gun Bow that was thrown in to sweeten the deal. Gun Boat broke...
...deserves to be there, for Hotchner, who has had only so-so success in adapting some of Hemingway's works for movies and TV, has now produced a rousing good book. This is no definitive biography, and Hotchner's prose is often second-rate Hemingway, but he still has succeeded in giving an affectionate yet perceptive picture of an old friend...
Died. James Edward ("Sunny Jim") Fitzsimmons, 91, grand and cheery old man of U.S. thoroughbred racing; of heart disease; in Miami. A stableboy at ten, then a so-so jockey on half-mile outlaw tracks, Mr. Fitz hit his stride by the mid-'20s when he became head trainer at Bel air Stud Farm and the Wheatley Stable, then over the years saddled such greats as Johnstown, Nashua, Bold Ruler and Triple Crown Winners Omaha and Gallant Fox, winning a total of 2,275 races and $13,082,911 (his cut: 10%). Until he retired at 88, stooped (from...