Word: speciously
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Here & there the picture shows glints of a typically slick Hollywood finish. It is more specious than convincing when it tries to get across the point that schizophrenia is something that "can happen to anybody." And Virginia's cure, once she turns the corner, seems suspiciously quick, easy and well-timed for a happy ending (in reality, she might very likely suffer a relapse). But with all its minor faults, The Snake Pit is an important motion picture. One of its notable achievements is that it establishes Olivia de Havilland not so much as a star, a dubious title...
...know what that expression designates just as clearly as I know what is designated by the word God. I draw his outline by the deficiency of each virtue ... he is more intelligent than I, everything he thought up to hurl me toward evil was infinitely more precious, more specious, more convincing, more beautiful, more clever than any argument I could have brought up to persevere in honor...
Would that be a solution? It would be terrifyingly simple. The proponents of such a preventive war (another phrase for it was "anticipatory retaliation") even gave their argument a specious touch of idealism. If a world government is the only way to peace, the argument ran, then a final, coldly calculated war is the quickest way to achieve...
...with a great flair and fondness for theatrical trick and design, which, at their worst, can use emotions as if they were stage properties. When clever men try to write with complete sincerity and, at the same time, to apply their sophistication to simple matters, the result is sometimes specious and sentimental. There are ways of insisting that a character is the salt of the earth which are essentially patronizing. For example, the noble character of Frank (extremely well played by Mr. Newton) is often hurt by this unconscious patronage...
...bespectacled, courtly Ernest Betts (Daily Express), who can be as tough as molybdenum: "A great tragic performance. . . . She has an extraordinary range of expression-from bitter sophistication to tragic emotion, and again, to the softest compassion." Chimed the Daily Graphic's Elspeth Grant: "[A] magnificent . . . performance in a specious play. . . ." Wrote George Bishop of the Daily Telegraph: ". . . Magnificent poise ... the dignity of a queen. . . ." The News Chronicle's hard-eyed Alan Dent: "Eileen Herlie's powerful, central and splendid performance makes us long to see her in something saner." The often hard-boiled Noel Coward said simply...