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38-534: Make Mine Mink is a 1960 British comedy farce film directed by Robert Asher and featuring Terry-Thomas , Athene Seyler , Hattie Jacques and Billie Whitelaw . It was based on the 1958 play Breath of Spring by Peter Coke , and its sequels. The screenplay concerns a group of eccentric misfits who go on a crime spree, stealing mink coats for charity in a Robin Hood -style gang. A group of lodgers – Major Rayne, Nanette ("Nan") and "Pinkie" Pinkerton – staying at

76-572: A 'rough cut' with editors in Hollywood". Writing about L'Avventura (1960), Crowther said that watching the film was "like trying to follow a showing of a picture at which several reels have got lost." The career of Bosley Crowther is discussed at length in For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism , including his support for foreign-language cinema and his public repudiation of McCarthyism and

114-775: A biography of the head of the MGM studio, The Great Films: 50 Golden Years of the Motion Picture Industry (1967), and Treasury of the Talking Picture . Perhaps conscious of the power of his reviews, Crowther adopted a tone that New York Times obituarist Robert D. McFadden considered to be "scholarly rather than breezy". Frank Beaver wrote in Bosley Crowther: Social Critic of the Film, 1940–1967 that Crowther opposed displays of patriotism in films and believed that

152-505: A child, Crowther moved to Winston-Salem, North Carolina , where he published a neighborhood newspaper, The Evening Star . His family moved to Washington, D.C., and Crowther graduated from Western High School in 1922. After two years of prep school at Woodberry Forest School , he entered Princeton University , where he majored in history and was editor of The Daily Princetonian . During his final year in 1928, he won The New York Times 's Intercollegiate Current Events Contest and won

190-409: A children's home, they decide to pull off one last job. The Major plans a raid on a high-tone, but illegal gambling party. Dame Beatrice pretends to be a gambler, while the rest of the group dress up as police officers. They stage a phoney raid of the premises, planning to make away with all the fur coats in the cloakroom, but a real police raid minutes later tests their mettle. They manage to escape with

228-411: A fence, Athene Seyler at a gambling party. The dialogue, in fact, is the film's weakest feature, depending as it does on double entendres, wisecracks and leisurely aspidistra-and-antimacassar humour. The larger-than-life playing of Athene Seyler, Terry-Thomas and Hattie Jacques conflicts with Billie Whitelaw's completely different style of warm-hearted naturalism, so that the film tends to disintegrate into

266-408: A few furs. Lily confronts them when she sees the new furs. When Inspector Pape from Scotland Yard turns up, they expect to be arrested. However, they are relieved to discover the inspector has come round regarding a fur reported stolen from Nan (by Pinkie, as it turns out). Once the inspector departs, a furious Lily extracts a promise to stop stealing furs. Then another plea reaches Dame Beatrice for

304-481: A film with Americans. Seyler and Elspeth Duxbury reprised their stage roles from the London production of Breath of Spring . The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Another in the current cycle of comedies about organised crime, Make Mine Mink is by no means original yet manages to whip up several tense and amusing sequences. The most successful of these rely on visual rather than verbal humour – Terry-Thomas searching for

342-440: A highly unfavorable review, and panned David Lean 's later works. He called Lawrence of Arabia (1962) a "thundering camel-opera that tends to run down rather badly as it rolls on into its third hour and gets involved with sullen disillusion and political deceit." Crowther often admired foreign-language films, especially the works of Roberto Rossellini , Vittorio De Sica , Ingmar Bergman , and Federico Fellini . However he

380-526: A juvenile delinquent's descent into murder: "Rubbish! The only shortcoming of society which this film proves is that it casually tolerates the pouring of such fraudulence onto the public mind." Crowther opposed censorship of movies, and advocated greater social responsibility in the making of them. He approved of movies with social content, such as Gone with the Wind (1939), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), Citizen Kane (1941), The Lost Weekend (1945), All

418-650: A movie producer "should balance his political attitudes even in the uncertain times of the 1940s and 1950s, during the House Un-American Activities Committee ". Crowther's review of the wartime drama Mission to Moscow (1943), made during the period when the Soviet Union was one of the Allied Powers with the United States, chided the film by saying it should show "less ecstasy", and wrote: "It

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456-431: A series of funny sketches, very weakly linked." Bosley Crowther , critic for The New York Times , gave it a generally favourable review, writing, "it has bumpy stretches where the script writer's clumsy jointing shows. But, on the whole, it is a comical conveyance for the cut-ups of its skillful cast." Variety reported, "The humor is episodic, but Robert Asher has directed the lively screenplay briskly enough, and

494-556: A shady café in Limehouse in search of a fence . It turns out that Lily is behind the times; it is now run by the Salvation Army . Meanwhile, they have to hide their activities from Lily, who is now dating policeman Jim Benham. When they catch a burglar hiding under Pinkie's bed, they agree to let him go on condition that he direct them to a fence. Dame Beatrice goes to make contact with the fence, only to discover, to her chagrin, that it

532-536: A sorely needed charitable donation. She reminds her partners in crime that their only vow was not to steal furs. Lily and Jim go to see the Crown Jewels , and as they are leaving, Lily thinks the four Beefeaters heading into the chamber holding the jewellery look familiar, then dismisses the fantastic idea. However, her instincts are correct. Producer Hugh Stewart said he put together the film quickly when Norman Wisdom, with whom Stewart normally worked, went off to make

570-465: A trip to Europe. Following his return, Crowther was offered a job as a cub reporter for The New York Times at a salary of $ 30 per week. He declined the offer, made to him by the publisher Adolph S. Ochs , hoping to find employment on a small Southern newspaper. When the salary offered by those papers was not half of the Times offer, he went to New York and took the job. He was the first nightclub reporter for

608-596: A writer and artist; and Jefferson, a banker and the father of Welles Remy Crowther who died in the September 11 attacks in 2001. In 1937 he became assistant screen editor and in 1940 replaced Frank Nugent as film critic for The New York Times as well as screen editor. He was film critic for the Times until he semi-retired in 1967 and became critic emeritus. In 1954, he received the Directors Guild of America 's first film criticism award. After he semi-retired from

646-468: Is La Farce de maître Pathelin ( The Farce of Master Pathelin ) from c. 1460. Spoof films such as Spaceballs , a comedy based on the Star Wars movies, are farces. Sir George Grove opined that the "farce" began as a canticle in the common French tongue intermixed with Latin . It became a vehicle for satire and fun, and thus led to the modern Farsa or Farce, a piece in one act, the subject of which

684-411: Is at first delighted, but then assumes Lily has stolen it. She and the lodgers concoct a scheme to return the fur coat before its owners realize its absence. Despite several comical mishaps, the gang manage to do so using a plan drawn up by the retired Major. The four are so exhilarated by their escapade, they decide to steal more furs, presuming that intricacies of theft should prove no more difficult than

722-452: Is extravagant and the action ludicrous. [REDACTED] This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain : Grove, Sir George (1908). Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians . New York, McMillan. Bosley Crowther Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His work helped shape

760-536: Is her own nephew Freddie. The £550 he pays her goes to an orphanage in dire straits. The quartet then go on a burglary spree. Their amateurish escapades become widely reported in the newspapers, one of which calls them "superannuated Beatniks". On more than one occasion, they narrowly evade capture. Then Lily discovers what they are doing. Horrified, she explains how lucky they are not to be behind bars and makes them promise to stop their criminal activities. However, when Dame Beatrice receives an urgent request for money for

798-517: Is just as ridiculous to pretend that Russia has been a paradise of purity as it is to say the same thing of ourselves". In the 1950s, Crowther was an opponent of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy , whose anti-communist crusade targeted the State Department, the administration of Harry S. Truman , the U.S. Army , and individual government employees. However, he also criticised the left-wing film Knock on Any Door for blaming law-abiding society for

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836-473: The Blacklist . In this 2009 documentary film, contemporary critics who appreciate his work, such as A. O. Scott , appear, but also those who found his work too moralistic, such as Richard Schickel , Molly Haskell , and Andrew Sarris . The end of Crowther's career was marked by his disdain for the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde . He was critical of what he saw as the film's sensationalized violence. His review

874-636: The Kensington apartment of Dame Beatrice, an elderly philanthropist, are bored with their humdrum, restricted lives. Lily, Dame Bea's beautiful young housekeeper, overhears an argument between their neighbours, the Spanagers. When Mrs. Spanager rejects her husband's gift of a mink coat due to his lies about his business trip, he pretends to throw the coat off their balcony, but actually just hides it. Lily snags it and gives it to her employer to show her gratitude for hiring her despite her criminal record. Dame Beatrice

912-468: The Times , and in 1932 was asked by Brooks Atkinson to join the drama department as assistant drama editor. He spent five years covering the theater scene in New York, and even dabbled in writing for it. While at the Times in those early years, Crowther met Florence Marks, a fellow employee; the couple married on January 20, 1933. They had three sons, Bosley Crowther III, an attorney; John M. Crowther ,

950-426: The Times , he also started to work for Columbia Pictures helping them identify stories and films to buy. One of the stories he suggested was S. J. Wilson's To Find a Man . In addition to his film criticism, Crowther wrote The Lion's Share: The Story of an Entertainment Empire (1957), the first book documenting the history of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , Hollywood Rajah: The Life and Times of Louis B. Mayer (1960),

988-579: The stage and film. The term farce is derived from the French word for "stuffing", in reference to improvisations applied by actors to medieval religious dramas . Later forms of this drama were performed as comical interludes during the 15th and 16th centuries. The oldest surviving farce may be Le Garçon et l'aveugle ( The Boy and the Blind Man ) from after 1266, although the earliest farces that can be dated come from between 1450 and 1550. The best known farce

1026-742: The King's Men (1949), and High Noon (1952). Crowther barely concealed his disdain for Joan Crawford when reviewing her films, saying that her acting style in Female on the Beach (1955) was characterized by "artificiality" and "pretentiousness," and also chided Crawford for her physical bearing. In his review of the Nicholas Ray film Johnny Guitar (1954), Crowther complained that "no more femininity comes from (Crawford) than from rugged Mr. Heflin in Shane (1953). For

1064-685: The camerawork is okay. The four members of the gang do their chores admirably, with Seyler outstanding." According to Hugh Stewart, who produced, the film was a big success in the US. Farce Despite involving absurd situations and characters, the genre generally maintains at least a slight degree of realism and narrative continuity within the context of the irrational or ludicrous situations, often distinguishing it from completely absurdist or fantastical genres. Farces are often episodic or short in duration, often being set in one specific location where all events occur. Farces have historically been performed for

1102-543: The careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though some of his reviews of popular films have been seen as unnecessarily harsh. Crowther was an advocate of foreign-language films in the 1950s and 1960s, particularly those of Roberto Rossellini , Vittorio De Sica , Ingmar Bergman , and Federico Fellini . Crowther was born Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. in Lutherville, Maryland , the son of Eliza Hay (née Leisenring, 1877–1960) and Francis Bosley Crowther (1874–1950). As

1140-434: The film weren't reddened with blotches of violence of the most grisly sort... This blending of farce with brutal killings is as pointless as it is lacking in taste, since it makes no valid commentary upon the already travestied truth. And it leaves an astonished critic wondering just what purpose Mr. Penn and Mr. Beatty think they serve with this strangely antique, sentimental claptrap. Other critics besides Crowther panned

1178-424: The film, Crowther recanted his criticism and named it one of the top ten movies of the year, writing that Psycho was a "bold psychological mystery picture.... [I]t represented expert and sophisticated command of emotional development with cinematic techniques." He commented that while Satyajit Ray 's Pather Panchali (1955, US: 1958) took on "a slim poetic form" the structure and tempo of it "would barely pass as

Make Mine Mink - Misplaced Pages Continue

1216-507: The lady, as usual, is as sexless as the lions on the public library steps and as sharp and romantically forbidding as a package of unwrapped razor blades". Though his preferences in popular movies were not always predictable, Crowther in general detested action and war films that depicted violence and gunplay. He defended epics such as Ben-Hur (1959) and Cleopatra (1963), but gave the World War II film The Great Escape (also 1963)

1254-427: The movie in reviews of other films and in a letters column response to unhappy Times readers. The New York Times replaced Crowther as its primary film critic in early 1968, and some observers speculated that his persistent attacks on Bonnie and Clyde had shown him to be out of touch with current cinema and weighed heavily in his removal. Crowther worked as an executive consultant at Columbia Pictures after leaving

1292-421: The movie. John Simon , the critic of New York magazine, while praising its technical execution, declared "Slop is slop, even served with a silver ladle." Its distributor pulled the film from circulation. However, the critical consensus on Bonnie and Clyde reversed, exemplified by two high-profile reassessments by Time and Newsweek . The latter's Joe Morgenstern wrote two reviews in consecutive issues,

1330-516: The second retracting and apologizing for the first. Time hired Stefan Kanfer as its new film critic in late 1967; his first assignment was an ostentatious rebuttal of his magazine's original negative review. A rave in The New Yorker by Pauline Kael was also influential. Even in the wake of this critical reversal, however, Crowther remained one of the film's most dogged critics. He eventually wrote three negative reviews and periodically blasted

1368-415: Was critical of some iconic releases as well. He found Akira Kurosawa 's classic Throne of Blood (1957, but not released in the U.S. until 1961), derived from Macbeth , ludicrous, particularly its ending; and called Gojira (Godzilla) (1954) "an incredibly awful film". Crowther dismissed Alfred Hitchcock 's Psycho (1960) as "a blot on an otherwise honorable career". After other reviewers praised

1406-546: Was negative: It is a cheap piece of bald-faced slapstick comedy that treats the hideous depredations of that sleazy, moronic pair as though they were as full of fun and frolic as the jazz-age cut-ups in Thoroughly Modern Millie ... [S]uch ridiculous, camp-tinctured travesties of the kind of people these desperadoes were and of the way people lived in the dusty Southwest back in those barren years might be passed off as candidly commercial movie comedy, nothing more, if

1444-403: Was the return of the Spanagers' fur, with all the proceeds of their exploits being donated to charity. Their attempt to rob Madame Spolinski's boutique goes somewhat awry, due to Pinkie's ineptitude, but they still manage to get away with a fur coat. However, they have not considered how to dispose of their loot. The Major, pretending he is writing a book on delinquency, gets Lily to direct him to

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