Word: static
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...stories as well, with Isherwood the passive observer of Berlin life in the thirties. As the chronicler of the life around him, the Isherwood of the book can afford to be passive, "a camera, with shutter open." As a character in a play, however, the same Isherwood is only static, a figure hovering, observing, but lacking any depth. Van Druten tries half-heartedly to personalize the character by picturing him as a hypochondriac, but his Isherwood remains only a foil for the other characters, a drab intermediary between the audience and the real principals of the action...
Miss Booth's performance is, of course, the highlight of the film. A strangely static character, Lola passively reacts to the hell around her but never really comprehends it. With wistful comfort from a distant but remembered past, she plods through the present listlessly, leaving her hair-brush on the breakfast table and her girdle in the bureau. A less gifted actress would make Lola only repulsive, infuriating for her aimless sloppiness, her complete lack of intellect and sensitivity. Miss Booth, however, draws an infinitely pathetic portrait of a lonely and well-meaning, but painfully limited woman unable to cope...
...course, dress at Harvard is a fairly static, conformist affair. Zoot-suits, funnel shapes, and one-button California drapes were never in order: it's always been (or at least, for as long as we can recall) the three-button jacket with sparely padded shoulders...
...become very apparent. Director Fred Zinnemann, who used his medium superbly in High Noon with sweeping shots of empty streets and barren railroad track, has in Member of the Wedding simply filmed a play. Despite the brilliant performances of Julie Harris and Ethel Waters, the result seems curiously static and two-dimensional...
What saves The Fourposter from what might have been its expected fate--critical curses of "static" and "trite"--is author Jan de Hartog's plausibly witty dialogue and believably gradual development of character. He has made things easier for his audience by casting his male lead in the part of an author of best selling if not memorable novels. Thus Mr. Cronyn can be humorously sarcastic without imposing on the audience's credulity; his lines are what one might expect from a clever, superficial writer. As his wife, Miss Tandy progresses from a blushing but eager bride to a mature...