Word: venom
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...with an abrasively effective encounter between two ex-schoolmates who loathe each other. One is a Roman Catholic cardinal (Eric Berry), not remotely a lamb of God but one of the fatted kine of the clerical Establishment. The other is a lawyer (William Hutt), a man of cool, reptilian venom with a hint of Mephistopheles in his brief beard and black-magical manner. They goad each other with insults, and the cardinal muses malevolently on how the lawyer got his school nickname, "Hyena." "Did we not discover about the hyena that it was a most resourceful scavenger? . . . that to devour...
...captivated by her beauty," warned Socialist Dr. Ram Lohia. "Inside she is pure venom!" He further claimed that Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, 64, retained her youthful good looks only because she had undergone plastic surgery in Europe...
...contempt for most of humanity was complete. He regarded hatred as the one majestic emotion of this miserable species, for he who hates is at least passionately concerned, not docilely conformist. He poured all his venom into a novel, Kaputt, an account of Nazi atrocities on the Eastern front, and into a later novel, The Skin, describing barbarous conditions under the U.S. occupation of Italy. With a passion akin to Swift's, Malaparte sought to indict the cruelties of mankind. Readers were shocked, as he intended; they were also shocked by the fact that Malaparte seemed to be enjoying...
...R.P.M. Meg is a blow-up of a caricature, a manic Yiddisher Momma. Her every 25? tip is accompanied by loud self-congratulation, her compulsive camaraderie is lavished on clerks and big shots alike, her flattery is as subtle as an uppercut. Mama's venom kills, but not so swiftly as her hot, Oedipal affection. "Come," she wheedles Joseph. "I just made a lap. Come over here fast and I'll be your social life...
...rest of the cast cannot fill the vacuum left by this Joan, but George Grizzard achieves a telling comic portrait of the Dauphin. He is petulant, epicene; he oozes suppressed venom. Wandering erratically about the stage like an uncooped hen, he scratches up laugh after laugh...