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PAGE TWO
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
FRIDAY, JANUARY i2. 1999
R A G E T W OT ~ l E M I C I G A N D A I Y F T D A V J A T T A R 1 ~ ior
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cinema
Laugh At, Not With,
Fumbling 'Fitzwilly'
ADMINISTRATION TACTIC:
Anti-Draft Leaders Indicted
I
TONIGHT!
#A
By DANIEL OKRENT
There's this big, bright spickety-
span new building out on Wash-
tenaw past U.S. 23 called the
Wayside Theater, and is really
a nice building, with nice, smiley
cgxpets and curtains and chairs
and things like that.
And inside this monument to
the culture of the sixties, they
show movies. And, again a testi-
mony to the culture of the sixties,
they are currently showing this
really bad movie, "Fitzwilly."
The screenplay for this calamity
was based on a novel by some guy
named Poyntz Tyler. With a
writer with a name like "Poyntz",
we should have guessed what kind
of film it would be. But we didn't.
So be it with our own personal
problems.
* 'Insipidity
"Fltzwilly" is silly, almost to
the point of being insipid. The
streams of blatherous drivel that
flow from the mouths of the
characters ("No, Juliet, I don't
like Miss Vicki; I LOVE Miss
Vicki") pour forth in an endless
waterfall of trite two-liners and
cloying sentimentalities.
Ostensibly, "Fitzwilly" is the
"laugh riot of the year." But the
only laughs come because the
film is laughable "at," not laugh-
able "with." The plot revolves
around a do-gooder domestic staff
in a once-wealthy household and
that staff's cutely successful at-
tempts at robbery, so to buoy up
the household's vacant bank ac-
count. As they flit about Man-
hattan with forged employe pass-
cards and a surprising amount of
what Jewish mothers call "chutz-
pah" (i.e., gall), this little band
of Robin Hoods has only one
artistic route to follow, and that
one happens not to be up.
Nine Inches
Led by Dick Van Dyke, the best
actor in Hollywood with a nine-
inch chin, and supported by
Barbara Feldon (who did a much
better job rolling around on that
snug Tiger rug on TV) and portly
John McGiver (believe it or not,
McGiver plays a demi-butler for
a change, capitalizing on years
of cinema experience and still
able to play only one role), the
cast is stifled by its own medio-
crity.:
The only possible bright spot
might have been Edith Evans as
the eccentric mistress of the
house, but this was spoiled by
our own sense of sentimentality.
To place an actress of Dame Ed-
ith's caliber in a vehicle like this
is like casting Richard Burton as
"Flipper."
More! More!
Oh, yes, there are other things.
Like a painted .backdrop outside
Miss Evans' mansion that is sup-
posed to look like uptown New
York but more resembles a paint-
by-numbers canvas. Or Miss Fel-
don's father, who is supposed to
be a Columbia professor and looks
so much like a Columbia professor
that he no longer looks like a
Columbia professor. Or an inter-
ior decorator friend of Van Dyke's
who is such an obvious parody of
the proverbial male interior dec-
orator that it is not only unfunny,
it is downright revolting.
But, there are two virtues .in
this picture. Number one is a pro-
longed sometimes-funny riot scene
near the film's end. Number two is
the end itself.
So, be warned. If you want to
go see the Wayside Theater, do
so. But, first, wait until toe next
picture comes.
WASHINGTON (CPS)-College
professors and other adults who
are helping to lead the anti-draft
movement may be taking a great-
er risk than young people who
actually resist the draft.
The Johnson Administration
apparently has initiated a full-
fledged effort to stop the "ring-
leaders" of the growing nation-
wide anti-draft campaign. By
fighting the resistance movement
from top down, the Administra-
tion hopes to effectively decrease
the number of young people who
engage in destructive anti-draft
protests and literally refuse to be
inducted into the armed services.
Department of Justice and
Selective Service officials have
not admitted that this strategy
is indeed being followed. However,
observers argue that this strategy
has been indirectly acknowledged
by statements and actions of
members of the Administration.
Draft Resisters To Hold
Protests Across Nation
WASHINGTON (CPS) -Draft
resisters are planning demonstra-
tions in a dozen major cities in
response to the indictment of five
men who encouraged non-coopera-
tion with the Selective Service
System. .
Immediately after the five men
-Dr. Benjamin Spock, Yale
Chaplain Rev. William Sloan
Coffin, former .White House aide
Marcus Raskin, author Mitchell
Goodman and Harvard graduate
student Michael Ferber-were in-
dicted, Student for a Democratic
Society (SDS) issued a call for
a national day of demonstrations
to be held today.
While the draft resisters planned
demonstrations, a group of their
elders were circulating a state-
ment of support and complicity
with Spock and the others. "If
they are sentenced we must be
sentenced," the statement says.
Its signers include Dr. Martin
Luther King; authors Noam
Chomsky, Dwight McDonald, and
Paul Goodman; professor Robert
McAfee Brown of Stanford; and
Arthur Waskow of the Institute
for Policy Studies in Washington.
Greg Calvert of SDS said Tues-
day that plans were not yet firm
for most of the demonstrations but
that there would be protests in-
most major U.S. cities today.
In the San Francisco Bay Area,
home of the draft resistance move-
ment, demonstrators will march
on the draft boards in Berkeley,
Oakland, and San Francisco.
Other West Coast demonstra-
tions are planned for Seattle and
Portland.
In Boston the father of a
draftee will go to the induction
center handcuffed to his son and
refuse to allow his son to be
turned over to the Selective Serv-
ice officials.I
New York anti-war groups held
a major meeting last week, but
what their plans will be today
is uncertain. Calvert said there
would also be demonstrations to-
day in Chicago, Detroit, Philadel-
phia, and Austin, Texas, as well
as a number of small local and
campus demonstrations.
In Washington resisters will
demonstrate at the Justice De-
partment and the District of Co-
lumbia draft board today, then go
to local high schools to counsel
draft resistance to students there.
The reaction is also expected to
affect a demonstration by Women
Strike for Peace planned for Mon-
day, the day Congress reconvenes.
The demonstration will be led by
Jeanette Rankin, the first woman
elected to Congress, who voted
against participation in both
World War I and World War II.
Leaders of the demonstration will
meet with House Speaker John
McCormack.
At Yale, President Kingman
Brewster said he has no plans for
action against Chaplain Coffin,
although he believes draft resist-
ance and its advocacy as a politi-
cal tactic is ineffective, unwise,
and improper. He said he plans
no action against Coffin because
"Respect for due process of law
requires that anyone who is ac-
cused is presumed to be innocent
until he is found guilty under a
constitutionally valid law."
The Justice Department, for
example, announced last week
that a federal grand jury in Bos-
ton has returned indictments
against five men who have en-
couraged young people to violate
draft laws. The prosecutions are
being handled by a newly created
unit in the Justice Department
designed specifically to prosecute
demonstrators. Despite the large
number of young people who have
been involved in destructive anti-
draft demonstrations, the first
indictments since the new unit
was c r e a t e d involve "adult"
leaders.
A Justice Department spokes-
man said more indictments may
be returned against the leaders
of the anti-draft movement. "If
we find a clear violation of the
law, we will prosecute. But we are
not predicting if there will be two
or 200 additional indictments."
Selective Service Director Lewis
B. Hershey has said he believes
many adult leaders who are too
old for the draft are behind many
anti - draft demonstrations.He
favors "busting" the "ringlead-
ers" because most of them "are
older and should know better."
One Selective Service official
said pediatrician Dr. Benjamin
Spock, a veteran leader of the
anti-draft movement, "is encour-
aging young people to disobey the
law and thus saying to hell with
Congress." The official said Dr.
Spock and other adult leaders
"don't have any obligation to the
Selective Service but they're out
there advising the young people
to beat the rap."
Spock, 64, and four others who
were indicted last week are ac-
cused of violating a section of
the Universal Military Training
and Service Act which says any
person is guilty of violating the
law if he "knowingly counsels,
aids, or abets another to refute
or evade registration or service
in the armed forces" or knowing-
ly hinders or interferes "by force
or violence or otherwise" with the
Selective Service system.
The trial 'of the five men-
scheduled to takeplace in about
three months in Boston-will rep-
resent the first confrontation at
law between the Administration
and the anti-draft movement.
If the men are found guilty,
the case will no doubt end up
before the Supreme Court. Several
of those indicted and a number of
civil libertarians have charged
that the law under which the in-
dictments were returned repre-
sents an infringement on free
speech.
The last Supreme Court deci-
sion on the law was handed down
in 1919. The Supreme Court ruled
in Schenck vs. the United States
that the freedom of speech guar-
antee of the First Amendment
does not protect a person from
conviction for "counseling" others
to evade the draft. However, there
has been some speculation that
today's Supreme Court would
overturn this decision, given the
chance.
The Justice Department is at-
tempting to avoid a new Supreme
Court ruling by staying away
from the free speech aspect in
the cases now set for prosecution.
Officials have said the Justice
Department plans to base the
prosecutions on actions rather
than words.
Although the Administration
may want to prosecute the adult
leaders of the anti-draft move-
ment first, young people who re-
fuse to cooperate with the draft
will still be turned over to the
Justice Departmentfor prosecu-
tion, a Selective Service official
said..
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Michigan's "&s'
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SGALA OPENING ATTRACTION
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JOEL SAXE-singing folk, rock, and folk-rock, playing 12-string guitar
DAVE JOHNS-singing rhythm and blues, folk-rock, and folk music,
playing 6- and 12-string guitar and harmonica
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Vth Forum
TENORS
210 S. FIFTH AVE.
761 -9700
and
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Join U-M ARTS CHORALE
Tuesday and Thursday-3 P.M.
Aud. C, Angell Hall
NO REASONABLE VOICE REJECTED!
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NEW SHOW TIME POLICY:
CONVENIENT MATINEES EVERY DAY
LATE SHOWS AT 1 1:00 EVERY FRI. & SAT.
MON. thru THURS. Shows at 2:30-7:00-9:00
FRI. & SAT. continuous from 1:00; Shows 1-3-5-7-9-11
SUN. continuous from 1 :00; Shows 1-3-5-7-9
STARTS TOMORROW
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Gives Vittorio Gassman a chance
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STARTS WEDNESDlAY. JANUARY 11thI
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