Frank S. Nugent began his career with The New York Times as a reporter in 1929, before succeeding Andre Senwald as the paper's motion picture editor and critic in 1936. His reviews often turned on a clever phrase, or a pun, which stung or delighted those it affected, but generally illuminated the point and made for entertaining reading. A string of barbs unfavorable to 20th Century-Fox caused that studio to cancel their advertising for six months in 1939, costing the Times $50,000. When Darryl F. Zanuck lured "the assassin" to Hollywood in 1940 to work for the studio, cynics on both coasts