Word: plotting
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Actually, Gayden's plot is very much along the lines of the flock of stories growing out of Chicago's famous Leopold-Loeb case, the latest being Alfred Hitchcock's movie "Rope." Most of these were successful because they contrasted the superficially impeccable manners and morals of bad boys with their actual criminal actions. But this boy is so obnoxious, on and off stage, that his nefarious activities are neither surprising nor particularly interesting. Gayden in one of the most thoroughly despicable people to appear on the stage in a long time. He's all right if you're entertained...
Kiss Me, Kate. Highly enjoyable musical with a semi-Shakespearean plot and a sustained Cole Porter score (TIME...
John Lund pushes the plot along when he gets a yen for Lucrezia. "She's a lily!" he cries, in the same tone he would use to say "She's a lulu." Once married to her, he starts composing verses about roses and nightingales in the garden outside her bedchamber. When the poems fail to impress the pouting bride, Lund turns on the nearest nightingale and roars: "You silly ass!" In reply, the soundtrack lets out a squawk like a barnyard...
...last 43 years of his life working tirelessly for the poor, the sick, and the aged would seem to be unattractive raw material for a motion picture. "Monsieur Vincent" does fail to escape the difficulties imposed upon it by the story--it has few dramatic moments and no plot; it "preaches," to a degree. But the total effect of this picture is one of strength and simplicity and unquenchable sincerity. Somehow--the reasons cannot be ticked off "one, two, three"--Viscount de la Grandiere, the producer, and Maurice Cloche, the director, have managed to overcome the threats of didacticism...
Apart from the actual plot, the aspect of "Citizen Kane" for which it will always be famous is Welles' use of his cameras. The photography is magnificent. Although professionals usually say that these camera effects are consciously "unusual," to an ordinary moviegoer they make the film memorable. The wildly shifting perspectives, the entirely new treatment of three-dimensional effects, the odd angles of approach, and the relation of lights and shadows contribute at least as much drama as the script...