Favorite Critical Punctures/Jabs/Skewerings

David · #1 01-31-2005, 06:02 PM

When those two profiles come together as they sing "Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life," it's beyond kitsch, it's in a realm of its own.
--Pauline Kael on Nelson Eddy & Jeanette MacDonald in "Naughty Marietta" (1936)

One can't judge Wagner's opera "Lohengrin" after a first hearing, & I certainly don't intend hearing it a second time.
--Rossini

Richard Burton seems to be announcing his availability for Vincent Price roles.
-- Gary Arnold

Since Godard's films have nothing to say, we could perhaps have ninety minutes of silence instead of each of them.
--John Simon

Oh, hell, I can kill five guys & have 'em buried in the time it takes him to kill one.
--Howard Hawks on Peckinpah

strandinthewind · #2 01-31-2005, 06:29 PM

Wasn't it Capote who said about J. Susann's "Valley of the Dolls" - "she runs the gambit of emotions - A to B" That is a paraphrase

dissention · #3 01-31-2005, 07:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

Wasn't it Capote who said about J. Susann's "Valley of the Dolls" - "she runs the gambit of emotions - A to B" That is a paraphrase

Jackie Susann? Have you seen her clothes? And that make-up? Jackie Susann looks a truck driver in drag.

Jackie Susann doesn't write...she types.

Best feud in the history of publishing.

Serrart · #4 01-31-2005, 07:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

Wasn't it Capote who said about J. Susann's "Valley of the Dolls" - "she runs the gambit of emotions - A to B" That is a paraphrase

That was Dorothy Parker about Katharine Hepburn, but it works said by T.Capote too

.

I don't know if it can go in the Punctures/Jabs/Skewerings categories but my favourite is from John Ford to CB De Mille who, during Maccartism tried to kick J. Mankiewicz out of the Screen Directors Guild:

"'My name's John Ford. 'I make Westerns. I don't think there is anyone in the room who knows more about what the American public wants than Cecil B. De Mille. In that respect I admire him.' Then, staring at De Mille, he added, 'But I don't like you, C.B. I don't like what you stand for and I don't like what you've been saying here tonight".

Then he proposed to make De Mille resign from the Guild and succeded.

Romy