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Diana Palmer (Susan Kyle) [Mo The Morcai Battalion (v5.0) (ep
Donald Barthelme Flying to America 45 More Stor
America's Great Depression Murray Newton Rothbard
American Fairy Tales L. Frank Baum
American Purgatorio John Haskell
American Supernatural Tales S. T. Joshi
[Instrumentality Of Mankind] Mo Cordwainer Smith
Amalie Vantana [Phantom Knigh The Charleston Chase (epub)
Billy Keane The Ballad of Mo
[heft] Perry Rhodan 1700 Mobius

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.God enters history, although—as if in accordance with the Old Testament ban on representation—only by hearsay.One night, puzzled Joe tells Mary that the radio show to which he had been listening was interrupted by a self-identity Voice of God informing listeners, “I’ll be with you for the next few days.” Charles Schnee’s rigorously schematic script ensures that, on each of the six evenings that God addresses the public, the movie audience will miss the divine performance.Evidently producer Dore Schary feared that patrons would react with laughter—as well they might have, if perhaps a bit nervously.Despite its bland, earnest, self-congratulatory corn, The Next Voice You Hear is a study in terror; it acknowledges an actual anxiety and, however pitifully, responds to a real sense of helplessness.“You’re not supposed to worry about the fate of the world until you’re big enough to shave,” Joe tells Johnny after God’s second broadcast—or should we say, civil defense warning.If (or rather, when) there’s another war, the battlefield will be everywhere.When Johnny expresses his apprehension, Joe blames God: “Scaring kids—it’s gone too far.” Terrorizing Johnny is Joe’s job, as is made clear when the boy breaks the radio plug just before the Voice’s third scheduled appearance and Joe predictably flies into a rage.Truly, The Next Voice You Hear has many lessons to teach.On the third night, God goes to the interpersonal, asking if His listeners are afraid of Him and wondering, “Why should children be afraid of their father?” (Why indeed, when He is omniscient and holds the power of life and death?) A hard rain begins to fall as the broadcast ends, causing normally placid Mary to scream in terror.But, as this is a movie, there is nothing that can’t be resolved—it was Schary, in fact, who famously called America a “happy ending nation.” Thus, a quick cut: instead of the end of the world, day four brings sunshine, and, for once, Joe’s jalopy starts up without a problem.But that night, after the Voice has taken credit for certain large miracles and asked listeners to reciprocate with their own small miracles of love and kindness, God gives Joe Smith a test: Mary goes into false labor and her annoying Aunt Ethel becomes hysterical, prompting jumpy Joe to further panic and shake the silly woman.Day five falls on a Saturday.Mary is angry with her husband for his brutish behavior, so he storms out of the house to a neighborhood tavern.“If God stays on the radio, these joints will close down!” somebody can be heard slurring.(If only! Hadn’t movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn only recently maintained that TV was “little more than a gimmick used by tavern-keepers to induce patrons to linger over another drink”?) Sure enough, Joe meets Satan in the form of a feckless war buddy with a female familiar.Joe is ready to take off for the South Seas, fleeing the Voice of God like a latter-day Jonah, until the buddy and the barfly make light of his family.Suddenly, it’s as if Joe had sulked off to a movie that caused him to think! Reacquainted with his responsibilities, he turns lugubriously lachrymose and staggers home (again frightening Johnny, albeit inadvertently) to bury his head in Mary’s lap.That night God tells His listeners (or so we are told) that they are like schoolchildren: “You’ve forgotten your lessons.I ask you to do your homework.” On day six, it’s Johnny’s turn to run away.Unbeknownst to Joe, the boy is a friend to his nemesis, the curmudgeonly foreman at his factory.Just before the Voice’s nightly address, Joe discovers Johnny at the foreman’s house, happily building a model airplane.(This demonstration of workplace harmony is not intended as ironic.) Manager and managed are reconciled; they exchange first names and bless each other.Monday evening finds the entire community expectantly gathered in church, eyes fixed on the cathedral-style radio that’s been placed on the pulpit: “Ladies and gentlemen of the universe,” the announcer solemnly begins, “the next voice you hear.”But the radio is silent.As the minister steps into the breach, Mary goes into labor.Celestial music heralds the conclusion of the movie.Heavenly clouds fill the screen.There is no end title, save perhaps for the viewer’s soft, incredulous “Wow [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]