Word: trowell
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...occasionally heavy-handed use of symbolism to hammer home a point. During the funeral procession for a slain Mafioso, pall-bearer Gavino fantasizes a statue of his father in place of the sculpted saint perched atop the coffin. And if that does not constitute laying it on with a trowel, consider this: before settling down to the business of lovemaking, a young man persuades his partner to smoke his cigar with the ash end in her mouth. A hint of things to come, perhaps...
Some directors lay on their heavy messages with a trowel; Ken Russell goes at you with a jack-hammer. Women in Love somehow enjoys a reputation as this one-man wrecking crew's most meaningful work, but here, as in all his other films, Russell's only evident meaning lies aching behind his zipper. "Was it too much for you?" Oliver Reed asks Alan Bates after they finish a wrestling match in the raw, the homosexual hints dripping off their bodies faster than swear. Then the line pops up again, this time after Reed has been rollicking in the snow...
Scenarist Barnes (who has adapted the film from his own play) has written a snarling, overwrought and somewhat parochial satire on aristocracy and privileged morality. He lays his ironies on with a trowel and drives his points home with a bludgeon. The direction is uneven. As in Joe Egg, which he also filmed, Director Medak frequently has his actors break into ironic renditions of old pop songs, like Varsity Drag or Dem Bones, a device whose brittle charm crumbles with repetition. He also persists in having his films wretchedly photographed. The Ruling Class looks as if it were shot under...
...caused his whole face-minus the tip of his nose-to turn yellow. Albert frightened off a violin teacher by throwing a chair at her, hurled a bowling ball at his sister, and in one fit of rage tried to "knock a hole" in her head with a toy trowel. "It is doubtless evident," wrote the harried Maja, "that a healthy skull is a necessity for the sister of a thinker...
...David Copperfield and Ken Beyer's, the dart players tend to be under 40, employed in advertising and publishing. Many are known by noms de fléchette: Harper Valley Fats and Butterball Stabler are regulars among the Jelly Bellies, while Oiley the Pot and Fast Trowel Mazz linger at Duffy's in Manhattan. Even the lingo is special. A "ton" means that a player has scored five 20s (or 100 points), while "top of the shop" is a double 20. Three bull's-eyes in one round is called "three...