Word: stiff
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Usher is the only other outstanding actor in the curtain raiser. His strong, clear voice and solemn scowl are quite suited to the part. Unfortunately he becomes too enamored of that particular characterization, and later in the evening, as the hideous Dick Deadeye, his performance is too stiff, his accent too clear and his manner (if not his body) too unbending...
...Buttercup. They are again quite good, with Miss Smith a little weak on the acting end and Morely too conscious of how his spoken words have sounded in other actors' interpretations. Edward Morse, on the other hand, cuts loose from D'Oyly-Carte's version to create an interestingly stiff and proper Sir Joseph. Paul Sperry, while a bit awkward with the spoken word, has a cheerful and booming voice that sounds just fine. And Elizabeth Kalkhurst does Josephine with feeling and restrained vigor, if not animation...
...manfully in an English version of the Horst Wessel song, but their efforts were drowned in an even more enthusiastic cheer from another quarter: "Two-four-six-eight! Who do we appreciate? Mosley! Mosley! Mosley! Heil! Heil! Heil!" Thus, in an atmosphere boisterous with shouts, clicking heels and Nazi stiff-armed salutes, Britain's Sir Oswald Mosley returned last week to London from three years of self-imposed exile in Ireland for another try at peddling Naziism to his countrymen...
Knotty Business. No Genevan has smarted under the city's reputation as the abortion capital more than Antoine Pugin, head of the cantonal health department and a Catholic. Pugin laid down some stiff rules: hereafter, doctors authorized to approve abortions shall serve only three-year (instead of indefinite) terms. In this way, he dropped Dr. Flournoy. Also, doctors shall make quarterly reports, setting forth their reasons for granting permission in each case. Finally, Pugin decreed, all candidates for abortion must be observed for an indefinite period, at the canton's mental hospital and psychiatric clinic...
...Great Diamond Robbery(M-G-M) is Red Skelton's second attempt in as many pictures to play it straight. If he had succeeded, The Great Diamond Robbery might have been an even more amusing picture than Half a Hero (TIME, Nov. 9). Instead, the stiff upper lip of a surprisingly mature wit goes into a maudlin flap of baby talk before the end of the first reel. Nevertheless, the plot is so neatly stacked, and the rest of the players so well handled by Director Robert Z. Leonard, that the moviegoer gets a pretty good deal...