Newspaper Page Text
v
\
PAGE 6—November 29,1973
TV Movies
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 2 - 8:30 p.m.
(ABC) -- PRUDENCE AND THE PILL (1968)
- Essentially a brittle .nglish lord-and-lady
comedy dealing wich the advent and
repercussions of the contraceptive pill in a
manner that overlooks the basic issues of
premarital sex, divorce, adultery, remarriage.
When the several members and intimates of
two households take to underhanded
pill-swapping for various reasons, the final
result is two marriages, two divorces and
remarriages and babies under every cabbage
leaf. Despite a few smiles, many viewers
would tire of the stylized urbanity and the icy
superciliousness in this context of the
principals, (David Niven, Deborah Kerr). The
film’s lack of attention to the emotional
upheaval that such finagling would produce in
real life amounts to a hoodwinking. A
contemporary social-moral-medical issue, the
pill is net really a laughing matter. (B)
MONr , 'VY, DECEMBER 3 - 9:00 p.m.
(NBC) - Thf HOUBLE MAN (1968) - The
familiar spy-thriller of the late Sixties goes
straight as CIA agent Yul Brynner ventures to
the snowy Swiss Alps in search of the truth
behind his son’s murder. The murder, as it
turns out, was set up to lure Brynner into a
trap in which he will be eliminated and a
look-alike (also played by Brynner)
substituted to infiltrate the U.S. Intelligence
network. As Brynner’s romantic interest, both
before and after the switch, Britt Ekland is
highly decorative but understandably
confused. The movie has promise, but it is
underdone. (A-l)
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4 - 8:30 p.m.
(ABC) - A SUMMER WITHOUT.BOYS -
Made-for-TV feature is set during WW II,
when most eligible males, at least in
Hollywood, were overseas making the world
safe for democracy. Stateside, lonely mother
Barbara Bain and equally lonely teen-age
daughter Kay Lenz have young 4-F’er Michael
Moriarity on their minds, and they aren’t very
democratic about sharing his affections
(although he is!). This one shapes up as a coy,
sticky, distaff version of “The Summer of
’42.”
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 8:30 p.m.
(ABC) -- BLOOD SPORT -- Program details
unavailable at press time, but the title seems
to speak for itself.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 8:30 p.m.
(CBS) - THE HOUSE WITHOUT A
CHRISTMAS TREE - Rebroadcast of a
touching family drama originally presented
last Christmastime. The time is 1946, the
place a winter-bitten Nebraska. A ten-year-old
daughter (Lisa Lucas) yearns for her first
Christmas tree but encounters fierce and-to
her-inexplicable resistance from her widowed
father (Jason Robards). Mildred Natwick
plays the girl’s grandmother, and is the focal
point of the drama, being that she
understands both the little girl’s wish for a
tree and her son’s refusal to have one in the
house (it’s all related to the son’s painful
association of a tree long ago with the death
of his wife). The drama is predictable,
perhaps, but very nicely acted and warmly
resolved.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7 - 9:00 p.m. (CBS)
- THE HOMECOMING: A CHRISTMAS
STORY -- Another family drama, this one the
original pilot for the current series, "The
Waltons,” based on the recollections of his
mountain upbringing by Earl Hammer, Jr.
This drama involves the anticipated
Christmas-Eve homecoming of the head of the
household. The family waiting for him
includes his wife (Patricia Neal), and his
oldest son (Richard Thomas). There’s a great
snowstorm a-brewing, naturally, which leads
to many an anxious moment. It’s well worth
watching - for both the story and the fine
acting.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 8 - 8:30 p.m.
(ABC) - MANEATER - Gruesome
made-for-TV throwaway thriller casts Ben
Gazzara, Sheree North as owners of a
well-equipped camper {] t’s big enough for
them.to share it with a second couple!) which
breaks down just outside of a wild animal
compound owned by Richard Basehart.
Somewhat sadistic is the safari master, as he
sets his prize man-eating tigers out to “help”
the couple.
9:00 p.m. (NBC) - HOW TO COMMIT
MARRIAGE (1969) - Bob Hope and Jackie
Gleason together in a film sound like a
promising comedy team. They play,
respectively, a real estate agent about to be
divorced from his wife of nineteen years (Jane
Wyman), and a cynical-about-marriage-and-
everything-else theatrical agent specializing in
rock groups with strange names and stranger
sounds. They are also respectively the parents
of thoroughly “square” and moonstruck
prospective bride and groom. When the girl
learns that her parents’ “ideal” marriage is
about to collapse, her ideals collapse with it.
She and the boy join one of his father’s
groups, live together out of wedlock and turn
to a bogus Indian mystic for advice. All of
this, plus the process by which everyone,
including Gleason and his girl friend Tina
Louise, is legally united or reunited could
have been the basis for a good satire. Instead,
the treatment, both of people and of the
institution of marriage, is consistently
grotesque and sleazy and the two comics are
able to generate laughs only in a few
interpolated sequences, such as a golf match
with a chimpanzee, which might have made
good TV sketches but have nothing much to
do with the picture. (B)
Will/ / / / /
QOQOOQQQQQQQQQQQOQOOQQQQOQ
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
Q
Film Classifications
A. — Section I — Morally Unobjectionable for General Patronage
A — Section II — Morally Unobjectionable for Adults, Adolescents
A - Section HI - Morally Unobjectionable for Adults
A — Section IV — Morally Unobjectionable for Adults, Reservations
B — Morally Objectionable in Part for All
C — Condemned
OOOOOOOOOOOOQQQQOQ
'"/"//II\'\ I
DAY FOR NIGHT (Warner
Bros.) .. .Truffaut’s “movie” movie.
Francois Truffant’s latest film, a highlight
of the 1973 New York Film Festival, is a
serio-comedy about the realities of creating
illusions. Its story is the day-to-day diary of
how a melo-dramatic soap-opera (the plot of
which is exquisitely awful) gets filmed in a
studio on the French Riviera. Director
Ferrand (played by Truffaut wearing a
hearing aid) battles production difficulties
that turn his financially-crimped shooting
schedule into a disaster while trying to deal
with various complications in the (mostly
love) lives of his cast. His star (Jacqueline
Bisset) is recovering from a nervous
breakdown, his male lead (Jean-Pierre Leaud)
cannot keep his mind on anything but a fickle
script-girl, an aging actress (Valentina Cortese)
fortifies her talents by drinking champagne
and another member of the cast (Jean-Pierre
Aumont) is tragically killed in an automobile
accident before his key scene. Reality keeps
intruding on the movie, limiting it and
thereby changing its origional conceptions.
Truffaut has given us a playful picture of the
moviemaking process which seems entirely
authentic even in this day of the non-studio
film.
For once, the real stars of the movie are the
crew, the many people behind the camera
who labor to make -fiction seem real to
viewers, by for instance, using a filter on a
camera to give the illusion of night for a scene
shot during the day (the reference in the
title). This aspect of the film is superb and
will utterly fascinate anyone who has ever
been enthralled by images on a theater screen.
The “tricks of the trade” are presented so
simply and matter-of-factly that we come to
accept them without a second thought.
Instead of robbing viewers of future illusions
the movie should add to their enjoyment by
making them more observant of how even the
simplest gesture has to be set up.
Most films about cinema are loaded with
references that have meaning only to film
specialists, infuriating the average moviegoer
with the sense of being left out. There are
plenty of such references here: the film’s
dedication to the Gish sisters, the dropping of
names from film history, and in fact, the
basing of the entire film on situations that
actually occurred on other film productions.
However, one does not have to be a film
expert or be privy to film gossip to enjoy this
particular work. Its pleasure lies in one’s being
taken behind the scenes and shown how
things work. Fellini's 8V2 concerned itself with
the interior aspects of the creative ' act.
Truffaut’s concept of film is much less
narcissistic. He shows us the exterior pressures
under which an artist works, plagued by
problems from every side, making us
appreciate not only that film is a communal
enterprise but also the contingencies that
affect the director’s choice of decisions.
Those who don’t much like Truffaut’s
“entertainments” will probably also have
reservations about DAY FOR NIGHT.
Especially since the “real” lives of his actors
are as melodramatic and “unreal” as those of
the characters whom they play in the
film-within-the-film. But audiences will be
missing what is special about Truffaut’s entire
work-its celebration of human elements,
those spiritual qualities underlying even the
most banal of actions. Truffaut's love for
movies is based on the medium’s affinity for
reflecting truth in the guise of illusion. (A-l11)
SUMMER WISHES, WINTER DREAMS
(Columbia) This is a quietly satisfying, serious
film about the breakdown of personal
relationships in the life of a middle-aged
woman, who is portrayed convincingly by
Joanne Woodward. The story concerns the
woman’s inability to respond lovingly to the
people around her-particularly her mother
(Silvia Sydney), husband (Martin Balsam) and
grown daughter (Dori Brenner). Following the
sudden death of her mother, the woman
cannot bring herself to cry, yet is deeply
affected by the loss and unable to be
comforted. More and more she retreats to
memories of a happy girlhood in order to
avoid confronting the problems of her
everyday present life. Further crises arise on a
trip to England and France, designed by her
husband to give them both a chance to get
away from everything and renew their
marriage. The ending only is precariously
hopeful, but for the woman it’s a tentative
first step back on the brighter path. Ms.
Woodward is superb, and her performance is
matched by those of the others, as well as by
the intelligent script by Stewart Stern and the
sensitive direction of Giblert Cates. (A-tll)
THE ITALIAN CONNECTION (AIP) The
plot of this German-ltalian production is pure
B-grade movie stuff: the Italian branch of the
mob double-crosses New York godfather Cyril
Cusack and then sets up a smalltime pimp as a
scapegoat when two American hit men
(Henry Silva and Woody Stride) appear in
Milan to locate the missing (naturally) herion.
The pimp (Mario Adorf) rises to the occasion,
however, and launches a one-man guerilla war
against the mob. The result is mayhem;
violence against the pimp, against the local
godfather’s hoods, against women and
children. Then there are the girls, in the park,
in the club, in the boudoir; a survey of breasts
seems to be director Fernando DiLeo’s way of
connecting with his audience. DiLeo gives us
none of Peckinpah’s gore, but he does give us
all the philosophical darkness of the film noir.
One never encounters any lawmen, here, nor
any sense of a sane society; tjhe film
suffocates instead in the world of muscle,
guns and deception. There’s even a long
sequence in tribute to Welles' LADY FROM
SHANGAI. a car chase in imitation of THE
FRENCH CONNECTION, and a concluding
shoot-out in a junkyard obviously meant to
by symbolic. It is. None of this keeps the
film, however, from clobbering an audience
into insensitivity and finally boredom. (C)
THE ALL AMERICAN BOY (Warner
Bros.) When this “film of Charles Eastman”
announces itself as “The manly art in six
rounds,” one groans audibly but quickly
counts one’s blessings that at least the film is
not a title fight, which would mean fifteen
rounds. But by the end of “Round One," one
is back to griping bitterly that the thing isn’t a
Golden Gloves match, a quick three-rounder.
After all, watching a grimacing Jon Vdight try
to pass as a reverse Horatio Alger (yes, folks,
there is irony in that title), is more than
enough to wilt any but the most indulgent of
“auteur” film freaks. What Eastman has tried
to do in this precious, pretentious little
exercise-BOY was made back in 1970, was
chopped up by the studio, and pasted back
together by Eastman the way the king’s men
tried to patch up poor Humpty Dumpty-is
destroy the myth of the
small-town-boy-making-good, in this case with
boxing gloves on. When he’s not lugging a red
plaid suitcase down a long country road, or
keeping horny little managers at bay in the
locker room, Voight is (a) pounding
opponents in poorly staged fight sequences,
(b) stroking pretty females to their content
but not his, or (c) letting his frustrations boil
over. The net result is a TKO for movie fans,
occuring in the first round but, unfortunately,
not noticed by those running the show until
the end of round six. Please note that besides
all of the cultural offal smothering the movie,
its nearly two-hour length is studded with
helpings of gratuitous nudity and truly foul
language (including one of movie history’s
dirtiest one-liners). (B)
RECENT FILM CLASSIFICATIONS
Ash Wednesday (Para.) -- A-III
Executive Action (Natl. Gen.) - A-lII
French Conspiracy, The (Cine Globe) - A-l I
WHAT’S UP DOC? Sister Rosa Maria Icaza, who holds a doctorate in with the children and the rest of her time teaching undergraduate and
Spanish, teaches the language to pre-schoolers in a nursery lab program at graduate courses in Spanish language, literature and civilization. (NC
Incarnate Word College in San Antonio, Tex. A graduate of the Catholic Photo)
University of America, she spends half an hour a day five days a week
V
A VISIT TO PORTUGAL, by Hans
Christian Andersen, translated by Grace
Thornton, Bobbs-Merrill (Indianapolis,
Ind.), $5.95. Reviewed by Susan
Lowndes Marques
(NC News Service)
“On a late April day in 1866, the
Danish consulate in Lisbon and a dozen
or so Danish ships in harbor were
beflagged in honor of the imminent
arrival of Hans Christian Andersen, then
61 years old.” This is how Dr. Grace
Thornton, who has brilliantly translated
this book from the Danish original,
introduces the reader to the strange
figure who had arrived penniless in
Copenhagen from his native Odense
over 40 years before.
In his early years Andersen had
struggled with stark poverty, ridicule
and lack of education. But he knew he
was destined to be a great man and
while still young, he made many good
friends, for he had a most agreeable
nature. These friends helped him to get
his writings recognized and, what was
even more important, gave him a sense
of belonging and of being appreciated as
a person.
Andersen’s first published work, in
1828, was a travel book, “A Walk to
Amager” and it was an immediate
success. His fairy stories first appeared
in 1837 and he continued to publish
further collections as well as accounts of
his travels in various places. “A Visit to
Portugal” was his last book. By then he
was lionized abroad and had achieved
world fame, but he could never quite
reassure himself that he was accepted in
his own country, although a year later
he was appointed a state counsellor and
given the Freedom of Odense.
“A Visit to Portugal” is written in the
direct, clear way which makes his
adventures so vivid and tells us much
about life in a country that even now
retains much of the traditional ways.
Hans Christian had met two young
Portuguese boys, sons of the Danish
Consul in Lisbon, in the house of a
Danish admiral, when they were visiting
the Naval Cadet’s Academy. Many years
later, the two brothers, Jose and George
O’Neill, descended from an Irish family
who had settled in Portugal in the early
18th century, invited him for a stay of
several months.
Being very fearful of sea travel, the
writer went by train and post chaise and
arrived to find this extraordinary
welcome. He had had the impression
that Portugal was infested with bandits,
but his hosts reassured him-the bandits
had all been hanged. His account of
Lisbon and the charming, comfortable
country houses which the O’Neills
possessed around the capital make
delightful reading and takes the reader
back into those sunny, peaceful, far-off
times.
Sintra is beautifully depicted as is
Setubal and the lovely country along
the banks of the Sado, the great river
which enters the sea about twenty miles
south of the Tagus. Andersen also went
to the north with his friends and
delighted in Coimbra with its memories
of Camoes, the epic poet of the Lusiads,
and the university students in their long
black gowns, which they still wear
today.
Every now and then Andersen breaks
into charming, easy verse, which well
reflects his ecstatic, simple nature. It has
been beautifully rendered into verse
form by the translator, who had also
given her readers an illuminating
introduction to Hans Andersen’s life
and extensive notes on the persons and
places mentioned in the text.
Everyone who already knows
Portugal or who is thinking of going
there would enjoy this book, evoking as
it does, not only the past, but describing
much that is still to be seen in the
country today.
fi ^ LIFE IN MUSIC
BY THE DAMEANS
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
When are you gonna come down? When are you going to land?
I should have stayed on the farm,
I should have listened to my old man.
“Yellow Brick Road” conjures up childhood memories of Dorothy’s fabled
quest for the Wizard of Oz. It prompts the vision of the tin woodsman in search
of a heart, the lion who dreams of courage, and the scarecrow whose hope is
intelligence. And the Yellow Brick Road brings these unlikely travelers together
as they all search for their rainbows.
You know you can’t hold me forever
I didn’t sign up with you.
I’m not a present for your friends to open
This boy’s too young to be singing the blues.
So goodbye yellow brick road
Where the dogs of society howl
You can’t plant me in your penthouse
I’m going back to my plough.
Back to the howling old owl in the woods,
Hunting the horny-back toad.
Oh, I’ve finally decided my future lies
Beyond the yellow brick road.
What do you think you’ll do then?
I’ll bet that’ll shoot down your plane.
It’ll take you a couple of vodka and tonics
To set you on your feet again.
Maybe you’ll get a replacement
There’s plenty like me to be found.
Mongrels, who ain’t got a penny
Sniffing for tid-bits like you on the ground.
So goodbye yellow brick road
Where the dogs of society howl
You can’t plant me in your penthouse
I’m going back to my plough.
Back to the howling old owl in the woods ,
Hunting the horny-back toad.
Oh, I’ve finally decided my future lies
Beyond the yellow brick road.
By Elton John/Bernie Taupin
(c) 1973 This Record Co. Ltd. BMI
The story unfolds giving the reader a great sense of promise as the journeymen
struggle to arrive in Oz. But the promise is fulfilled in a different manner than
they expected, for in the city of Oz, the travelers discover only a diminutive old
man who uses various devices to trick people into believing that he is a great and
all-powerful wizard.
In one sense the end of the Yellow Brick Road brings only emptiness, a trick,
a sham. The little old man is incapable of giving what the searchers desire. Yet
there is another sense in which the Road has fulfilled its promise. For it is
through the inadequate wizard that our heroes come to see what they had
missed all along-that they had within themselves the things they valued so
much: the capacities for bravery, love, and thought.
Elton John’s song is also about the end of the Yellow Brick Road where the
singer comes up against the inadequacy of society’s penthouse and
vodka-and-tonics. There is a disappointing emptiness about a life in which people
are only sequined presents to be used by others. The end of the Road could not
give what was being sought. But what it did make possible was the deeper
discovery within the singer that he’s finally decided that his future lies “beyond
the yellow brick road . . .back to the howling old owl in the woods, hunting the
horny-back toad .. .I’m going back to my plough.”
The lure of the Yellow Brick Road captures all of us at one time or another
because it is very easy to believe that we are so small and others have something
that makes them wonderfully superior. And so, like modem day prodigals, we
gather together all our resources and attempt to escape our poor selves.
In the end we find that the bright promise of the Yellow Brick Road does not
point us to the secret of self. In one sense we do not find what we expected, but
in another we have come to so much more. Our journey brings us to the deepest
recognition of what we have somehow missed before-the worth and the rainbow
given to each of us by God.
(All correspondence should be addressed to: The Dameans; St. Joseph Church; 216 Patton
St.; P.O. Box 5188; Shreveport, LA. 71105)