Word: witness
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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There are thrills, wit, cinematic legerdemain here. But anyone who expects to find a string of masterpieces will be disappointed. The Trouble with Harry is a desultory exercise in macabre whimsy and naturalistic acting at its most mannered. The Man Who Knew Too Much, a remake (of Hitchcock's 1934 British thriller) that is 45 minutes longer than the original, languishes in travelogue for its first half, then indulges in frissons that for this director are routine. The technical bravado of Rope (the entire 80-min. film comprises just twelve shots, as opposed to several hundred for the average...
...Clean, neat, fast, with a sensuality that comes through. Maybe he's more a synthesizer than an innovator, but it's never the steps that are most important. It's the style. That's what Michael has." Gene Kelly talks about Jackson's "native histrionic intelligence and his great wit. He knows when to stop and then flash out like a bolt of lightning. There are a lot of dancers who can go 90 miles an hour, but Michael is too clever for just that." From Fred Astaire comes perhaps the ultimate tribute: "My Lord, he is a wonderful mover...
...stage--an ambitious transplanting, to say the very least. Rather than amplifying a few key events or themes of the story. Big River presents most of it as a series of vignettes interspersed with musical numbers. Some of the scenes work splendidly, drawing on the sardonic, slapstick and drawling wit of the original story. Others, however, become a tribute to Cliff Notes by capturing the plot but losing the content as well as the excitement of the story...
...Feldstein is incredibly businesslike," reports Beckwith. "At the end of our interview, I took a minute to review my notes. Instead of just sitting there, Feldstein got up and went to his desk to work. He has wit and humor, but frankly, it is the dry, academic kind that isn't going to keep Johnny Carson from sleeping nights...
Aranchair Wit...