Newspaper Page Text
\N iill Sle\e Warren
5 -THE BARB, May 197$
HIE MOVIES
The Easter movies crop is T
much better than the batch
released at Christmas. Some are
really exiciting, and there are no
big disappointments.
“All the President’s Men”
has Robert Redford and Dustin
Hoffman, as Bob Woodward and
Girl Bernstein, executing such
precise teamwork that this goes
beyond the “buddy movie” -
they actually become one.
But the picture is too
eliciting to let you think about
that, or even to wonder if
Bedford will take his shirt off (he
won’t) in the course of the ac
tion.. The protagonists, of
course, are the Washington Post
reporters who dug up the truth
about Watergate; and “All the
Resident's Men” shows how
they did it.
The Post office (almost an
exact replica of ours at The Barb)
is where it all begins. Despite
cur foreknowledge of the out
come, director Alan J. Pakula
keeps us in suspense
throughout, watching the
frustrations the reporters enr
counterin searching for the truth
h Washington. (Talk about a
needle in a haystack!)
If, like me, you’ve said you
never want to hear the word
“Watergate” again, relent for 2
hours and 20 minutes; other
wise, you’ll miss a great movie.
Because Alfred Hitchcock is
try favorite American director,
and because I haven’t been crazy
about his most recent efforts,
“Family Plot” is a special treat.
It shows the Master of Suspense
back in top form, and he keeps
us laughing all the way to the
unexpected ending.
Without giving away too
much of the story^
FI! tell you that it concerns to
minor con artists (Bruce Defn
and Barbara Harris) conducting
a semi-legitimate search for a
missing heir (William Devane(,
who turns out to be involved in a
quite illegitimate kidnapping
operation (with Karen Black).
That’s all I’m repealing. Go
see 1 #* Family J Plot” - and haVe
fun.
“The Bad News Bears” is
the best chicken flick since’Jiless
the Beasts and Children.” It’s
basically a sentimental comedy
about how a team of young
nisfits and their alcoholic coach
(Walter Matthau) make men of
each other.
It’s well-written (by Burt
Iancaster’ son, Bill) and directed
(by Michael Ritchia, who made
“Smile,” last year’s best unseen
film), and avoids being labeled
an outright ’’family comedy”
because the boys andgrl - Tatum
ONeals’s the star pitcher - use
the same language as real kids
their age.
“Bad News Bears” has
heartwarming moments, if you
like that sort of thing, and pretty
joung faces, if you like that sort
of thing.
“W.C. Fields and Me”
which won’t open in Atlanta until
late May, just boasts one ugly
old face; but that’s enough
because it’s the face of W. C.
Fields, cosmetically grafteckonto
the form of Rod Steiger.
I’m not crazy about Steiger,
but he does a hell of a job in this
one. Giving us a rounded portrait
cf an unhappy down, a man who
drank constantly to prove his
manhood. Bob (“Funny Girl”)
Merrill’s screenplay may not be
aocurate; but it’s a good story,
• specialty foods
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beer • breads
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Cheshire Br. at LaVIsta 321 -3012
Greenbrfar Shopping Ctr. 344-5782
B>b Woodward [Robert Redford] and Carl Berstein [Dustin Hoffman]
in “All the President’s Men.”
Arthur Adamson [William Devane] and Fran [Karen Black] in Alfred
Hitchcock’s “Family Plot.”
Writer Mathau and his team in “The Bad News Bears” [Tatus
O’Neal is number eleven].
and works some of Fields’ best
ines into credible contexts.
Commenting on the weather,
Helds remarks that, as a boy, he
always loved the rain in his
hometown of Philadelphia: “It
deared away the horseshit! ”
“W. C. Fields and Me”
contains a lot of horseshit, but
t’s going to win a lot of new fans
for both Fields and Steiger.
If you like George Segal,
you’ll enjoy him in his standard
tole as a wiseass klutz. Goldie
Hawn is somewhere between her
dd “ Laugh-In” self and the
character she’s supposed to be
(laying - a dance hall girl who
aspires to better things, but is
wiling to settle for Segai before
it’s all over.
Fbrold’s birthday party in “The Boys in the Band,”
Rid Steiger as W. C. Fields with director Arthur Hiller on the set of
“W, C. Fields and Me.?’ t % j % :
What happens to them along
the way is of no consequence,
but helps the time pass
amusingly. Unfortuately,
they're not as funny in the
picture as they were at the
Academy Awards plugging it.
"Inserts" is almost an ex
perimental film, written and
directed by John Byrum. He
wrote'”Mahogany,” but we ain’t
hold that against him forever.
Richard Dreyfuss plays a
“Boy Wonder” silent film
drector who couldn’t hack the
transition to talkies. Instead, he
winds up making porno flicks at
home. The story takes place in
one day and contains some
hilarious moments, most of them
“dirty.” In one of the milder
scenes, Dreyfuss directs his
female star (Veronica Cart
wright) to look at the ’’private
parts” of her co-star (Stemphen
Davies). “Private?” she
dirieks. “Areyou kidding ?!!!”
Davies wants to get it over
with because he has to get to a
date with a man who has
(remised to make him a star -
but who, we know, will only
make him.
There’s no hardcore sex in
“Inserts”; but the softcore stuff
is as good as in most s
that have nothing
recommend them.
Just so the column wouldn’t
be too “front-loaded” we’ve
saved “Robin and Marian” for
near the end. This is a sheer
(felight, reuniting Robin Hood
(Sean Connery) and Maid
Mtrian (Audrey Hepburn) after
20 years.
He’s been off with King
Richard, fighting the Crusades,
while she became a nun after
attempting suicide. “My
confessions were the envy of the
convent,” she tells him.
Around their update. love
story, the familiar elements are
repeated. The peasantry rallies
’round Robin, and the Sheriff of'
Nottingham (Robert Shaw)
chases after him. Most of the
“Merrie Men” get back together
too. Only Little John has been at
Robin’s • side aU this time. ~
Marian confronts John jealously:
“You’ve had him with you •%
you’ve had years! ”
Richard Lester directed
“Robin and Marian,” his finest
film yet in many respects. He
adds his antic comedy to the
beginning, but lets, love, and
adventure carry the bulk of the
film.
Last and least is “Track-
down,” which isn’t' bad but
(du Id ‘have been better. It
begins as an almost serious story
about a 17 year old runaway
(Karen Lamm) in L.A.
~ She’s raped by a gang of
Chicanos (portrayed as
stereotypical gresasefs)', after,
being set up by Erik Estrada,
who then falls in love with her.
She’s sold to a call girl ring and
beaten to death by a client.
Meanwhile, Karen’s big
Irother, Jim Mitchum, has come
looking for her.' He gets some
help from Cathy Lee Crosby, as a
woman of supposedly high
consciousness who still uses the
Word “queer” to describe a gay
person. .
After beating up a small gang
cf drag queens and shooting up a
large crime syndicate, Mitchum
presumably heads back to the
ranch. Let’s hope so.
By the way, after a “test
engagement’’ in Atlanta, ‘‘The
Boys in the Band” may be
reissued .nationally; so look for it
where you are. As you must
know, it’s the (1970) film of Mart
Cbowley’s (1968) play a group fo
pre-Liberation gays having a
party. It’s dramatically strong,
but it’s^ chief value for us is as a
historical record of old
sterotypes.
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