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PAGE 6 - October 19,1972
LIFE IN MUSIC
By The Dameans
GARDEN PARTY
I went to a garden party
To reminisce with my old friends
A chance to share old memories
And play our songs again
When I got to the garden party
They all knew my name
No one recognized me
I didn’t look the same
But it’s alright now
I learned my lesson well
You see you can’t please everyone
So you got to please yourself
People came from miles around
Everyone was there
Yoko brought her walrus
There was magic in the air
And over in the corner
Much to my surprise
Mr. Hughes hid in Dylan’s shoes
Wearing his disguise
But it’s alright now
I learned my lesson well
You see you can’t please everyone
So you got to please yourself
By Rick Nelson
(c 1972 Matragun Music (BMI)
Do you remember when Rick Nelson first appeared as a singer? It was at the
end of some now long-forgotten “Ozzie and Harriet Show.”
Do you recall the feeling you had? You felt as if you had always known him.
It was so easy to accept Rick as the kid next door who was making good. He
epitomized that desire in all of us to be madly loved, to be a teenage idol. And,
whatever the reason, the feeling of acceptance was as good and smooth as any of
Rick’s songs.
Somehow, somewhere along the line, Rick Nelson dropped off the popular
scene and passed out of our lives. He has only reappeared recently in the midst
of the nostalgia swing in the pop sound.
Rick Nelson has a new song out now, his first significant effort in years. The
song, “Garden Party” offers us Rick’s characteristically smooth snyncopation.
Yet at the same time the song is much different, offering a much more reflective
lyrical line than any of his earlier songs.
“Garden Party” is Rick’s reflection on his recent visit to Madison Square
Garden to sing for a revival of old rock music. The experience was a performer’s
nightmare. The audience received his first song coldly; and by the time he sang
“Honky Tonk Woman” they were booing him. For Rick “it was time to leave.”
The feeling comes through strongly. Rick Nelson was stunned. He was missing
the majority of the audience and was being rejected. There had really been a
shift from the days when he was so madly received by everyone. All Rick could
do that night was to finish out the program as best he could.
Now, in looking back, Rick sings: “But it’s alright now. I learned my lesson
well. You can’t please everyone so you got to please yourself.”
How often we experience the same feeling of rejection. It takes us so long to
realize that we can’t please everyone -- all our friends, teachers, fellow workers,
classmates. People place contrary demands on our lives and it becomes
impossible to be accepted by everyone.
Often we feel that it is better to avoid all decisions for fear of rejection by
one or the other group. But in time we come to share in Rick’s conviction that
there is a course for us to choose - acceptance must begin at home. Each of us
need to discover what we truly feel is right and good for ourselves and then must
dare to live it out.
There is a strength in the message of “Garden Party” both in what it says and
in the person from whom it comes. The song says: Real life is made up of people
who are mature enough to choose their way and be happy with their choice. The
person of Rick Nelson says: Remember me; I’m the kid next door who might’ve
been you.
(All correspondence should be directed to: The Dameans, St. Joseph’s
Church, 216 Patton Avenue, P.O. Box 5188, Shreveport, Louisiana 71105)
TV Movies
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 22 -9:00 p.m. (ABC)
- THE ADVENTURERS (1970) - is a long,
sprawling soap-opera based on Harold Robbins’
novel, encompassing too much ground to
produce any effective drama or depth of
characterization. We follow Dax (Bekim
Fehmiu, in the adult role) from childhood in a
revolutionary South American country,
through adol sence to early middle age; from
the toughening sights he witnessed as a child
(the rape and murder of his household),
through orgiastic, playboy youth, revolutionary
ex-patriot and lover of his people. Brutality,
pillage, rape, voyeurism, sadism, lesbianism,
nudity and adultery are all exploited as
characters wander in and out of the story.
Motivation is frequently sacrificed for action or
just pretty photography. Candice Bergen lends
her usual hypnotic charm, and Ernest Borgnine
maintains a certain consistency and enduring
presence, but more than this is needed to make
a good motion picture. (B)
MONDAY, OCTOBER 23 - 9:00 p.m. (NBC)
- THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS (1971) - is based
on a James Goldman play and appears to be
great fun, what with George C. Scott playing a
demented New York judge who believes himself
to be Sherlock Holmes, and Joanne Woodward
as the psychiatrist enlisted to bring him back to
his senses and whose name just happens to be
Watson. But somewhere between the riotous
opening scenes and a closing shot in front of a
Central Park underpass, where Holmes and
Watson bravely face the dread Dr. Moriarty,
thery are just too many slack spots and
unconnected parts. James Goldman’s and
director Anthony Harvey’s film supposedly asks
us to decide whether “insane” Scott is saner
than those "sane” people who wish to cure or
commit him, but all we really can ask is why
they made such a midget movie of THEY
MIGHT BE GIANTS. (A-lll)
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24 - 8:30 p.m.
(ABC) - SHORT WALK TO DAYLIGHT -
James Brolin, Don Mitchell, James McEachin
and Abbey Lincoln are among eight
“representative” subway rides caught in an
early morning earthquake that traps them in
between Manhattan subway stations. All the
action is in the tunnels and centers around an
escape route that finally leads to the East River.
Barry Shear directs this made-for-TV movie.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24 - 9:30 p.m.
(CBS) OF THEE I SING -• A musical comedy
special about the presidential campaign of John
Wintergreen that mixes romance with some
funny impeachment proceedings instigated by
Wintergreen's overlooked Vide-President. OF
THEE I SING was first staged on Broadway in
1931. The musical political satire by George S.
Kaufman and the Gershwins stars Carroll
O’Connor, Jack Gilford, Cloris Leachman and
Michele Lee in what is billed as the first musical
(ante-dating OKLAHOMA!) that integrated
story, characterization, dialogue, lyrics and
music. It was the first musical ever to win a
Pulitzer Prize.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25 - 8:30 p.m.
(ABC) -- FAMILY FLIGHT - Troubled parents
Rod Taylor and Dina Merrill convince estranged
son Kristoffer Tabori to come on a nymg
vacation with them to Mexico. Tabori has
second thoughts when he discovers that Janet
Margolin, an ex girl friend and sister of a
buddy, whose death Tabori blames himself for,
is the fourth member of the group. When the
plane crashes in the Mexican desert the four
must pull together for their survival. A
made-for-TV movie directed by Marvin
Chomsky.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26 - 9:00 p.m.
(CBS) - GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER
(1967) — Stanley Kramer’s fourth film to deal
with an aspect of racial or religious bigotry is a
bright comedy starring Spencer Tracy and
Katharine Hepburn as parents whose daughter
(Katherine Houghton) wants to marry a
distinguished Negro doctor (Sidney Poitier).
Though the film stacks the deck somewhat,
particularly in the light of present day social
developments, the effort of both their families
to cope with the race issue and the generation
gap adds a dimension of truth. Mr. Tracy and
Miss Hepburn are at their greatest as a team.
Fine support by Roy Glenn, Beah Richards,
Isabell Sanford. Original script by William Rose.
(A-ll)
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27 - 9:00 p.m. (CBS)
- THE McKENZIE BREAK (1970) - An
absorbing if not unfamiliar, war story, THE
McKENZIE BREAK surprisingly manages to
avoid most of the cliches inherent in prison
camp pictures. Centered around two strong
personalities (Brian Keith, a hard-boiled career
officer sent to quell a riotous prison camp for
Nazi officers, and Helmut Griem, an
indomitable German officer fomenting trouble
to cover up espionage tactics), the film is nicely
paced, with strong performances by the entire
cast, a creditable script, and an attempt at
characterization uncommon in this type of
little film. Except for some obvious cutting to
make BREAK more manageable, director
Lamont Johnson has made a tight, coherent
and thoroughly enjoyable movie. (A-lll)
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 28 - 8:00 p.m.
(NBC) - IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD
WORLD (1963) -- Stanley Kramer’s
self-professed “comedy to end all comedies”
may be something less than that but casual
movie enthusiasts who like their slapstick on a
grand scale (9V2 million dollars worth in this
case) will find this star studded spectacle to
their tast. Plot involves an all-day long drag race
by among others, Sid Caeser, Milton Berle,
Jonathan Winters, Phil Silvers, Mickey Rooney,
and Buddy Hackett. The object of the race is
the $350,000 which Jimmy Durante buried in a
Southern California park some 200 miles away.
Apart from the wisecracks MAD WORLD’S
particular charm lies in the antics of the chase
and the destructing of everything from a Jeep
to a Chrysler Imperial. More critical viewers will
no doubt question Kramer’s premise that
People following greed are funny” and be put
off by the film’s repetitious and unnecessary
indulgence in violence and money-lust for its
own sake. The stunt men and technical tricks
are outstanding. (A-l)
Consider Plan
For “Team-Up”
BY ETHEL GINT0FT
MILWAUKEE (NC) - Eighteen
Catholic churches are considering a plan
which would team them up as “covenant
parishes” with 18 Episcopal churches
here.
The new concept, which has already
been put in practice in the Worcester,
Mass., diocese, is part of an effort toward
improving Anglican-Catholic relations at a
grassroots level, according to Father
Kenneth Metz, chairman of the
Milwaukee archdiocesan ecumenical
commission.
The idea of covenant parish, Father
Metz said, is not to encourage a
“merger.”
Covenant parishes will be encouraged
to get to know each other as brothers and
sisters, he said. This will be done by a
shared ministry and by a preaching and
teaching together “as Christians who are
like minded on essential matters.”
At first the shared ministry will take a
variety of simple forms, Father Metz said,
somewhat based on the experiences in
Worcester. Initially it will not include
ministry at the altar.
Participating parishes will be
encouraged to exchange the names of sick
or dead parishioners who would be
prayed for at both parishes. Also
Religious women of both faiths,
ministering to the sick, could have a
common list of names for their areas.
Another possible form would be that
of “stewardship” or fund raising. Catholic
parish councils could join Episcopal
councils in sharing ideas on these and
other programs.
ABRAZO FOR A BISHOP -- Auxiliary Bishop Charles R.
Koestler of St. Louis, Mo., gets an abrazo, the traditional
embrace of greeting, from a parishioner at Christo Rey church
in La Paz, Bolivia. The bishop was visiting 12 St. Louis priests
who are serving as missionaries in Bolivia and Chile. (NC
Photo)
Covenant parishes could make
buildings available to each other, and
they could work together in helping the
poor.
Ban on Catechism Made Public
BY JAMES C. O’NEILL
VATICAN CITY (NC) - After almost
two years of discussion, the Vatican has
insisted publicly that two Dutch bishops
immediately withdraw a catechism now
being used in schools in their dioceses.
Vatican press officer Federico
Alessandrini told a press conference Oct.
12 that the catechism in question is
found wanting “in many points” by the
Vatican’s Doctrinal Congregation,
charged with the defense of the faith, and
by the Congregation of the Clergy, which
has been assigned the task of reviewing
catechetical material used in teaching the
faith.
The Vatican’s ban on the catechism
and its instructions to the bishops of
’s-Hertogenbosch and Breda to withdraw
it immediately have been public
knowledge since September, but
Alessandrini’s press conference was the
first time the matter was aired publicly at
the Vatican.
Critics of the catechism have charged
that it treats many traditional beliefs as
legends, that it stresses the view that the
Evangelists were not writing history but
instead wanted to bear witness to their
faith and that of the Christian
community, and that it does not cite the
privileged position of the Blessed Virgin.
Supporters, however, say that it is an
attempt to present the faith in terms that
young people can understand. The
catechism, they say, emphasizes the need
to understand the various languages, or
systems of ideas, in which men express
their religious views and feelings.
Alessandrini said that because of a
number of recent newsstories concerning
the discussions and dispute over the
catechism, “I am authorized to stat,e
clearly that the two offices of the Roman
Curia (the Church’s central administrative
offices) have insisted on the immediate
withdrawal of the catechism to carry out
their precise and grave duties.
“As is known, the two offices
interested in this matter . . .have the duty
of both encouraging and overseeing the
purity and integrity of the faith and
catechetics, and when necessary even of
intervening in ways considered most
opportune.”
Alessandrini said that the interventions
in this case were not to be considered
“exceptional” but only followed the
normal procedures of the Roman Curia.
Some Vatican observers in Rome,
however, said it was possibly among the
most sharp reprovals of the Dutch
bishops on record.
The press officer reviewed the
discussions about the catechism that have
been going on between the two Dutch
bishops and the Roman Curia since 1970.
Alessandrini said that after “an
accurate and prolonged examination, the
text (of the catechism) was judged
gravely lacking from many points of
view.” In September, 1971, the two
bishops were “invited to withdraw the
catechism from the schools,” he said.
The bishops asked for a clarification
from the two congregations, Alessandrini
said, and after meeting with Yugoslavian
Cardinal Franjo Seper, prefect of the
Doctrinal Congregation, and American
Cardinal John Wright, prefect of the
Clergy Congregation, the bishops were
again invited to withdraw the publication
from use.
The two bishops then suggested that
the text of the catechism be revised with
the help of the authors. The two Vatican
offices, however, were not satisfied with
the terms on which the proposed revision
Film
A — Section I -
A - Section D
A — Section III
A — Section IV
C — Condemned
BAD COMPANY (Paramount) is one of
those beautifully mounted, painstakingly
detailed, skillfully acted and directed movies
which, for all their effort at profundity, come
pretty much to naught. The film - written by
Robert Benton and David Newman and
directed by Benton - relates the gradu erosion
of virtue under the onslaught not so much of
vice as of oafishness and hard times. Virtue is
personified in a young Pennsylvanian named
Drew (Barry Brown) who, with his parents’
consent and a $100 nest egg from dad, flees
conscription into the Civil War (which has
already claimed the life of an older brother).
Oafishness appears as the youthful gang on the
Missouri frontier that he meets up with (he is
mugged by them as an introduction), led by a
loudmouth named Jake (Jeff Bridges). The hard
times are supplied by just about everything and
everyone the boys encounter, including their
double-crossing selves, as they set out to “make
their fortunes” in the golden West. The farther
West the boys get (not all of them make it that
far), the less Drew is able or inclined to resist
temptation. He foregoes an experience with a
settler’s wife which the other boys enjoy early
in the trip, but by the film’s end he is quite
adept at robbing banks and killing hombres.
There are moments in the film, when it is not
sweeping in slow pans across the golden Kansas
plains, of violent action and gripping drama,
but for the most part BAD COMPANY casts
itself as a predictable and only mildly
interesting moral tale-cum-period piece. One
wonders, however, if boys between the ages of
11 and 18 felt they had to curse so much and
engage in incredibly “updated” sex talk in
order to be popular back in 1862. (A-IV)
THE DOBERMAN GANG (Dimension
Pictures) Writers Louis Garfinkle and Frank
Ray Peril li have provided director Byron
Chudnow with a taunt, nifty screenplay about a
new kind of bank-robbery caper, and Chudnow
in turn has put together a crisp film whose very
enjoyment is heightened by its near
believability. The story, for all its novelty is
arrow straight: an enterprising gang sets out to
train a pack of doberman pinscher attack dogs
to rob a payroll-fattened bank in northern
California. Byron Mabe, Julie Parrish, and Hal
Reed lead an excellent if largely unknown cast,
and they all lead the attentive dobermans (or is
it doberMEN?) through every step and fail-safe
measure involved in the intricate,
highly-orchestrated heist. After the fascinating
training process of the magnificent, terrifying
animals, the robbery itself is almost
anticlimactic, but here Chudnow & Co. have
wisely provided a final pair of quick twists. The
flim depends on an element of terror that
attack dogs provide, and it contains some mild
love-making scenes. But for adults looking for a
surprise caper flick, THE DOBERMAN GANG
provides the right bite. (A—III)
HAMMER (United A/tists) is the latest drop
in the black exploitation movie bucket, and it
sports ex-pro football star Fred Williamson in
the title role. What a coincidence - Williamson
liked to style himself as “The Hammer” back in
the days when he was creaming pass receivers
was to take place and, according to
Alessandrini, judged the proposals
“insufficient.” On Aug. 7 of this year the
two bishops were once again invited to
withdraw the catechism before the
beginning of the new school year.
The Vatican press spokesman
concluded the recounting of the
discussions by quoting a section of a press
release issued by the two bishops on Sept.
19, which said:
“This revision requires more time than
for the Kansas City Chiefs. In the movie, the
Hammer flexes his muscles, talks tough, and
generally looks real mean, but, dig, he is really
on the side of the angels. Well, perhaps of the
tarnished angels. When he loses his job as a
dockworker, Hammer soon finds work as a
boxer for a sly, crooked manager (Charles
Lampkin) who is also running a little dope on
the side. Just when Hammer is all set for the big
fight, the mob puts the screws on his manager.
Naturally, the old fox leans on Hammer to take
a dive, and - wham! - that’s when the blows
rain down like anvils. Before you can count ten,
there is a pile of heavies (chief among them
William Smith) lying bloodied in the stadium
parking garage, and Hammer is striding off into
the smoggy night with best girl (Vonetta
Mcgee) in tow. Despite a too-familiar story line
and shallow characterizations, Hammer strikes
true with good photography, sharp editing, and
action sequences well-directed by Bruce Clark,
Unfortunately, its appeal and positive
achivements are offset by the now-standard
ladling on of crude dialogue, raw sex, and the
racism aimed at setting off sparks at urban box
offices. (C)
THE RULING CLASS (Avco-Embassy)
Peter O’Toole as a member of the British ruling
class gives a bravura performance as a madman
under the delusion that he is God. As the
fourteenth Earl of Gurney, O’Toole inherits a
vast estate which his greedy but veddy proppah
relatives (William Mervin, Coral Brown, and
Alastair Sim) would love to wrest from his legal
grip. Their scheme is to marry him off quickly,
get him to produce an heir, and have him
committed - so they can control the estate as
guardians. Naturally the madman outwits the
“sane” Establishmentarians, and for the first
hour, at least, Peter Medak’s intense film of the
Peter Barnes’ play is both absorbing and
amusing. The show runs out of punch before it
runs out of energy, however, and watching the
final hour-and-one-half is like watching an
expiring fish flop about on a riverbank. As
befits the subject, the style of THE RULING
CLASS is a head-on attack via satire and black
comedy, and the film’s more outrageous
moments are bound to shock many and even
offend some viewers. A wary approach by
sophisticated adults is recommended. (A—IV)
THE SWINGIN’ STEWARDESSES
(Hemisphere) Director Michael Thomas
manages the awesome trick of maintaining a
delicate balance between European travelogue
and soft-core pornography in this ridiculously
dubbed, inept, thoroughly tedious attempt to
cash in on the success of that perennial porno
hit, THE STEWARDESSES. Middle-aged
voyeurs should be warned off this cheap foreign
item which is calculated only to give
“swinging” a bad name. (C)
THE TWILIGHT PEOPLE (Dimension
Pictures) are the gruesome results of Mad
Doctor Charles Macaulay’s nefarious
experiments on the living. His ultimate hope is
to create a new breed of man equipped to
survive ecological doomsday, but so far the
experiments have yielded up only a bat man, a
panther woman, a wolf girl, an antelope man, a
pig person of undetermined sex, and assorted
was initially forseen. The two Roman
cardinals deem it is not possible to delay
longer. The two bishops are engaged in
study with the authors to reach a
common position. Regarding the
outcome of this, further information will
be given as soon as possible.”
That further information was given at
Alessandrini’s press conference, when he
said that the competent Roman
congregations “insist on the immediate
withdrawal of the catechism.”
other odd hybrids. When soldier of
fortune-scholar-RACONTEUR-and BON
VIVANT John Ashley is abducted because his
brain will be useful to the doctor, the doc’s
pretty daughter Pat Woodell undergoes a
change of loyalty and throws in with the
adverturer in freeing the unfortunate
post-operatives and fleeing the doctor’s jungle
fortress. A “Most Dangerous Game” hunt
follows, but Ashley and his beastly brothers
manage to rout the doctor and his cruel gunsels
and a final shot leaves us with the image of
Ashley and Miss Wooded embracing as the
liberated bat man soars off into the sunset. The
movie, one of an endless stream being churned
out in the Philippines by producer-director
Eddie Romero, is utterly unbelievable and even
ludicrous in parts, but dwells on the gruesome
beasts as wed as on the ultimate violence - and
so is for adults with time and money to waste.
(A-lll)
THE WILD PACK (AIP) Produced, directed
and written by Hall Bartlett from a novel by
Jorge Amado, THE WILD PACK follows the
fates of a group of homeless children in Bahia,
Brazil, as they struggle to survive on the fringes
and in the slums of an oligarchic, indifferent
South American society. Bartlett’s film, which
won the grand prize at the 1971 Moscow
International Film Festival, tends to
romanticize the feats of its “Sandpit Generals”
the film’s original title) and to lay on its
revolutionary message with a heavy hand.
Nonetheless WILD PACK has a number of
things to recommend it, not the least of which
are Ricardo Aronovich’s beautiful, at times
impressionistic color photography, Louis
Oliveira’s apt Latin musical score and the
generally competent performances of Kent
Lane as a gang leader who defends his turf
against all rivals, Butch Patrick as a gang
member, Tisha Sterling as a girl adopted by the
boys and Alejando Rey as a social worker-priest
who is defrocked because of his sympathies for
the outcasts. A film of outspoken political and
religious protest, THE WILD PACK
unfortunately clutters its statement with a
ridiculously inappropriate romatic support and
a graphic rape sequence that would have been
questionable even in a film of considerably
more merit. (B)
RECENT FILM CLASSIFICATIONS
Darwin Adventure (Fox) -- A-ll
Young Winston (Columbia) -- A-ll
The Assassination of Trotsky (Cinerama) -
A-lll
Chioe in the Afternoon (Columbia) -• A-lll
Pulp (UA) - A-lll
You’ll Like My Mother (Universal) - A-lll
Bad Company (Paramount) -- A-IV
Savage Messiah (MGM) -- B
Four Times That Night (Cinevision) -- C
Classifications
Morally Unobjectionable for General Patronage
Morally Unobjectionable for Adults, Adolescents
- Morally Unobjectionable for Adults
- Morally Unobjectionable for Adults, Reservations
B — Morally Objectionable in Part for All