Word: unctuously
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...seriousness of his quest and the importance of its ramifications. Terkel's book never strays to meaningless platitudes and unctuous rambling. The book presents people talking about their lives; and "people," given a sympathetic listener, speak sense, not solemn pontifications about "the city on the hill." The author's selection of these people is inspired. Terkel didn't look for the "correct" ethnic or social mix--this is no Miller Beer commercial with the required ratio of three whites to every Black. He wants a cross-section of opinions, not faces...
Both as a directorial conception and as a casting decision, having Terence Kelly play Lopakhin is a mistake. Urbane, almost unctuous, he seems like an insurance man offering Mme. Ranevsky a real estate policy of cutting down the trees for a housing development. There should be a hush surrounding the regal presence of Mme. Ranevsky when she sweeps into a room. Carole Shelley resembles a '40s movie starlet posturing to capture a producer's eye. All this merely taps the defects in this production. Chekhov preached that the salvation of Russia lay in work. The Shaw Festival might...
...Stanford-educated superachiever. The ancient senior partner (the wonderful British actor Wilfrid Hyde-White) is doddering ("I make my best decisions when I'm asleep") and autocratic, but often he proves to be the wisest person in the room. The firm's most unctuous, corporate-minded lawyer (Joe Regalbuto) may be a back stabber, but he is also a mean wit. When a liberal colleague talks about serving mankind, he replies, "Unfortunately, they're not our clients...
...that it would concentrate on humanitarian solutions and avoid, as much as possible, political recriminations. This was done primarily to ensure the presence of Viet Nam, whose policies of brutal repression and wholesale expulsions have been responsible for the flood of refugees. Arriving in Geneva, Viet Nam's unctuous Deputy Foreign Minister Phan Hien pledged his country's "full cooperation" at the conference, provided that "our national sovereignty will be respected and financial help extended...
...Europe in a touring car? She must be as delectable as strawberries and cream, a muse of delight, Goethe's "eternal feminine" luring men on. Sachs makes her predatory, poised like a pelican about to dive-bomb a poor fish. And Philip Bosco as the Devil displays an unctuous complacency that defeats the role...