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PAGE 6—December 13,1973
TV Movies
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 16 — 6:00 p.m.
(CBS) -- A CHILD’S CHRISTMAS IN WALES
- Special filmed presentation of the Dylan
Thomas classic, with Sir Michael Redgrave
narrating Thomas' vivid recollection as the
work is acted out by members of the National
Theater of the Deaf. The selection is one of
the most impressionistic of Thomas’ works,
lending itself to the “visual language” of the
NTD’s pantomimic actors. The program is
especially intended for young audiences, but
it should appeal to everyone in the family.
8:30 p.m. (ABC) -- THE G-LASS
MENAGERIE -- Here is one of the season’s
finest film specials -- a classic performance by
Katharine Hepburn in a classic role, that of
Amanda Wingfield, in the American classic
play by Tennessee Williams. The story is of
the pain and frustration of a family’s intense
tove-gone-awry, of upset relationships and
failed commitments. As Amanda, Miss
Hepburn is a mercuric study in emotional
extremes: desperate to relive her “glorious”
past as a much-pursued Southern Belle;
painfully aware of her own failures as wife
and mother; pushy matchmaker for her
terribly shy daughter; demon driver of her
unambitious son; transparently cheerful force
keeping the devastated little family together.
She has fine support from Joanna Miles as
daughter Laura, slightly lame and too shy to
make much more than a peep, yet lovely in
her quiet way; suppbrt from Sam Waterson as
son Tom, driven and frustrated and supremely
guilt-ridden for his self-imposed failures;
support from Michael Moriarty, the young
“Gentleman Caller” who visits the family and
disrupts their lives permanently. The film is
beautifully photographed and faithful to the
Williams text. We recommend it strongly, for
teen-agers and parents.
MONDAY, DECEMBER 17 — 9:00 p.m.
(NBC) - ONCE YOU KISS A STRANGER
(1969) -• What we have here is an inane,
incredible, insultingly inept movie with no
redeeming social merit. The story, such as it
is, deals with a psychopathic young woman
(Carol Lynley) who murders one golf pro in
order to blackmail a competing pro (Paul
Burke) into murdering her psychiatrist. It’s a
sick presentation of mental illness. A
policeman describing the murder actually
evaluates the film itself: “It was murder from
gross insult to the brain.” (A-lll)
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 18 — 8:30 p.m.
(ABC) ~ WHAT ARE BEST FRIENDS FOR?
-- Made-f or-televsion film is a
domestic-triangle comedy, with Ted Bessell,
Lee Grant, Larry Hagman and Barbara
Feldon. The story concerns the predictable
(and for the most part, DUMB) upheaval
when a man and wife offer hospitality to a
friend whose marriage has broken up. The
result is a new look at life for her, a good deal
of dismay for hubby.
9:30 p.m. (CBS) -- I HEARD THE OWL
CALL MY NAME - Film special (a G.E.
Theater presentation) stars British actor Tom
Courtenay as a young Anglican priest who is
sent as a missionary to an Indian Village on a
remote island off Vancouver, Canada. The
priest is unaware that he is dying. The priest’s
bishop (played by Dean Jagger) is aware of
the younger man’s terminal disease, however,
and has made the assignment in order to put
the priest “close to life.” Filmed on location
in British Columbia, the film is visually
stunning. An added plus is an authentic
presentation of Indian culture, with all the
roles of the Indians filled by tribe members.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 19 — 8:30
p.m. (ABC) -- PIONEER WOMAN - TV
feature concerns a woman (Joanna Pettit)
who stays on her prairie homestead after her
husband (William Shatner) is killed in a
farming accident in the Wyoming Territory,
circa 1867. Predictably, life is rough
(although Miss Pettit remains radiant
throughout all the hardship). Neighbors never
were too friendly (the family entered a feud
their first day homesteading); the sod is tough
to break, etc., etc. But a local cattle baron
(David Janssen) helps out the pretty widow
woman, you bet!
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20 — 9:00 p.m.
(CBS) -- GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL
(1957) -- Classic “Hollywood” Western about
the gunfight between a posse headed by
Wvatt EarD and Doc Holliday and the lawless
Clanton family gang in Tombstone Arizona in
the 1870's. Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas
are appropriately efficient lawmen killers as
Wyatt and Doc, respectively, and Rhonda
Fleming and Jo Van Fleet play the ladies. The
action is mean and furious (not to mention
spurious!), with the low down critters and
other varmints getting shot all to pieces.
Historically, Earp and Holliday were one time
friends who had a nasty falling out but
reunited to rid the West of the Clantons, who
were threatening Earp’s cozy position as U.S.
Marshal. But the narrative here is cleaned up a
bit to make them more respectable. Too bad
the rest of the movie wasn’t as sanitized. (B)
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 21 — 9:00 p.m.
(CBS) -- THE CHAIRMAN (1969) - Gregory
Peck plays a Nobel Prize-winning scientist
who becomes mysteriously (to him, at least)
embroiled in an East-West cold war plot
concerning a super-enzyme that could
revolutionize agriculture. The Red Chinese
have the enzyme, supposedly, and the various
other super-powers want it, presumably. Peck
is an unwilling recruit for the CIA, with a
transmitter implanted in his brain, yet, and
equipped with a self-destruct explosive should
“things go wrong”. Hence, there is
considerable mystery and tension, despite a
basic preposterousness. (A-lll)
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22 — 8:30 p.m.
(ABC) - THE LONGEST NIGHT -
Made-for-television feature based on the
sensational Florida kidnap of recent headlines
in which the hostage—daughter of a wealthy
businessman—was buried alive for a week in a
remote pine barrens. Thrill-a-rhinute for
undemanding action fans, but with a slightly
morbid touch. Sallie Shockley is the victim,
James Farentino and Skye Aubrey are the
kidnappers, and David Janssen is the rich pop
who comes up with a cool half-million in
ransom money.
9:00 p.m. (NBC) - THE ARRANGEMENT
(1969) - Kirk Douglas stars in Elia Kazan’s
semi-autobiographical story of the emptiness
of “the good life”. An $80,000-a-year ad
man, Douglas reviews his life as a sham, a
series of give-take, love-hate “arrangements”
with people such as his wife (Deborah Kerr),
and mistress (Faye Dunaway). His job,
naturally, has lost all meaning for him; he has
lost touch with his Greek-American roots,
etc., etc. Of course, the social indictment of
the Douglas character nonetheless has its
fascination, a la Hollywood’s magic prism.
Most of the rough language and coy nudity,
we assume, have been removed for home TV
consumption. (B)
RELIGIOUS HIGHLIGHTS
TELEVISION
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 16 — 1:00 p.m.
(ABC) - DIRECTIONS: “A NEW SONG TO
GOD” -- This film documentary celebrates the
tenth anniversary of the Second Vatican
Council’s “Constitution on the Sacred
Liturgy”. From Baltimore (Md.) to Orlando
(Fla.) the camera captures the joy with which
American Catholics are singing a new song to
God. Baptism; a children’s liturgy including
their own puppet show; marriage; a parish
liturgy in the inner city with gospel singers; a
charismatic prayer community speaking in
tongues; a parish community celebrating the
new liturgy for the sacrament of healing with
hundreds of its members, young and old,
coming to be anointed and made whole again
-- these are the elements of this outstanding
documentary.
RADIO ,
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 16 — NBC Radio
Network - GUIDELINE -- Last broadcast of a
three-part series by writer, lecturer, and
publisher Frank Sheed. His subject will be;
“Fooling Ourselves About Christ.” (Check
local listings for time.)
ABC Radio Network - CHRISTIAN IN
ACTION: ON THIS ROCK - Father Bill
Ayres plays and discusses some songs of the
past year that had especially meaningful
messages: “Song for Judith”, “Open the
Door” -- Judy Collins; “The Box" - John
Denver; “Tapestry” -- Don McLean. (Check
local listings for time.)
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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
OOOOODOOOOQOOOOOOU^.
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THE DON IS DEAD (Universal) . . . And
so, one would have hoped, is the series of
underbred movies spawned by “The
Godfather.” But, alas, Messrs. Puzo and
Coppola should sue for plagarism over this
mindless and for all its relentless violence, dull
non-variation on a theme. In the Brando role
is Anthony Quinn, who rather than dying
outright and triggering a power struggle to fill
the resulting vacuum, simply has a heart
attack which allows him to display symptoms
of a stroke. In the Sonny and Michael roles
are, respectively, Al Lettieri and Frederic
Forrest, whilst Robert Forster fills in as the
bumbling Fredo type. Like his model, Quinn
has a hard time keeping the youngsters out of
trouble in the dirty narcotics trade, perferring
himself to stick with loan-sharking and similar
“clean” trades. Meanwhile, in the shadows
lurks consigliore Charles Cioffi, whose plan is
to create enough intramural friction to wipe
everyone off the scene for his own takeover.
Shot almost entirely on a studio backlot set
simulating "a large Eastern City,” and
depicting the mobsters eating lots of pasta
without actually stating their ethnic identity.
“Dead Don” is the sort of cheap rip-off that
has given Hollywood film-makers as bad a
reputation as the Mafia they transparently
romanticize. (B)
ENGLAND MADE ME (Cine Globe)
Graham Greene’s 1935 novel of the moral
vacuum that engulfed Europe between the
wars made excellent use of th^fraudulent
enterprises of the notorious Swemsh tycoon,
Ivar Kreuger (fictionalized as Erik Krogh).
Peter Duffel, directing his own adaptation
(co-scripted by Desmond Cory), has
introduced a crucial change in Greene’s
original by placing the action in Hitler’s
Germany. The change overwhelms the
personal problems of the individual characters
by focusing attention on the instantly
appreciated villainy of the Nazis. Moreover,
Duffell’s efforts to re-create the period lack
the conviction of, say, Visconti’s “The
Damned,” a film which projected the evil as
well as the styles of the Third Reich. What
Duffell’s work does offer is an excellent cast
and intelligent performances from Michael
York as the ineffectual loser who eventually
gets in the way of Peter Finch’s financial
manipulations, Hildegard Neil as York’s
ambivalent sister, and most especially, Joss
Ackland as Finch’s steely henchman. The one
character who remains purely Green's own is
Minty, a seedy journalist played by Michael
Hordern in a bit part which, like that of John
Mills as the investigator in “The End of the
Affair,” almost steals the whole show.
Although the film rejects the confused
morality of its characters, it lacks the sense of
guilt that has always characterized Green’s
moral universe. (A-IV)
MASSACRE IN ROME (National General)
is a fictionalized “documentary” account of
the Germans’ execution in 1944 of 335
Italians in reprisal for a Partisan attack on an
SS patrol in Rome. The film examines the
various and very complex political and moral
questions raised by the incident, with primary
focus on the roles of (a) the Italian
government, (b) the occupying German
command, (c) the Partisan forces, and (d) the
Vatican, in either carrying out the order for
reprisal (which came from Hitler himself),
accepting responsibility for the original attack
on the German patrol (which the Partisans
failed to do), or taking steps to prevent the
massacre of innocent Italains (which the film
alleges the Church did not do). The film is
based on research conducted by Robert Katz,
who claims that Vatican authorities denied
him access to documents pertaining to the
incident as well as to people within the
Church’s hierarchy who knew of the Vatican’s
alleged failure to intervene. But the real target
of the film’s moral criticism is the failure of
the German military bureaucrats to “buck”
the system once Hitler’s order (he had
originally wanted 50 Italians executed for
every one of the 33 German soldiers killed)
was set into motion. Another share of the
blame goes to the Partisans, who provoked
the incident by attacking the German column
in the first place, and then went into hiding
once the awful consequences became
apparent. Audiences should therefore weigh
issues carefully before reaching any
conclusions about this film - that is, if any
clear conclusions can be reached. (A-lll)
RECENT FILM CLASSIFICATIONS
Alfredo, Alfredo (Paramount) - A-lll
That Man Bolt (Universal) — A-lll
Westworld (MGM) - A-lll
A V' LIFE IN MUSIC
BY THE DAMEANS
Let Me Serenade You
I will serenade you, all along the way
I will serenade you, any way you say,
take you to the country,
take you to the shore,
show you to my darling,
I know you 71 make it grow
if you let me serenade you,
you know that’s what you come for
I will serenade you. .
Wake you in the morning,
I’m your sunrise high
your fire in the evening
when it blows outside
if you let me serenade you
you know that’s what you come for,
I will serenade you.
And when the walls begin to fall
I can’t hold back the joy
that love will conquer all,
every moment, every day
if you want to wall me, I will play and sing
Let me serenade you.
By: J. Finely
( c Wamer-Tamerlane Pub. Corp., BMI, 1973)
Nowadays a guy wouldn’t be caught dead trying to woo a girl by singing his
heart out beneath her bedroom window, but there was a time when it worked.
Perhaps we’ve moved past the stage where we rely on such romantic trivia.
Perhaps we view things a little more realistically now and find that winning
someone’s heart in song is just a bit “unreal.” But there was something that
happened back then that is perhaps every bit as workable today.
To serenade your loved one in the days of yore was to simply pour your heart
out in song. That means you let your loved one know what was going on inside
you. That much really hasn’t changed. What seems to establish ties between
people is when they can share what’s actually going on inside them. To tell
someone your inner story, to let them see how you feel, to have them know
where your fears are is to let them see the human side of you. And the most
attractive side you have is your human side because it lets people know that
you’re not perfect. Then they can feel comfortable with you. They can share
with you. And that’s largely what loving is about. Telling someone your ipside
story has a lot to do with loving.
Three Dog Night, in their latest release, has captured the drive and the
excitement of singing your insides out; of serenading. Their song, “Let Me
Serenade You,” begins slowly, but forcefully, as the singer gradually lets himself
go. Then it builds in intensity in the same way that excitement does in any
relationship when what one has shared is accepted by the other. That excitement
builds as the sharing, the pouring out continues until “the walls begin to fall.”
The walls that keep people apart are the same walls that hide what is deep inside.
To let down those walls is to let someone see who you are and to give them the
courage to let their own walls down. When that happens you “can’t hold back
the joy.”
It takes a lot of courage to serenade, to sing your insides out. Maybe that’s
why the song keeps pleading for the other, to accept it, “Let me serenade you.”
But ultimately the risk of singing your insides out is an act of faith. It’s believing
that what you have to sing about is worth it. And it’s believing that love is
possible, that “love conquers all.”
(All correspondence should he directed to: The Dameans, St. Joseph’s Church, 216
Patton Ave., Post Office Box 5188; Shreveport, La. 71105.)
BOOK REVIEWS
STAY OF EXECUTION: A SORT
OF MEMOIR, By Stewart Alsop,
Lippincott (New York, 1973) 300 pp.,
$8.95 Reviewed by Joseph A. Breig
(NC News Service)
Columnist and reporter Stewart
Alsop is a journalist to the marrow of
his bones. Even when the doctors were
ramming needles into his bones to get
marrow samples to be analyzed for
cancer (acute myeloblastic leukemia, or
AML) his mind went on observing and
storing up facts, impressions and
reflections, all of which come together
in this remarkable book.
While the medical specialists at the
National Institutes of Health made their
endless tests and puzzled over his case,
Alsop talked with them and became
familiar with medical terminology. You
might say, too, that he interviewed
himself, day and night. Concerning one
night in the hopsital, he recalls, “There
came upon me a terrible sense of
aloneness, of vulnerability, of
nakedness, or helplessness.”
In July, 1971, Alsop was told by the
medicos that he had only a 50 percent
chance of living a year; that the odds
were 20 to one that he wouldn’t survive
for two years, and that chance for a
cure was ‘,statistically negligible.” It was
a shattering blow to a man who had
roamed the world as a correspondent,
had come through the terrors of warfare
including a goofed-up parachute landing
alone in enemy territory, and had
played tennis with such abandon that
his left leg bore many scars from being
repeatedly struck with the racket during
his explosive serves.
On Oct. 1, a mysterious and dramatic
change began. On Oct. 18, the doctors
spoke of “marvelous news-aim ost
miraculous.” And Stewart Alsop jotted
a note in his memory: “I am not a
religious man, but I think when
nobody’s looking I’ll drop into a church
tomorrow and say a prayer.”
He did so. Walking toward his
Newsweek office in Washington, he
stepped into the “handsome old yellow
stucco Episcopal church on Lafayette
Square, ‘the Church of the Presidents’.”
Embarrassed but grateful-grateful to
what or whom he knew not-Alsop put
his head in his hands and said the Lord’s
Prayer as it had been taught to him in
childhood, “when God was a big
bearded reality.” He found that he had
forgotten the words following “trespass
against us.”
Alsop has been an agnostic since his
late teens-“I do not say there is no
God, I say only I do not know whether
there is a God. There is certainly a
mystery out there somewhere.”
One day, Alsop was questioning his
chief physician-Dr. John Glick-about
the mysterious remission in his illness.
Could the cause be this? No. Or that?
No. Alsop said: “Well, there’s one
variable you keep leaving out. God.”
“That’s right,” said Dr. Glick. And
Alsop recalls, “We both smiled. I don’t
really believe in God, or at least I don’t
think I do, and I doubt if John Glick
does, but I think we both had at the
back of our minds the irrational notion
that God might have had something to
do with what happened all the same.”
Did a gear slip at that point in
Stewart Alsop’s journalistic objectivity?
One wonders why he calls the thought
irrational. ♦
At any rate, his purgatory-on-earth
wasn’t ended. He had a wonderful
Christmas with his family and friends,
which he describes with what he fears
might be “smarmy-sentimentalism.”
Then, on Jan. 10, the “proportion of
bad cells” in his marrow turned up
again. Could he be afflicted with
“smoldering leukemia?” The doctors
had no answers.
Came Jan. 17-and suddenly Alsop is
told that a test shows him to have “the
blood of a perfectly normal man.” But
now the sufferings he has seen in the
hospital-especially the sufferings of
children-overcome him, and wring from
him the anguished judgment that “if
there is a God, he must be a savage and
unpredictable deity ...”
And yet.. .and yet. . .Stewart
Alsop, all though this courage-testing,
courage-shattering time, had a little
prayer that kept repeating itself in his
heart: “Please God, please Mother,
please Father, please (Aunt) Aggie.”
As he finishes his book, Alsop has
come to terms with his up-and-down,
sick-and-well, life-or-death situation. He
speaks of “the strange, unconscious,
indescribable process which I have tried
to describe in this book-the process of
adjustment whereby one come to terms
with death. A dying man needs to die,
and a sleepy man needs to sleep .. .The
time has not yet come for me. But it
will. It will come for all of us.”
Stewart Alsop, journalist to the
marrow of his bones, has given us a rare
human testament. One prays that he
will now put his investigative talents to
work in search of “the mysterv out
there somewhere” which, as a small
boy, he envisioned as a “big bearded
reality.” It is time for him to seek adult
answers and adult understanding. The
greatest quest and challenge of his
reportorial life lies before him.
(Joseph A. Breig, a veteran of both the
Catholic and general press, is associate editor
of the Catholic Universe Bulletin, the
newspaper of the Cleveland diocese. He also
writes a syndicated column for Catholic
newspapers.)
MEN
SIGNS OF GOOD WILL - Sketches translate signs which “speak” the
message “ . . .on earth peace, and good will toward men,” to deaf viewers
on the Dec. 16 CBS program, “A Child’s Christmas in Wales.”TTie Dylan
Thomas work will be dramatized by the Eugene O’Neill Center’s National
Theatre on the Deaf. Sir Michael Redgrave will narrate as deaf performers
tell the story of Thomas’ boyhood. (NC Photo from CBS)