Word: whelped
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Understandably, the Oliviers' Antony is a high-romantic one, less of the world than of the world-well-lost. Olivier as Antony is impulsive, audacious, angry, half-aging lion and half-untamed whelp; he is not-as Godfrey Tearle was so brilliantly-an assured leader with the weakened fiber and amorous susceptibilities of late middle age. As Antony, Olivier is a good actor, but not the architect of a commanding role. Vivien Leigh's Cleopatra is an all-too-believable enchantress -mercurial, irresistible, even royal; only not of Shakespearean depth and stature. Actress Leigh mistakes mere emotionalism...
...Ariel there too, the "tricksy spirit" of his bidding, a native boy named Filipino, for whom "freedom" would be a chance to explore the fascinating vistas he has glimpsed in old copies of LIFE and Vanity Fair. And the new Prospero has his Caliban, the "freckled whelp" of the island witch, a half-breed named Mario, for whom freedom would mean a chance to murder his master and rape the master's daughter...