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PAGE 6—January 17,1974
TV Movies
SUNDAY, JANUARY 20 — 1:00 p.m.
(ABC) -- THE GLASS MENAGERIE -• Here if
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
love-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; support 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.
8:30 p.m. (ABC) -- FOR A FEW
DOLLARS MORE (1966) ~ One of the
violence-ridden, generally senseless early
presentations of Clint Eastwood as the Man
With No Name. This one has a plot too
convoluted to describe, with Eastwood as
some sort of vengeful bounty-hunter being
hunted by another bounty hunter, Lee Van
Cleef. It’s all done with that nonsensical flair
of the early “pasta Westerns” of director
Sergio Leone. Much of the senseless brutality
was cut for original theatrical distribution,
and perhaps some more will be missing by the
time the bullets start whistling around your
living room. (A-lll)
MONDAY, JANUARY 21 — 9:00 p.m.
(NBC) - SEE NO EVIL (1971) - Mia Farrow
stars in this hokey but effective suspense
chiller about a recuperating blind young
woman (Miss Farrow) who literally stumbles
upon a mass murder scene in the home of
relatives with whom she’s been staying since
her accident. Both the killer and the young
woman’s heroic boyfriend return to the scene
of the crime -- and it’s a horse race to see
which gets to the girl first. How this one will
hold up under the periodic stress bf
interrupting commercial breaks is a moot
question. (A-ltl)
9:00 p.m. (ABC) - SKULLDUGGERY
(1970) -- Witless and often remarkably
tasteless film about a lady anthropologist
(Susan Clark) in New Guinea searching for
prehistoric humanoid remains, a
priest-missionary (Chips Rafferty) who
accompanies Miss Clark’s safari, an
opportunist financier (Paul Hubschmid), and
two ne’er-do-wells (Burt Reynolds and Roger
Carmel) who mislead the expedition Into
unchartered territory where the two hope to
mine phosphor. In discovering the relics and
the phosphor the group also comes upon a
species of apes which seem to manifest human
qualities. The priest considers baptizing them.
When Mr. Hubschmid decides to enslave the
apes for cheap world-wide labor, Burt
Reynolds (who has been training them to
mine his phosphor) recovers his offended
moral sense, and the film apparently locates
its theme: are the creatures human? As proof
for his contention that they are, Reynolds
claims to have murdered an offspring of one
of the creatures by Roger Carmel -- on the
principle that breeding with a human proves
humanity. After this supposedly humorous
foray into bestiality, the court case draws
such diverse witnesses as the South Africans
and American black power advocates. The
extraordinary tastelessness of the film’s
comedy is easily a match for its aimless
direction, its banal dialogue and its
half-dimensional characterizations. (A-lll)
TUESDAY, JANUARY 22 — 8:30 p.m.
(ABC) - GET CHRISTIE LOVE - Teresa
Graves is absolutely winning as an
overenthusiastic police undercover officer
who infiltrates a major West Coast drug ring,
blows her cover, and becomes the prey
(hence, the title) of ail sorts of mean and
nasty mob types. Her superior, Harry
Guardi no, is his usual affable-tough self in a
nice if cliched routine police comedy-drama.
Made for TV.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23 — 8:00 p.m.
(ABC) -- PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS --
Adventure on two wheels marks this one as
Andy Griffith, William Shatner, Robert Reed
and preacher-man-turned-“actor” Marjoe
mount motorcycles for a wild ride down the
rugged Baja California peninsula. You know
the locale -- the one they use in the tire
commercials. This one's a big blowout.
9:00 p.m. (NBC) -- QUESTOR -- What,
another robot show?!? This one has Robert
Foxworth playing a robot whose nuclear
batteries — or somesuch thing -- are wearing
down. Maybe he’ll go back to doing
pain-reliever commercials.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 25 — 9:00 p.m.
(CBS) -- VALLEY OF THE DOLLS (1967) --
Trashy melodrama that doesn’t even reach the
level of the trashy novel whence it came,
much less the level of soap opera. In this story
about decadence in show business life and the
further deleterious effects of gulping pep and
sleeping pills, insight is nil, photography
ordinary and most of the acting
embarrassingly poor. As it grinds on
remorselessly toward its vapid conclusion, it
fetches only pained disbelief as its
amateurishness and a few laughs where none
was intended. (B)
SATURDAY, JANUARY 26 — 8:30 p.m.
(ABC) -- HEATWAVE - TV rehash, of sorts,
of the classic sci-fi thriller “The Day the Earth
Stood Still.” In this one, starring Bonnie
Bedelia and Ben Murphy, a nice little town in
middle America is thrown into chaos when an
intense heat wave strikes. Taik about your
energy crisis -- here’s one in reverse!
9:00 p.m. (NBC) - THE NIGHT THEY
RAIDED MINSKY’S (1968) - Burlesque as
theatrical entertainment ridiculed life and, in
particular, made fun of sex.- It was earthy,
vulgar, and undignified. The appeal of
burlesque was that of low-humor and
obviously was not suited to everyone's taste.
Because this film celebrates the crude
lustiness that characterized burlesque in the
twenties, some may find it an honest relief
from the over-glamorization of sex in our own
time. The fun is in the elan and high spirit
shown by the performers in this part of show
business. Norman Wisdom, as a sad little
comic, is the film’s standout performer. The
fact that this was Bert Lahr’s last film
appearance also adds some pathos and
certainly a great deal of nostalgia to the
proceedings. It is unfortunate, however, that
the long-awaited “accident” that led to the
first strip-tease gets most of the emphasis. (B)
Will, ////
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOQ
Film Classifications
A — Section I — Morally Unobjectionable for General Patronage
A - Section II — Morally Unobjectionable for Adults, Adolescents
A - Section III - Morally Unobjectionable for Adults
A — Section IV — Morally Unobjectionable for Adults, Reservations
B - Morally Objectionable in Part for All
C — Condemned
OOOQOOOOOO O'O' GCTOOOU
S/'/// //
SLEEPER (United Artists) is pure, vintage
Woody Allen madness.
Woody Allen’s latest movie is certainly one
of his zaniest, with its best moments rivaling
the hilarious high spots of “Bananas.” But
“Sleeper" is also insubstantial to the point of
being indescribable by any reviewer who
wants people to go see it but has the prudence
not to give away its innumerable punch lines.
Unfortunately, too many reviewers, local and
national, have already described this or that
wacky scene, have already quoted this or that
delicious quip -- and have therefore destroyed
the essential spontaneity of Allen’s wild
humor.
What remains to be explored is a
description of the plot or, rather, the vehicle
for putting Allen’s wit on the soundtrack and
his ungainly visage on the screen. Allen plays
Miles Monroe, a nice Jewish schlemiel from
Avenue K in Brooklyn who runs the Happy
Carrot Health Food Store on Bleecker Street
in Greenwich Village. To correct a stomach
disorder, he enters St. Vincent’s Hospital for a
quick operation -- and wakes up 200 years
later, having failed to come out of the O.R.
and having been wrapped in aluminum foil
and frozen for posterity. Upon being roused,
Allen is confronted by a world gone mad -
everything is run by odd-shaped and
odder-sounding machines and robots, none of
which works very well. For some reason,
perhaps because Allen has never been finger
and voice-printed by the security forces of
“Our Leader," Allen is designated to lead an
underground uprising, which makes him an
instant member of “Our Leader’s”
most-wanted list.
His subsequent escapes and near-scrapes
with all sorts of buffeting forces — the people
who try to help him are often more dangerous
than the folks trying to capture him -- occupy
the rest of the movie. Among his “friends” is
Dian Keaton, who played opposite Allen in
“Play It Again, Sam,” and whose talents for
winsome wackiness seem a perfect
complement to his cerebral-bumbling style.
The humor in “Sleeper” is typical Allen
humor (he directed and co-wrote the
screenplay), full of wild free associations and
highly satirical in a most democratic way -
i.e., every ethnic, social, political, and religious
group and institution comes under his
rubber-bullet fire. Everything rushes pell-mell,
not toward any logical conclusion or
resolution so much as toward a fitting gag on
which to exit. But Alien is also typically sly,
particularly in making us howl with delight at
what is really a perfectly awful world that is
probably not all that far away. For example,
the people of 2173 are totally impotent/frigid
sexually because sex has evolved as an
abstract, scholarly subject and is no longer a
dimension of active human life. For another,
meaningless technology has advanced
agriculture to the point where a carrot or
celery stalk weighs over 300 pounds and
therefore cannot readily be harvested. Think
about the things in today’s life that point to
this sort of situation and you can see that
Allen's upside-down world of 200 years hence
is not totally without its precedents right
now.
But Allen is far less philosopher than comic
commentator on our universal human folly.
And his wit in “Sleeper” sparkles as brightly
as ever. Aside from the multitude of
one-liners, there are a number of sequences
designed simply to crack you up. Particular
standouts include a segment in which Woody
is shown pictures of personalities from the
present age and offers his eye-witness
identifications, one in which he tries to
master a flying machine while fleeing a covey
of red-suited security persons, and another in
which he and Ms. Keaton use sheer bluff in an
attempt to restore “Our Leader” to his old
self again by cloning the only thing that
remains of him, his nose.
For adults and older teens, “Sleeper” offers
a refreshing 87 minutes of hilarity with one of
our most original comic talents. Just don’t
expect Allen’s taste to be consistent with
yours all of the time. (A-lll)
THE SEVEN-UPS (Fox) is an
action-packed chronicle of the operations of a
special police unit, whose province is crimes
involving penalties of seven years and up. The
film was produced and directed by Phil
D’Antoni, whose earlier credits as producer
include both “Bullitt” and “The French
Connection.” D’Antoni is a professional and
his works are all smoothly edited, well lensed,
and carefully executed; “The Seven-Ups” is
no exception. Shot entirely on location in
New York, "The Seven-Ups” conveys a real
sense of the hustle and bustle of the city, and
at the same time skillfully captures the sense
of distinct neighborhoods, from the hush of
East Side antique shops to the studied
formality of an Italian funeral parlor in Bay
Ridge. The hackneyed plot of “The
Seven-Ups” involves Ray Scheider as the head
of a police unit that, while attempting to
infiltrate the New York Mafia, stumbles upon
an elaborate internecine war, a doublecross,
hit men and an informer. Yet the film holds
the audience's interest because it moves so
well visually. Especially notable are the scenes
at an automatic car wash, where the assault of
the various cleaning devices, and the distorted
vistas of the soapy windshield create an eerie
environment for blackmail and mayhem. At
the center of the film, of course, is a wild car
chase, by now a D’Antoni hallmark. The
chase in “The Seven-Ups" is the most
protracted ever, and builds like a mad
symphony of destruction, as cars catapult
through one-way streets, across children’s
playgrounds, onto the George Washington
Bridge and the Palisades Parkway. Yet for all
the drive of the visuals, “The Seven-Ups”
seems a film without a real sense of theme.
While there are passing allusions to civil
liberties versus police power, the illegal and
immoral actions of the special unit are never
really questioned. Instead, the city is
presented as a battleground where cop and
quarry shoot it out, and where it is hard to
tell the hunter from the hunted. In fact, by
the end of the film, the purported hero is
using his enemies as an execution squad, a
rather disquieting turn of events, if the film
really IS on the side of law and order. (A-lll)
PAPILLON (Allied Artists) boasts two
first-magnitude stars in Steve McQueen (he
got $2 million) and Dustin Hoffman (he got
around $1 million), and it’s based on the huge
best seller of the same name by Henri
Charriere, who wrote about his adventures,
high and low, as an escape-prone prisoner in
the notorious French penal colony on Devil’s
Island. But the movie, for a $13 million
adventure flick, is tiresomely overdrawn and
singularly lacking in excitement and action.
What it does have is a pair of solid
performances by the stars, especially by
Hoffman, as well as a feel for the brutal,
inhuman conditions of the prison from which
there was virtually no escape. (A-lll)
BOYS’ TOWN IN CAIRO -- Residents carrying packages file into Boys’ NC News how he hopes to help Egyptians break out of stifling fatalism.
Town in the kubbeh Gardens area of Cairo. The home was founded in (NC Photo)
1956 by Father Victor Gohargui, who recently visited New York and told
BOOK REVIEWS
PILGRIM CHURCH, By William J.
Bausch (Fides, Notre Dame, Ind. 1973)
529 pp. $9.95
REVIEWED BY MAURICE
ADELMAN, JR.
(NC News Service)
A reviewer should not reorient the
writer’s stated objectives, but, unless
this is done Father Bausch’s so-called
popular history of Catholic Christianity
would have to be generally dispraised.
For Father Bausch’s achievement --
whatever his intention - has been to
write an understanding of present-day
Catholicism in the light of various
historical events of the last 20 centuries.
History this is not, despite the
author’s facile disclaimer that he tried
to keep names and dates to a minimum ;
interpretation and understanding,
possibly, ladened with the author’s
explanations and editorializations.
A characteristic paragraph
demonstrates why this book cannot be
honestly called history:
“In due time the Council of Ephesus
was called in 431 and it was a network
of intrigues and complications. The
pope’s delegates were late in coming and
Cyril opened the Council anyway. The
members of the Antioch school were
delayed, and so forth. Anyway the
Council condemned and deposed
Nestorius. Then when the people from
Antioch arrived they denounced the
Council. The emperor arrested Cyril and
Nestorius both and wound up restoring
Cyril and banishing Nestorius. The hard
feelings between Alexandria and
Antioch were aggravated.”
Not mentioned is the condemnation
of the Pelagian heresy, nor is mentioned
the Council’s declaration of the Blessed
Virgin as the Mother of God, the
Theotokos. These omitted facts appear
more important than the unsupported
and unnecessary detail.
In addition, Father Bausch’s balance
is clearly off as he assesses the break
between Western and Eastern Churches,
culminating in the 11th century in far
fewer pages and with far less detail than
the break of Luther with the 16th
century Church. The latter may affect
our lives more, but the earlier break was
perhaps the more important with
religious, political, and social
consequences down to our day.
Too, one-fifth of his book is devoted
roughly to the last 100 years, with
one-fifth of that one-fifth being devoted
to the papacy of Pope Pius IX. Granted
what has happened in the immediate
past is more real to us and perhaps we
belive it more influential, nonetheless its
emphasis is disproportionate in a book
which is supposed to be a history.
Father Bausch is not totally honest
with his readers. For example, on page
86 he explains the king, or head of
government, nominating bishops as
being caused by the “emergencies of
history.” Too, he does not explain why
a concordat should permit, in today’s
era, the appointment by the head of
state of Spain of all Spanish bishops.
Nor does he mention the famous veto in
1903 of Cardinal Rampolla by the
Austro-Hungarian emperor, thereby
allowing the election of Pope Pius X.
The author’s explanation of the times
of Henry VIII oversimplifies the issues
and causes of the Reformation in
England. Charles IPs “leanings toward
Catholicism” resulted in his reception
into the Church some years before his
death. Not every scholar would agree
with him that Mary Stuart “foolishly
plotted” to seize Elizabeth’s throne.
Errors, presumably typographical
ones, pop up like raisins in soda bread.
Pope Julius II is introduced as Pope
Julian; Maryland has to wait until 1643
to get settled; the Basilica of the Sacred
Heart in Paris is denominated a
cathedral; and so forth, to use a Bausch
expression.
On pages 406 and 407 Father
Bausch’s summary of the papal attitude
toward the interference of legitimate
sovereigns in the affairs of the Church in
the early 19th century seems very
reminiscent - although no credit is given
- to the thesis of E.E.Y. Hales in his
“Revolution and Papacy” some years
ago.
The author is given to gratuitous
asides, such as “possibly” Charles
Carroll “the Signer” was not a
practicing Catholic, as if in a serious
work on the history of the whole
Church that fact mattered, assuming, of
course, there was some basis for it. ^
In sum, for people who already have
some basic knowledge of the Church’s
history this book is not necessary; for
those who do not, it is not possible to
come to a fair understanding of Church
history by reading this book.
(Maurice Adelman, Jr., is an attorney
practicing law in New York City; he has
reviewed books for many publications.)
LIFE IN MUSIC
BY THE DAMEANS
American Tune
Many is the time I’ve been mistaken,
and many times confused.
I’ve often felt forsaken,
and certainly misused.
Oh, but I’m alright, I’m alright,
just weary to my bones
Still you don’t expect to be bright
and bou vivant, so far away from home
so far away from home.
I don’t know a soul who’s not been battered.
I don’t have a friend who feels at ease.
I don’t know a dream that’s not been shattered,
Or driven to its knees
Oh, but it’s alright, it’s alright
for we lived so well so long,
Still when I think of the road we’re traveling on,
I wonder what’s gone wrong,
I can’t help it, I wonder what’s gone wrong.
And I dreamed I was dying,
I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly,
and looking back down at me,
smiled reassuringly,
and I dreamed I was flying
And high up above, my eyes could clearly see,
the statue of liberty, sailing away to sea,
and I dreamed I was flying.
For we come on the ship they call the Mayflower,
we come on the ship that sailed the moon,
We come on the ages’ most uncertain hours,
and sing an American tune.
Music is a mirror. More often than not, it reflects to us the things that we are
concerned about, the things we value and how life looks to us right now. Music
does that because it seems to give our deep feelings an outlet, an expression.
Paul Simon has been one of the masters of musical mirroring and he’s done it
again with an “American Tune.” In this song he seems to be expressing clearly
what a lot of us feel and are unable to express about the way things are right
now in the land of the free and the brave. He speaks for almost everyone who
feels “weary to my bones” over so many things gone wrong in our country. Our
leadership seems “mistaken.” Our energy is “certainly misused.” Foreign
countries have lost faith in our stability and left us “forsaken,” and the whole
scene has left us “confused.” All of that is bad, but even worse is the fact that
it’s led many of us to feel that our “American dream” has been “shattered and
driven to its knees.” That is the hardest thing to take. We “can’t help but
wonder what’s gone wrong.”
To heighten the whole effect of weariness, Simon sets his whole “tune” to the
basic melody of Bach’s passion chorale, “O Sacred Head Surrounded by Crown
of Piercing Thorn.”
While this song expresses our weariness, it is also a help. For one thing, it
makes us face reality, which is always a hard job. Part of the reality it shows is
that any “dream” that remained unchallenged or became a god, throughout
history, has “been shattered.” And our American dream is certainly not beyond
criticism.
This song also reminds us that what we feel is natural. Bad times are bound to
come. “You can’t be forever blest.” But at the same time, it offers another
reminder of what has continually constituted America’s greatness; namely, its
ability to come through and even grow in bad times. Simon recalls our origins,
from people struggling under oppression who sought a fresh start “on the ship
they call the Mayflower.” And when there was a difficult challenge, we built “a
ship that sailed the moon.” America’s greatness is precisely that “we come on
the ages’ most uncertain hours and sing an American tune.”
Oh, and it’s alright, it’s alright,
you can’t be forever blest.
Still tomorrow’s gonna be another working day,
and I’m trying to get some rest,
that’s all, I’m trying to get some rest.
By Paul Simon
( c CBS Inc., 1973)
Again we face very “uncertain hours” which challenge America’s resources.
Simon seems to feel that “It’s alright.” Only this time we’ll have to face the
“dream” with a little more humility and realism. We’ll also have to work to
overcome this weariness. But “it’s al alright. . .tomorrow’s gonna be another
working day. ” <•
(All correspondence should be directed to: The Dameans, St. Joseph’s Church, 216
Patton Ave., P.O. Box 5188, Shreveport, La. 71105.)