
Koch said he had noticed a "verbal tic intruding" into Giuliani's speech at the Republican convention last week: "a kind of maniacal laugh appearing before or simultaneously surfacing as he delivered his slashing attack" on Obama. Suddenly, Koch realized where he had heard that laugh before: it was from Richard Widmark, "carrying out his role in the movie Kiss of Death. I saw once again the scene in which Widmark, playing Tommy Udo, a killer, pushed a wheelchair in which an old woman was sitting and, laughing maniacally, shoved it off the top of the stairs with its occupant still in it."





