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With Steve Warren
August isn’t one of the
great movie months; don’t
expect any major films until
Labor Day--if then. Mean
while. stand in line for
“Jaws.” or see “Nashville”
again; or see “Love and
Death.” if you like Woody
.Allen and - laughter.
the most popular of the
later releases seems to be
“Rollerball.” for reasons
which escape me. It’S a
carefully produced film that
should have been great, and
it seems sincere in its war
nings about the dangerous
growth of multinational
corporations and the in
creasing bloodthirstiness of
sports fans; but the only
scenes with impact are the
violent ones depicting the
fictious--for the moment-
sport of “Rollerball.”
James Caan (no. 6, c.) and a
teammate, defend the goal in
“Rollerball.”
James Caan coasts through
his dramatic scenes, but
works hard at doing most of
his own skating in the
Rollerball sequences. He
plays the first superstar of
the game, who becomes
dangerous to the slightly
futuristic society where
government-by-corporations
is determined to squash in
dividual achievement.
“Rollerball” is an okay
movie with nothing new to
say.
Two films which are less
sterile dramatically and so
old in form they seem new are
“Aloha, Bobby and Rose”
and f ‘Return to Macon
County.” Both are of the stuff
that provided us in the fifties
with “B” movies, and an
occasional winner like
“Rebel without a Cause.”
The protagonists in both
new pictures are out of their
teens; and in both cases, a
basically innocent situation
lands them in deep trouble
and sends them on the run.
Bobby (Paul Le Mat) and
Rose (Dianne Hull) are the
more interesting and sym
pathetic couple.
In ' Return to Macon
County,” a nominal sequel to
last year’s “Macon County
Line,” a threesome is in
volved: Nick Nolte, a racer;
Don Johnson, his mechanic
and friend; and Robin
Mattson, a girl they pick up
who becomes Nick’s love
interest (and, between the
lines, Don’s competition).
It takes place in 1958.
Anarchronism-spotters can
Don Johnson (1.) and Nick
“Return to Macon County.”
have a field day with
“Hamburgers Helpers” and a
soundtrack made up of 1959’s
greatest hits.
“Cleopatra Jones” was the
campiest of the “Blax-
politation” movies, with the
possible exception of
“Blacula.” The sequel;,
“Cleopatra Jones and the
Casino of Gold,” has far less
(intentional) humor, largely
because Shelley Winters isn’t
on hand to provide it.
Tamara Dobson, who spent
her time between films
working on her makeup (or
doing anything but learning
to act!), appears again as the
big, black beautiful, agent
who roams .the world in
search of drug syndicates to
bust. This time she’s in Hong
Kong, where the bust is on
Stella Stevens. Maybe I
should rephrase that...and
maybe I shouldn’t.
For your amusement along
the way, there’s a tastefully-
filmed Lesbian orgy, and a
group of street urchins who
look like chicken Chow mein!
Cleo has no time for romance,
but gets very close to a
Chinese girl (Tanny) who
seems unnaturally close to
her brother.
The first gay movie since
“A Very Natural Thing” to
break through to “straight”
theatres by vitue of an “R”
ra ting (extremely lenient, in
this case) is “Saturday Night
at the Baths.”
Like “A Very Natural
Thing,” it’s not a ripoff, but
it’s only a short step up from
amateur work. It preaches
bisexuality; but when the
manager of the Baths goes
'for him and his girlfriend
doesn’t seem to mind, the
questioning process begins.
The scene where he traces
his hang-ups back to their
childhood source is a
Nolte Cruise the chicks in
dramatic plus. Two sex
sequences-one straight, one
gay-are heavy enough to help
the film commercially.
Steve Ostrbw, owner of the
Continental Baths, is listed as
co-producer and appears as
himself. If he expects the
picture to boost his business,
he’s in for a disappointment;
the murky photography make
the Baths look quite unap
petizing.
“Doc Savage..the Man of
Bronze” has played most of
the Southeast already, and,
isn’t likely to be back. If you:
missed it, you *e lucky. I just
brought it up as an excuse to
include a hunky picture of the
star, Ron Ely, who should go
back to swinging through
trees.
The output from two seasons
of the American Film
Theatre, formerly available
Continued on Page 14
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