Word: offscreen
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...fumes at the rim of the volcano, she spends the night on a lava bed and awakens (without a smudge on her face) to a morning scene of serene grandeur. Then, with no dramatic preparation but her awed look and a line of dialogue ("What mystery! What beauty!"), an offscreen narrator baldly announces that she has found the religious strength to return to her husband...
...narration knits together a visual story built out of piazzas, palaces, cathedrals, old maps and prints, the rugged Italian landscapes and, above all, the sculptures, painting and architecture of Michelangelo. The picture gains dramatic immediacy from the rhythm of its cutting, actors' voices offscreen, turning wagon wheels, clashing swords, such shots as clouds racing over a jutting tower. Lighting moves across the screen like an actor, the camera tilts awry at an assassination, the focus blurs as if with pain when Michelangelo's nose is smashed in a brawl...
Since network television rules forbid any act of violence to be shown (after all, Greek tragedy had the same convention), Georgia was done in just offscreen. A man's voice murmured: "What nice lipstick you use . . ." Georgia shrieked and dropped the phone she was using. The camera panned blankly at the phone while the dirty work was done...
Live Today is unquestionably an earnest picture on a serious theme. Thanks largely to the charm and skill of Florence Eldridge (offscreen, Mrs. Fredric March), it is also at times quite poignant. But, considering how well Michael Gordon directed Another Part of the Forest, this is a surprisingly uneven job; notably, Gordon squeezes much less than he might out of the buildup to the "mercy killing" itself. The picture is also disappointing because it dodges and neglects so much. The pros & cons of euthanasia are presented in the round; a distinction is made between moral and legal guilt; and something...
...harried bloodhound, Ray Milland is as surefooted as ever. Laughton falls to with relish on the great chunks of deep-dish villainy that the script feeds him. Elsa Lanchester (Mrs. Laughton, offscreen) does a good bit of broad comedy as an emancipated artist with four children and no husband...