Word: plot
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...plot is very flimsy, substituting the eternal hexagon for the eternal triangle. Although acquitted by a hung jury, the hero, Richard Todd, is still suspected of murdering his evil, beautiful wife. Since Todd gives such an insipid performance, it is difficult to believe that the could murder anything. A New Yorker, played with incredible shallowness by Ruth Roman, decides to prove this after their very first encounter. Their personalities undergo a radical change every ten minutes, and every change is more trite than the one before. The result is no personality...
...supporting players more than make up for the transparency of the stars, but they can not overcome the weak plot as well. Zachary Scott in the role of a wealthy rancher and Janet Welles, who plays his wife, add reality to the film by their life-like acting. But Mercedes McCambridge does the best job of all as the murderess. Her portrayal of a disappointed lover is one the audience can well sympathize with; in fact, this reviewer would have rejoiced to see her brutally strangle the heroine. Unfortunately, the colorless forces of good win out, and the show ends...
...Gold Dust Twins--Rodgers and Hammerstein--haven't done it again. "The King and I" is billed as a "musical play," but actually it is a slick production and very little more. Most of the trouble centers around Hammerstein's handling of the plot and dialogue. The plot, a warmed-over version of "Anna and the King of Siam," concerns the efforts of an English school-mistress to educate the King of Siam and his 77 children; it may have been all right for the novel and movie, but it is completely sterile for Rodgers and Hammerstein...
...instance a Siamese ballet version of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," by Jerome Robbins. The ballet is clever and colorful, but it also shows that the court of Siam and the Hammerstein concept of grass-roots America can be juxtaposed only so far without becoming ludicrous. The ill-fated, sub-plot love affair of "South Pacific" is repeated in "The King and I," and again the man involved dies. This time it's not very effective...
Rising prices caused the drastic cuts, an unofficial spokesman said yesterday, but one Briggs Hall sophomore fears a weight-reducing plot is being forced on Radcliffe students from above...