Word: stiff
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Standing under an olive tree in Sicily in September 1943, an unsmiling American general accepted Italy's unconditional surrender. Just 20 months later, the same general, still stiff and frozen faced, met in a French schoolhouse with the emissaries of defeated Nazi Germany, and without outward emotion scribbled his name on the document that ended World War II in Europe. Those two rustic but historic occasions marked the climax of a brilliant military career for Walter Bedell Smith. In the postwar years, he served his nation notably as a diplomat and as chief of intelligence...
After manfully weathering a chichi London wedding as a satin-suited, ostrich-plumed Lord Fauntleroyish page, the Earl of Sunderland, 5, grandson of the Duke of Marlborough and distant cousin to Sir Winston Churchill, foundered at the subsequent Savoy Hotel reception. His stiff upper lip curling, out came a petulant tongue, and with it, a noise less associated with Belgravia than The Bronx...
...months of battling against intrigue and betrayal had left him more wary and distrustful than ever. Always stiff and aloof, he was almost totally out of touch with the people, remained in his palace constantly. Even onetime admirers began to grumble about the influence of 51-year-old Brother Ngo Dinh Nhu. From a soundproofed office inside the palace, Nhu operated his own political party, the Can Lao, an elite group of 70,000 that was under orders to spy on the citizenry. There were also mutters about Nhu's wife, a pretty, dynamic feminist who carried...
...Stiff though the emergency measures might be, they could only be stopgap as long as British management and labor continue their easygoing, old-fashioned way of doing business. An increasing number of British statesmen and economists insist that a lasting cure can be effected only by Britain's entry into the Common Market. Under the icy blast of aggressive European competition, they argue, British industry may be shocked into new life...
Director John Hancock, fortunately, has recognized the importance of the unheroic king; and his giving the role to Paul Barstow has been one of his most intelligent directorial decisions to date. Mr. Barstow can deliver his lines with just the proper amount of quiet, stiff and confused earnestness. A "cook" in the "kitchen" of politics Antigone calls him; but he is not wholly contemptible--and Mr. Barstow makes him as much a king as he is a compromiser...