Word: plotting
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Amidst the ceaseless stream of Western melodramas flowing annually from the pens of Hollywood script writers, there are a few really first-rate productions. Such a picture is the "Oklahoma Kid." Somehow the hackneyed plot about the outlaw who "goes straight" has been given a unique twist, resulting in eighty minutes of fast moving, swashbuckling action. James Cagney comes through with a thoroughly convincing performance in the title role. Besides looking like a true cowboy, Mr. Cagney shows a depth of character portrayal unusual for pictures of this type. Humphrey Bogart does a fine job as a leering and scheming...
...spirit more in keeping with English folk music. Such works as "King Arthur" are not operas in the ordinary sense, but combine in a different way music with drama. The story is told in plain, unaccompanied speech, and the music is interjected in incidental interludes, unconnected with the plot. Incidental music of this kind provided Purcell with his most fertile medium; "King Arthur," moreover, is commonly adjudged to include the beat music of the type...
...twirls her petticoats and darts exciting French eyes to the farthest corners of the University Theatre. As a vivacious music-hall entertainer, Claudette Colbert finds a part suited to her temperament, and handles her high kicks and train of suitors with the same refreshing ability. But when necessities of plot turn her heart towards a rich, Parisian businessman, only stuffy and always noble Herbert Marshall is available to reap the profits. It was a sad mistake for the producers to import Mr. Marshall from the dignity of his Paris apartment to the wild charms of music-hall life; also...
...aspect of the picture. Having taken some time to set the stage, Mr. Hitchcock then builds up the story to a high peak of action and suspense from which it never drops till the very end. The characters, passengers on a continental train, are carefully molded to fit the plot. Margaret Lockwood and Dame Whitty are particularly good; and a certain amount of comic relief is supplied by two English cricket fans who are futilely striving to reach England for the test match and meanwhile play a game of their own with pieces of sugar...
Despite the efforts of Gary Cooper and Merle Oberon, and despite photography which won the Academy Award, "The Cowboy and the Lady" taken as a whole is only mediocre. A ludicrous plot with an unconvincing combination of humorous and serious elements prevents the film from being more than fairly good entertainment...