Word: unctuously
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Fredric March, better than holds up his farcical end. Robert Benchley is still Hollywood's most reliable ban vivant, though Cecil Kellaway, as the alcoholic old warlock, gives him unctuous competition. Veronica Lake, with a voice like a hoarse clarinet, makes a bewitching witch, scarcely taller (5 ft. 2 in.) than the broom she hexes. Rene Clair lets Thome Smith have his amiable way much of the time (good line from Witch Lake: "Ever hear of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire? That was our crowd"). But Clair's shrewish fiancée is a malicious...
...Russians have, according to Mrs. Gordon, most fully adapted radio to education. A special network broadcasts exclusively for children. Children's programs are presented before a sample audience of children. The listeners are questioned on the merits of each scene, and their suggestions are often followed. No unctuous uncles talk down to Russian children for the purpose of selling breakfast food. The entire system is directed toward acquainting the child with great art and preparing him to live in Russia (which means propaganda, of course, for the Soviet State...
...programs are a mixture of monologue and weird recorded music. A favorite of Robert Benchley, James Thurber, Stuart Chase, Morgan follows a simple formula. He breaks all the rules. As a result he is the envy of every announcer who ever gagged politely while rolling off an unctuous commercial. Once when reading a plug for Adler Elevator Shoes "Knockabouts come in ten colors . . . beige, cinnamon, blue . . ."), Morgan ad-libbed remarks on the probable habits of a man who would wear blue shoes, remarked "I wouldn't be seen in them at a dogfight." When the sponsor objected that...
...Comedian Frank Tinney: "He fertilizes the most sterile wheeze with the persuasive manures of his unctuous manner, and makes it blossom with laughter unabashed...
...Bigger Thomas (Canada Lee), a brooding, violent Negro whose father was killed in a Southern race riot, who lives with his mother, sister and kid brother in one room in the Chicago slums. With his pals he indulges in fantasies of machine-gunning white enemies. Through an unctuous social worker, Bigger gets a job as chauffeur to the wealthy landlord of the tenement he lives in. The landlord's handsome daughter (Anne Burr) is a neurotic, alcoholic Fellow Traveler who adopts an intimate manner toward Bigger...