Word: plot
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...three, A Touch of Class, is so disarmingly witty and charming a film that when the lights come on and the laughter goes off the contradictions of plot seem vague and unmemorable. But the other two films are so dramatically feeble that their crude manipulation of attitudes is blatantly offensive. 40 Carats and Interval have identical beginnings: a car driven by an unmarried, middle-aged woman has broken down in a far-off romantic land. In both films, a man stops to help. In both, the woman soon falls in love with a much younger man. 40 Carats stars...
...this country. She can't handle a minor character: she tries to infuse her role with all the drama of Persona, but it can't stand the strain, and all she achieves is incongruity. Jackson, on the other hand, proves to be a nimble and quick-witted comedienne. The plot line in her film is ultimately as offensive as that of the other two: she's a strong-willed woman who enters into an affair with a married man, but eventually settles into a role as tame and submissive Soho mistress. Still, her dexterity and pungent British wit alone make...
...movie is cocky about its polish, to the point where the idiosyncracies of its characters over-shadow the detailed clues of what is a finely wrought plot. The clues seem presented only in afterthought, back-fitted into an otherwise superfluous setting. Sheila does not heighten interest in the hunt for the murderer's identity, as a good mystery film should. It is always more interested in showing off its cast, its settings, and its special effects...
Vocally, however, she is not strong enough--the same fault she showed here a decade ago when trying the not unsimilar part of Goneril in King Lear. In talking of the murder plot, when Macbeth asks, "If we should fail?," her reply--"We fail?"--lacks the foreceful scorn, the reassuring incredulity needed to prop his weakening resolve. A sensual Lady Macbeth is perfectly valid, but the role requires a decided steak of masculinity, such as captured so imposingly in the portrayals of Dame Judith Anderson, Mrs. Tore Segelcke, and Siobhan McKenna...
...Cried Wolf. Edward G. Robinson's superb performance as a 70-year-old man who witnesses his friend's murder makes an otherwise lackluster plot and script better than bearable. The commentary concerning old age and septuagenarian wisdom is heavy-handed, but the tour-deforce by Robinson is worth the watching. Channel...