Word: witness
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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GREG DELAWIE'S direction at the Loeb completely misses its chance to underscore the irony, leaving poor Gilbert's words to stand or fall on their wit alone. That they could stand at all is a tribute to the universality of his satire. No one remembers W.H. Smith any more (the newspaper-stand magnate Gilbert caricatures as Sir Joseph Porter)--except the tourists to Great Britain who still see his name on every other newsstand. But no one can miss this general broadside against sinecures of any kind...
Then there is Goldman's script, which refuses to make up in wit what it lacks in thrills Goldman chooses instead to litter his dialogue with allegedly with-it references (from Steve Martin to the Four Seasons restaurant), as if sheer name drop ping might pass for sophistication...
...retired Oxford don once wrote to a critic, and he was right. Volume after volume has testified to Rowse's intimacy with the 17th century. No sexual custom, no oddity of language or quirk of lore seems to have escaped his attention. Now he displays his wit and erudition in an extravagant three-volume work that has no precedent and is not likely to have successors. The Annotated Shakespeare has no restrictions; it suits the actor and the scholar, the general reader and the child. Its pictures are copious but never merely decorative. Some 4,200 illustrations compare ancient...
...that made this novel about a warren of freedom-loving bunny rabbits a bestseller. The film treats the story as a straightforward adventure, full of, shall we say, harebreadth escapes and ear-chomping fights. But given the care with which the animation has been accomplished, the good flashes of wit in the script and the brisk pace of the direction, the result is a first-class family entertainment. That is to say, it is a rare movie that keeps kids on the edge of their chairs without inducing in their parents an overwhelming desire to escape theirs for a smoke...
...huge set pieces come off a bit better, especially so in the case of a tumultuous fight scene that parallels the climax of Rocky. But it is really around its fringes that Paradise Alley becomes interesting. Kevin Conway, as a James Cagney-inspired hood, brings savage, roughhouse wit to some incidental barroom scenes. In the expendable role of a has-been black wrestler, Frank McRae is a knockout. Though playing a slow-witted loser without money or friends, this actor retains a delicate sense of dignity. His two brief scenes carry more emotional weight than all the rest of Paradise...