Word: empress
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Austrian," as the French scornfully called her, was born in Vienna in 1755, daughter of the great Empress Maria Theresa. She first skips into history as a little girl "playing at marriage" in the Schönbrunn Palace galleries with a little boy prodigy named Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. She was only 14 when her mother and Louis XV sealed their Franco-Austrian alliance by giving her in marriage to the French Dauphin. "Has she any bosom?" asked the aging wolf Louis XV of the emissary who helped arrange the marriage. "Sire, I did not take the liberty of carrying...
...Tokyo airport Menzies shook hands with top-hatted Premier Kishi and his Cabinet, drove off in a gold-decorated black coach drawn by black horses, to lunch with the Emperor and Empress. (The first Australian parliamentarian to shake hands with Hirohito shortly after the war had been condemned in Australia for "a dastardly act.") Glowed the Japan Times: "Mister Menzies has proved himself a man of broad vision and deep understanding." But the Japanese soon found that mincing language is no part of Pig Iron Bob's equipment. Said Menzies: "I've come up here without any reservations...
...shining new casques, the matronly young Queen planted a tree, pushed buttons, laid a wreath, accepted gifts, saw sights, made pretty speeches, was dined and wined, received curtsies from some 3,400 ladies of France. In more private moments, she slept in Napoleon's bed, bathed in Empress Eugénie's bathtub, sat in an armchair used by Louis XV, and (according to the calculations of Frenchmen experienced in such calculations) found time to spend just 1½ hours out of the three-day visit alone with her husband...
...Within this framework of difficulties, however, the production is admirable. The director, Roger Graef, treats horror boldly and hardly ever sacrifices his characters to a mere spectacular surface. Although his first act is occasionally loose, his later treatment is strong. The brilliantly ironic scene in which the vicious empress and her two sons visit Titus disguised as Revenge, Rape, and Murder is directed superbly. Lit in dim red and blue, which effectively decreases the awkward closeness to the audience, the scene shows excellent interplay among the enemies as Titus feigns madness and delicately winds revenge around his visitors...
Marcus, brother to Titus, is created with considerable 'dignity by Arthur Lewis, as is Titus's son Lucius by John Hallowell. The empress' two lecherous sons are delightfully costumed and, most of the time, well acted. The elder, as played by James Martin, is properly Presley. Michael Kenny plays a clown, who enters twice with exquisite gayety...