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PAGE 6—February 15,1973
LIFE IN MUSIC
By The Dameans
DONT EXPECT ME TO BE YOUR FRIEND
I stopped sending flowers to your apartment
You said you aren’t at home much anymore
I stopped dropping by without an appointment
Cause I’d hear laughter coming through your door.
Sometimes late at night you’ll still call me
Just before you close your eyes to sleep
You make me vow to try to stop by sometime
But baby that’s a promise I can’t keep.
I love you too much to ever start liking you
So let’s just let the story kinda end
I love you too much to ever start liking you
So don’t expect me to be your friend.
I don’t walk down through the village or other places
That we used to go to all the time
I’m trying to erase you from my memory
Cause thinking of you jumbles up my mind.
I love you too much to ever start liking you
So let’s just let the story kinda end
I love you too much to ever start liking you
So don’t expect me to be your friend.
You always act so happy when I see you
You smile that way, you take my hand and then
Introduce me to your latest lover
That’s when I feel the walls start crashing in.
I love you too much to ever start liking you
So let’s just let the story kinda end
I love you too much to ever start liking you
So don’t expect me to be your friend.
By Lobo
( c Kaiser Music Inc. / Famous Music Corp. (ASCAP) 1972)
“Don’t Expect Me To Be Your Friend” is a pleasant song to hear. The melody
line is light and a pleasure for the listener. And the background arrangement is
intriguing. You might notice how the harmonica interlude imperceptibly fades
into the violins which hold a single note against the entire last verse.
“Don’t Expect Me To Be Your Friend” is also an interesting play on ideas,
especially the idea of friendship. With all the songs on the glories of friendship
(e.g. “Bridge Over Troubled Waters,” “He Ain’t Heavy”, “Lean On Me”, “Run
To Me”), Lobo sings “don’t expect me to be your friend.”
At first the line startles you. How can anyone sing something so seemingly
counter to friendship? But, if you take the time to look again, you realize that
Lobo is adding an interesting dimension to friendship. What he is saying is that
he finds it difficult to be a friend, for it is not possible for him to take second
place with a girl in whom he has invested so much.
Friendship involves the willingness to take second place, the willingness to
step aside to allow the other person to go on a different road if that is their
choice. In fact, friendship is a commitment to fostering other deeper loves.
Lobo sings about the reserve that is necessary in a good friendship. And he
also sings that for him, in this case, it is not possible. Sometimes a man does not
find in himself that he can take the second place. He insists in his heart on an
exclusiveness which is either “all” or “nothing.” He so weaves his thoughts and
emotions, hopes and desires that he cannot be “close” unless the relationship is
total.
Lobo reflects that when a love becomes “all” or “nothing” in a person’s mind,
he destroys all possibility of a simple friendship. He cannot remain open to
another direction for the life of his love. His mind and hearing become so
jumbled that the walls come crashing in. And only hurt and destruction can
follow.
Lobo forces us to reflect on the value of such a relationship. Should love be so
demanding that it is destructive if thwarted? Can we be secure enough to accept
the second place and still continue loving in a constructive form? The question is
a good one, because it has arisen in the life of every one of us.
Maybe we will find that love is much like the story in which Jesus instructs his
disciples to take the lower places at the table. We often begin with the lower
place so that we can allow those whom we love the freedom to invite us to the
higher places. In that way we preserve our chance to share in the good things of
the table and the beauty of a person whom we love. In essence it is a question of
where we begin - with the first or last place.
When we begin with the lower place we say: “Expect me to be your friend.”
(All correspondence should be directed to: The Dameans, St. Joseph’s Church, 216
Patton Avenue, Post Office Box 5188, Shreveport, La. 71105)
TV Movies
SUNDAY, February 18 — 8:00 p.m. to
12:15 a.m. (ABC) - THE TEN
COMMANDMENTS (1957) - If you have the
time and endurance (about an hour of the
4-hour, 15-minute running time is devoted to
commercials), you can share in one of
Hollywood’s great landmarks -- or should we
say WATERmarks, in light of that incredible
scene of Moses parting the Red Sea. This is an
epic produced and directed by Cecil B.
DeMille, who certainly knows his way around
epics. The film is loosely based on Biblical
sources, but it is less an inspirational vehicle
than a dramatic spectacle, with excellent
technical an d special effects, a towering story,
vivid color, excitement, etc., etc. Much of its;
virtue lies in DeMille’s bold casting -- and
topliners Charlton Heston as Moses, Yul
Brynner as Pharoah, and Anne Baxter,
Edward G. Robinson, and Nina Foch are
acting standouts. (A-l)
MONDAY, February 19 — 9:00 p.m.
(NBC) - THE ALAMO — Part II (1960) -
Yahoo! The Duke dishes up some dandy
drama based on the things America
remembers about the famed Alamo. John
Wayne stars, produced, directed -- so expect a
rip-roaring adventure and maybe just a little
preaching in the patriotic vein. This is a fine
adventure film, a bit deficient in historical
accuracy, but with minimal distortion. (A-l)
9:00 p.m. (ABC) - RIOT (1968) - Filmed
in the Arizona State Penitentiary, RIOT
conveys the grime and frustration of prison
life while recreating a supposedly factual
drama of a riot and break James Brown
dominates the film film by his very size,
physical presence, and smooth style.
Unwillingly caught up in the fast-moving
events, Brown assumes leadership when a
poorly-planned break of a handful of men in
isolation turns into a full scale revolt by the
entire prison. Several violent, bloody
sequences bolster the dramatic action, and the
dialogue is a bit raw in parts, as is to be
expected in this type of setting. Also, a
general audience may find the brutal
kangaroo court offensive. While RIOT is not a
great movie, it is well made and will appeal to
an action-oriented audience. (A-IV)
TUESDAY, February 20 — 8:00 p.m.
(NBC) -- FOOL’S PARADE (1971) - All that
lovable ex-cons James Stewart, Strother
Martin and Kurt Russell want to do is take
the $25,000 Jimmy earned in prison (during
the Depression, no less) and quietly set up the
General Store Strother has been drawing up
an inventory for during those long years on
the rock pile. But greedy prison
captain-preacher-Old Testament-type-avenger
George Kennedy doesn’t want those no
gooders to have that money, so he hires
gunman Mike Kellin and plots with the local
bank president to deprive the three of their
dollars and their lives. Alas Poor Jimmy and
friends get chased pretty much across the
Anne Baxter gets her “house” boat blown up
in her excitement over all that money. One
suspects that director Andrew McLaglen was
after a cornball-campy spoof of something or
other and, truth to tell, there are some
occasionally funny moments, but it all turns
out looking like a spoof on McLaglen himself.
(A-l 11)
8:30 p.m. (ABC) - A BRAND NEW LIFE
- Original 90-minute-made-for-TV drama
explores a happily married middle-aged
couple’s "surprise” prospect of parenthood
after 18 years of childlessness. Inevitable, the
question of whether or not to have the child
comes up, and the film takes its time making
up its mind on the big question. Cloris
Leachman and Martin Balsam play the
would-be parents. No, this isn’t a MAUDE
episode; and yes, it is on the side of the
angels.
WEDNESDAY, February 21 — 8:30 p.m.
(ABC) - AND NO ONE COULD SAVE HER
- Made-for-television suspense drama stars
Lee Remick and Irish actor Milo O’Shea in a
chilling tale about an American wife searching
through picturesque Dublin for her
unaccountably missing husband (who
thoughtfully left behind no evidence of his
ever having existed!). The only one who pays
any attention to the woman’s desperation is a
shadowy figure who comes on strong as the
Specter of Death.
8:30 p.m. (NBC) - THE NORLISS TAPES
- Television feature film with Roy Thinnes as
a writer interested in uncovering and
analyzing supernatural phenomena. In the
present case, he runs into a fellow who is
supposed to be dead - but someone
apparently forgot to tell him.
THURSDAY, February 22 — 9:00 p.m.
(CBS) - WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA
WOOLF? (1966) - Controversial (then, at
least) film based on the Edward Albee play
amounting to a high-then-low-level encounter
group session involving two college-faculty
couples who thrash out their bitterness and
frustrations during a semi-drunken evening-
The couples are Richard Burton and Elizabeth
Taylor, George Segal and Sandy Dennis, with
the main focus on Burton and Taylor, as
George and Martha, the empty couple of the
year. As the two (and then FOUR) go at each
other’s throats, verbally, the air turns rather
blue. It is difficult to imagine what kind of
language problems will carry over to the TV
presentation, but the very nature of the film -
presenting as it does an unsavory slice of
married life and human relationships — is one
that needs an adult’s perceptions for full
understanding and appreciation. Even then,
this WOOLF bites, and it’s not for the casual
viewer. (A-IV)
FRIDAY, February 23 —9:00 p.m. (CBS)
- WAIT UNTIL DARK (1967) -- Audrey
Hepburn stars to perfection as a recently
blinded housewife determined to become the
“world’s champion blind lady” to please her
husband (Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.). She
undergoes a harrowing trial when her life is
threatened by three men (Alan Arkin,
Richard Crenna, Jack Weston) in search of a
doll that contains a cache of heroin. Director
Terence Young’s adaptation of the hit
Broadway play may not be "cinema,” but it is
scripted and edited with such intensity that
even its slightly incredible elements pass in a
super suspense melodrama for all but the
youngest members of the family. Plot
intricacy and high tension too much for the
little ones. (A-ll)
KID STUFF -- A white girl named Elizabeth (Abigail Stone) and a black
girl named Jennifer (Alison Taylor) become friends while pretending they
are witches in “Jennifer and Me,” an NBC Children’s Theater Special
March 3. A familiar Dr. Seuss character, the Cat in the Hat, comes back to
CBS Television Feb. 20 in a rebroadcast of the animated special “Dr.
Suess’ The Cat in the Hat.” (NC Photos)
‘Bridget Loves Bernie’ Blasted by Catholics
and Jews
NEW YORK (NC) - A television
comedy which its producers say is
designed to reflect growing religious
tolerance has been attacked by
representatives of Jewish and Catholic
groups.
The reaction against “Bridget Loves
Bernie” has been much stronger among
Jews than Catholics. The Jewish
concern centers on the treatment of
inter-religious marriage on the CBS
program.
“Bridget Loves Bernie” features the
marriage of an affluent Irish Catholic
girl to a young Jew struggling to make
good in the entertainment world.
Although happily married, the couple
faces pressure from their parents, who
don’t always agree about what is best
for the young marrieds.
Jewish leaders, offended by what
they felt was an exaltation of interfaith
marriage in the show, have been meeting
with CBS officials in an attempt to
persuade the network to alter the
program’s content. Most now feel they
have not been getting action from the
network on their grievances, resulting in
a flurry of denunciations at a time when
the network is expected to consider
renewal of the show for the 1973-74
television season.
The Catholic Jewish-Relations
Committee of Nassau and Suffolk
Counties, N.Y., wrote CBS, Inc.
President Arthur Taylor, saying that it
felt “both historic faiths were not
receiving the kind of dignified treatment
which expresses their uniqueness and
deep commitment.”
The committee said the program
depicted “the homogenization of
religious traditions and the reduction of
profound religious sentiments into a
tasteless melting pot Americanism.”
Father George P. Graham,
co-chairman of the committee, said
Taylor responded by saying that the
program made “a contribution to
increased understanding and tolerance.”
Taylor’s letter also noted that a
Gallup Poll indicated greater tolerance
in this country for intereligious
marriages, saying the survey means
“such marriages are publicly
acceptable.”
“I’m disturbed that a man of such a
lack of perception is at the head of one
of our principal networks,” Father
Graham said.
Also disturbed by the letter was
Rabbi Balfour Brickner, director of the
Commission in Interfaith Activities of
the Union of American Hebrew
Congregations, a reform Jewish
organization based here.
Referring to Taylor’s comment that
interreligious marriages are “publicly
accepted,” Rabbi Brickner asserted:
“This doesn’t mean they (the
marriages) are privately desirable. We
have selling heroin on the streets of New
York. In certain communities it is
tolerated. But it doesn’t mean it’s
desirable.” “I think the Jewish religious
communities have reason for their
concern, not only because of how the
show treats intermarriage, but also
because of the ethnic stereotyping that’s
involved,” Rabbi Brickner said.
“I’m not interested in censoring any
show. The show is tasteless. I would like
to see the show refined and changed. If
it couldn’t be changed, then it seems to
me CBS would do better to drop the
show. But that’s their decision, not
mine.”
Rabbi Hillel a Cohen, a Conservative
Jewish leader has advocated boycott of
products featured on the show’s
commercials.
“To the best of my knowledge, this is
the first show in the history of TV
which comes to a particular religious
group and actively encourages them to
violate the teachings of their religion,”
the Westbury, N.Y. religious leader said.
“The whole concept of censorship is
offensive to us,” Rabbi Cohen said. “We
do not want censorship. We want CBS
to say publicly, ‘We admit we have
made an error....We realize we have gone
too far in a show that serves to mock a
particular religious tradition.’ ”
Father Patrick Sullivan, director of
the U.S. Catholic Conference division
for film and broadcasting, told NC
News:
“Although one may debate whether
or not the program in itself is intended
to be propaganda for intermarriage,
nonetheless it would be our opinion
that the producers and distributors of
the program should be willing to listen
to the criticism of the Jewish
community.”
Catholic reaction has not been as
strong against the show as Jewish
reaction perhaps because Catholics view
the show as mere “superficial puff
entertainment.”
“It may be, however,” Father
Sullivan concluded, “that the Jewish
protests against ‘Bridget Loves Bernie’
will occasion some reflection on the
part of the Catholic community on the
more basic question of the attitudes of
the media toward religion and spiritual
values.”
Film Classifications
A
A
A
A
B
C
Section I — Morally Unobjectionable for General Patronage
Section II — Morally Unobjectionable for Adults, Adolescents
Section HI — Morally Unobjectionable for Adults
Section IV — Morally Unobjectionable for Adults, Reservations
Morally Objectionable in Part for All
Condemned
UNDER MILK WOOD (Altura) . . .Richard
Burton narrates Dylan Thomas’ classic
poem-play. The remarkable thing about
Andrew Sinclair’s adaption of the Dylan
Thomas play UNDER MILK WOOD is not
that it is so fine a visualization of a difficult
impressionistic work but that it has been
kicking around unreleased since it was first
presented at the 1971 Venice Film Festival.
Maybe not every American has heard of
Thomas, but certainly there are millions of his
students and readers in this country, and
thousands more who have seen this particular
play in campus or little theater productions.
Simple literary interest alone should have
been enough to bring the filmization to this
country, and the fact that the adaptation
boasts Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole and
a long, long list of other distinguished actors
and actresses could only have created more
excitement about the work. Burton, in fact,
was precisely the person Thomas had in mind
for one of the two “voices” that narrate the
poem-play, and indeed, he is perfect in the
role of semi-omniscient observer of life and
death, love and lust and hate as it unfolds in
Thomas’ mythical little Welsh seacoast town
of Llareggub.
Burton and the other “voice" (Ryan
Davies) appear as strangers - sometimes seen,
other times unseen -- who pass through the
little town and share its inhabitants and their
secrets with us much in the way the Stage
Manager of OUR TOWN allowed us to
experience life in Grovers’ Corners.
Thomas, of course, viewed life through his
special poet’s prism, and the color, warmth,
and rhythm of his language is what made his
impressions so lasting and deep. He could
dwell on alewives and fishermen and
drunkards and fools because his language
could impart to their ordinary characters of
life and vibrancy that most men could not
even see, much less capture and express.
With obvious reverence and care, film
maker Sinclair has succeeded in translating
Thomas’ soaring impressions onto film, while
at the same time reinforcing them with
generous spoken narrative and descriptive
passages from the play itself. The result is a
unique, at times exciting, celebration of the
poet, his work, and the source of his
inspiration. Through Sinclair’s film we are
able at once to observe the little town as the
visitors do as well as to inhabit it for the span
of a full day.
Beautifully photographed in color (by Bob
Huke) and swiftly placed by Sinclair, who
sticks to the original's task of introducing 60
or so people in 90 minutes, UNDER MILK
WOOD will greatly please those already
familiar with Thomas and his play or his other
writings, and it should interest anyone with a
literary curiosity. But because of its great
compression, its fragmented, impressionistic
structure and swift pacing, it is perhaps best
suited to the sophisticated filmgoer, who
would also be able to place in proper
perspective the relatively few scenes where
Thomas’ unabashed sensuality and earthiness
are brought into the open. (A-IV)
UP THE SANDBOX (National General)
Barbara Streisand is too aware of her Movie
star self to be completely convincing of her
role as a New York housewife caught in the
grinder of her oppressive life and yearning to
be a little bit freer, to have a bit more worth
as an individual. Yet this compelling movie,
presented in a serio-comic style full of wild
flights of the heroine’s imagination, is
important because it helps us all raise our
consciousness about today’s woman. As
Barbara the Heroine tries to sort out the
conflicting tugs on her life, and as she
discovers her own self, there’s a real case for
open rebellion being offered. But she instead
TRANSCENDS her problems (via her
mind-opening fantasies) and is thereby able to
cope with them. The focus here is on the
wife-mother’s unexpected pregnancy, and
after some soul-searching she decides to keep
her baby - because she respects its life and
recognizes her own power to create life and
protect it. Her deliberation is what gives the
film its unusual power, but there are moments
when the outcome is in doubt, as well as
when things get a bit out of hand (e.g., a
grotesque visit with Fidel Castro). Casual
movie-goers should approach with caution.
(A-IV)
SAVE THE TIGER (Paramount) Jack
Lemmon inhabits SAVE THE TIGER in one
of his rare “serious” roles, here as a harried
West Coast executive whose home life is
devoid of excitement or meaning and whose
clothing company faces financial ruin. The
film is directed by John G. Avildsen, the man
who gave us the sensational JOE two years
ago, and under Avildsen’s guidance SAVE
THE TIGER has an undeniable, gritty reality,
especially in scenes depicting some of life’s
tackier moments. Unfortunately, the
director’s vitality cannot sustain the story’s
flatness and its determination to raise
important questions and then undercut them
by making it impossible for us to relate to the
people on the screen. What sympathy can you
have, for example, for an affluent executive
whose life is merely a collection of material
possessions -- Beverly Hills mansion,
telephone-equipped luxury car, expensive
hi-fi, Italian silk suits? Another problem is
Lemmon himself as the anti-hero -- it is
difficult to erase our more familiar image of
him as deft middle-class comedian, the crazy
commuter next door. In any case, SAVE THE
TIGER is also full of frank language and
coarse situations - and is for adults. (A-lll)
THE FLAVOR OF GREEN TEA OVER
RICE (New Yorker Films) This film (made in
1952) is another of Yasajiro Ozu’s quiet
studies of family life, very intimate and warm
with the special quality of humanity that Ozu
always managed to breathe into his
characters. The focus is on a woman’s view of
marriage at a time when traditional ideas were
changing in post-war Japan. Because of the
transitional nature of the period and because
Japanese culture is such a marvelous mixture
of the familiar and the exotic, Western
viewers should find it relatively easy to
identify with the universal problems faced by
the film’s characters. The wife’s passage from
indifference to rebellion and finally to a new
appreciation of herself and her husband is
richly presented from a number of
viewpoints. The situations are fresh and the
seriousness of the theme is leavened with
gentle humor. (A-l)
A REFLECTION OF FEAR (Columbia)
has so much solid, unassuming talent behind
it that the incredibly pretentious result points
up one of the paradoxes of the cooperative
venture that is moviemaking. Sondra Locke,
around whom this mood-horror film revolves,
is the precocious daughter of Mary Ureand is
held prisoner by her mother and grandmother
Signe Hasso in a splendidly ornate
turn-of-the-century Washington State mansion
by the Pacific. Father Robert Shaw and
mistress Sally Kellerman come to visit the
daughter he has not seen since birth with the
intention of gaining Ms. Ure’s permission for
his divorce. During the sinister goings-on that
ensue, mother, grandmother and Sondra’s
surreptitious boy friend, Gordon De Vol, are
hideously murdered while daughter Sondra
hallucinates among her only “real” friends, a
collection of dolls, and poor Shaw becomes
suspect number one for the inquiring police.
Accomplished cinematographer-turned-direct-
or William Fraker guides Laszlo Kovacs’
cameras through the maze of the film’s
episodes with a sure feel for the mysterious
events that is belied, unfortunately, by the
all-too-obvious source of the murders, a
pseudo-Electra complex that is soon apparent
to all but Mr. Shaw and the police. A rather
ludicrous surprise ending does nothing to
explain the film’s heavy sexual ambiance that
on reflection makes the entire effort a
ridiculous, if unintentional, put-on. (A-lll)
THE SPIDER’S STRATAGEM (New
Yorker Films) Bernardo Bertolucci’s first
popular success came last year with THE
CONFORMIST, a psychological study of
Fascism, the main strength of which came
from its feeling for the decadence that
characterized the whole Mussolini era. THE
SPIDER’S STRATAGEM was made just
before it and seems to be a minor variation on
the same subject. STRATAGEM was made for
Italian television and develops much as a
routine mystery film except that it has a
larger purpose than the solution of a crime. A
young man (Giulio Brogi) returns to the town
where thirty years earlier his father was
murdered by local Fascists. In trying to
uncover those responsible for his father’s
death, he finds that heroes are not all they
appear to be and that a legend may be more
important than the truth. The shifts from the
present to past are accomplished with ease,
partly because Alida Valli (as the father’s
mistress) summons up an entire epoch simply
by her lovely presence. The film, simple in
style but provocative in content, should
please both the audience looking for
entertainment as well as those who desire a
little substance with their relaxation. (A-lll)
RECENT FILM CLASSIFICATIONS
Find the Place to Die (GGP Releasing) -
A-lll
Love and Pain and the Whole Damned
Thing (Columbia) - A-lll
The War Devils (Goldstone) -- A-lll
Sisters (American International) - B
The Sin of Adam and Eve (Dimension) -- C
Sweet Sugar (Dimension) - C