Word: ustinov
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...statute of the British naval regulations of 1797 prescribed that no officer of Her Majesty's armada could wear a beard. It is a shock, indeed, to view Peter Ustinov with a clean-shaven countenance. Yet Mr. Ustinov's eventual victory in his battle against eighteenth century decorum must indicate the decline of Britain and her navy; the multi-talented Ustinov--producer, director, co-writer, and star of Billy Budd--completely dominates this ambitious production of Melville's novel...
...Jack Paar Program (NBC, 10-11 p.m.). Now that Paar is rationed, he is concentrating his brew. Tonight's show features both Peter Ustinov and Shelley Berman...
Photo Finish. Peter Ustinov, writer, director and star of this comedy, remains mute for the first five minutes of it. Propped up by a pillow, he half-sits, half-lies in bed, a snow wreath of great age framing his petulantly mischievous features. He looks like a cross between a grumpy polar bear and a tipsy Greek philosopher. As his equally ancient wife ("a nagger's nagger") frets, scolds, and pokes at him, Ustinov's countenance becomes a weather map of changing frustrations. His eyes ski off at rakish tangents. His jaw chomps erratically over what could...
...novelty of the play wears more slowly but less well. It is Ustinov's clever conceit to do a kind of drawing-room philosopher's Ages of Man: Old Sam (Ustinov) at 80 is confronted with himself at 60, 40, 20, and even as a baby. The four grown Sams share the stage together, and with all the amusing ironies of hindsight and foreknowledge relive key episodes in their communal life. Sam at 20 (John Horton) is an ardent lyric poet and marathon runner, at 40 (Donald Davis) a disgruntled fictional crafts man of obscure worst-sellers...
Heavy on talk. Photo Finish needed to approximate the Shavian paradox or the Wildean epigram. But Ustinov's dialogue tends to be smart rather than sharp, cracks wise when it should be wise. Photo Finish is not about to take win or place in the dramatic sweepstakes, but it is a safe, friendly show...