Friday, February 7, 1975
FHE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Five
Friday, February 7, 1975 VHE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Five
The Front Page
Briarwood
The Front Page is one of
those fast-paced, free-wheeling
comedies that pulls you -right
into its madcap world. The Billy
Wilder film, which features Jack
Lemmon as The Chicago Exam-
iner's star reporter (Hildebrand undeserved Oscars m th
Johnson) and Walter Matthau as August festival's dubious hi
his hard-driving editor (Walter tory). Jack Gilford turns in
Burns), is set in 1929, an appro- mere caricature as Harr3
priate era for a presentation salt-of-the-earth business pa
bordering on slapstick. nier, and the rest of the cai
At the beginning of the film performs comparably. Avoi,
we learn that "Hildy" has re- friends, avoid.
fused to write the story on the -Kim Potter
upcoming execution of young
Earl Williams. Hildy announces Curtiz Films
that he's quitting the business in
order to marry the "woman of Cinema Guild, Arch. Aud.
his dreams." But from that Fri., Sun., 7, 9:05
point it's on again, off again The Michael Curtiz film fe
with Hildy's fiancee as both she tival continues this weekei
and Bairns vie for his attentions. with two of his more obscu
Jack Lemmon is perfect as flicks. Unlike his celebrat,
the star reporter-cool, sharp Casablanca, The Sea Wolf ar
and confident. Walter Matthau Flamingo Road have never a
as his calculating editor also tracted too ,much attention.
turns in a fine performance. closer inspection reveals no sp
The only weak spot in the acting cial faults or shortcomings, bi
is the unfortunate miscasting perhaps a simple lack of
of Carol Burnett as Molly Mal- spiration.
loy, the cheap prostitute who Sea Wolf is Curtiz' adaptati
helps Earl. Burnett is just not of the Jack London novel. It's
right for the role;. her per- salty tale of a brutal sea-capta
formance is forced, strained. "Wolf" Larsen whose sadis:
But Front Page still has a and cruelty relegate Capta
lot going for it. Its quick pace, Rligh to pussywillow status.
sly pokes at journalists and Larsen picas up a ,edraggli
some unexpected extremely refugee who relentlessly assa
funny lines instill the film with the captain in pointing out h
a delightful humor. I warped psyche. Much of t?
-Felica Kobylanski film is dialogue involving a I
of amateur headshrinking b
Save the Tiger tween the captain and his a
cinemct
weekend
Pick of the week:
Murder on the Orient Express
The Movies, Briarwood
For years, impeccable mystery writer Agatha Christie
refrained from marketing her bestseller Murder on the
Orient Express to motion pictures, claiming (and pro-
bably justifiably so) that studios would tear apart and
completely destroy her legendary detective character,
Hercule Poirot.
Finally, however, she relented and last year turned
over OrientExpress to England's mammoth EMI enter-
tainment combine. The result is a fine period film with
concise direction from Sidney Lumet and an excellent
recreation of the Poirot role by Albert Finney.
A stellar cast - including Vanessa Redgrave, Michael
York, Sean Connery, Ingrid Bergman, and Lauren Ba-
call - portrays a group of high-class passengers travel-
ling on the famed Orient Express railroad from Istanbul
to London. When a macabre stabbing occurs in the
course of the journey, Poirot is called in to solve the
crime.
Orient Express is unquestionably great fun. And if you
can guess the ending (and haven't read the book), you
deserve a mystery-lover's gold medal.
-David Blomnquist
warrants the viewer setting
aside his prejudices against theI
lack of sound and color.
Keaton, who along with Clyde
Bruckman, directed and wrote
the scenario, is one of the mas-
ters of film comedy. In General
he is complimented by the per-
formance of Marian Mack as
the inept heroine.
The film is simply over-flow-
ing with gems of visual comedy.
Among these are Keaton's es-
cape from behind enemy lines,'
the wreck of the General, and
perhaps the ultimate portrait of
man overwhelmed by machine
--Buster battling the driving
bar of a locomotive. With all
this and much more, The Gen-
eral is not a film to be missed.
-John Frank
A Married Woman
Cinema II, Aud. A
Sun., 7, 9j
In Jean-Luc Godard's A Mar-
ried Woman, a woman becomes
pregnant and doesn't know if the
child is her husband's or her ;
lover's. The film, made in 1964,
deals with woman-as-object and
advertising's subtle but nasty1
influence on our lives.
The best thingrabout the film,
though, is Godard's skillful use,
of film techniques. In many
scenes, actors improvised, hav-
ing no set dialogue. This gives
' the film naturalism.
It is also comic, due, not to
the actors nor to their actions,
but again to the film techniques.
A Married Woman is worth see-:
ing.
-Joan Ruhela
* * *
most important film makers in
the world today. Unfortunately
he is also one of the most in-
accessible. Of all the films he
turns out only a small number
are seen in the U.S.. and those
are exhibited for a short time
only in the major film centers.
Due to his inaccessibility the
screening of any Chabrol film is
an event. Les Biches, though
far from being one of his strong-
er films, still displays his unique
vision and recurrent motifs (the
sexal triangle and violent mur-
der).
-John Frank
The Mouse That
Roared
Couzens Film Co-op
Couzens Cafeteria
Fri., Sat., 8, 10
The Mouse That Roared was
first released in 1959. In the
fifteen years since its produc-
tion, it has become an annual
Thanksgiving D~ay favorite for
television viewers, which is the
level at which it is destined to
remain.
On a somewhat higher level
it purports to be a social satire,
but it doesn't quite come off as
such. The 'mouse' is a small,
bankrupt European country
that decides to declare war on
the United States in order to
lose and be rehabilitated by the
enemy.
So far, so good, but the plot
backfires and the motley group
of invaders actually win the
war by capturing the world's
most deadly bomb.
The film up to this point is
fairly funny, but it goes steadily
downhill, and the only thing
that saves it is the presence of
Peter Sellers. As in Dr. Strange-
love, Sellers demonstrates his
extraordinary virtuosity by play-
ing three parts.
Fin
Red grave
es
is
he
ot
be-
n-,
Mediatries, Nat. Sci. Aud. tagonist
Fri., Sat., 7:30, 9:30 Unfortunately, all this mental
Soap opera presented strictly probing slows the picture down
as soap opera, its own limita- to fitful spasms of action inter-
tidns self-conceded, can often- spersed between long lulls of
times be fairly enjoyable. Soap conversation. Still, Edward Rob-
opera presented with the porten- inson is deliciously villainous
tious solemnity of p r o f o u n d in the title role.
truth is utterly insufferable. Flamingo Road has no such,
Save the Tiger falls thuddingly redeeming features. Joan Craw-
into the latter category. ford stars in this peculiar melo-
Harry Stoner is a middle-aged drama which traces the ups and
arment manufacturer facing a downs of a retired carnival girl.
umber of moral crossroads in Crawford runs the gamut as she
is life. Most prominent is flits about from cafe waitress to
whether he should torch his own jailbird to wife of a political
factory, thus avoiding investiga- boss and finally back to convict.
tion of his unbalanced books, The movie has a vaguely;
and collecting fire insurance to soap-opera quality to it as love
boot. triangles, scandals and broken
Apparently director John G. hearts litter the Deep South
Avildsen and star Jack Lemmon landscapes. An attempt to make
really - felt they were saying some insights into political cor-:
something definitive on corosive ruption is all we get from this
effects of big business in Ameri- vehicle for the ever-present;
can' life, but their script is lead- Crawford and her anguishings.
ened with every hackneyed In short, there is nothing par-
cliche imaginable on the sub- ticularly spectacular about'
ject. these two pictures. Still, one
As Harry, Lemmon delivers could do a lot worse in this
an overwrought, hand-wringing weekend of slim cinematic pick-
performance (which, incident- ings.
ally, copped one of the more -George Lobsenz
American Graffiti
New World, MLB
Fri., Sat., 7, 9:15
One of 1973's most successful
films, American Graffiti, re-I
mains in Ann Arbor this week-
end for its third consecutive'
week. Directed by George Lucas
and starring Ronnie Howard and
R i c h a r d Dreyfuss, Graffiti
evokes a feeling of nostalgia for;
an era which few of us can
vividly recall but will always
remain the "good old days."
The scenario centers on what
happens to two college fresh-1
persons on the night before
they leave' for school, and their
attempt to cram a lifetime into
only a few short hours.
Embodied in the wild evening
are their fears and expectations
of what life away at school will
be like. Their friendships and
values all come into question
during this evening of soul
searching.
Graffiti, though a bit trite at
times, has rightfully deserved
its box-office reputation. It re-
mains one of the few movies
which has really captured the
spirit of the 'SOs in all its
dimensions.
-Mark DeBofsky
A drift
Cinema II, Aud. A
Fri., 7, 9
If the casual moviegoer were
to pick a single film to see
during the semester, this mag-
nificent, sadly neglected work
would make an excellent choice.
Released in 1971, Adrift slipped
swiftly and inexplicably into
an obscure corner of the cin-
ema repertoire, where it still
languishes.
For what it's worth, I, think
Adrift is the best film thus far
of the "'Os, and surely deserving
of rank among the very finest of
any era.
A mysterious young woman is
seemingly rescued from drown--!
ing by a Czech fisherman. Re-I
maining with the fisherman and
his family yet telling nothing of
herself, she slowly, sinisterly
envelopes their day-to-day lives.
Director Jan Kadar builds a
spellbinding erotic montage of
illusion and reality as the fish-
erman is drawn inexorably out
of his existence and into a maze
of fantasy and destruction. Ka-
dar is a sorcerer of blended
sight and sound, and the results
here are simply staggering.
If you have a dollar to spare,
by all means go see this splen-
did film. Adrift's images will
likely haunt you long after
memories of Altman, Coppola
and the like have faded.
-Kim Potter
Casablanca
Cinema Guild, Arch. Aud.
Sat, 8
As the oft-quoted lyrics from
Casablanca's theme suggest,
"Fundamental things apply as
time goes by." No one lives
those words like Rick (Hum-
phery Bogart), a cynical, prag-
matic and morally ambivalent
American who runs a saloon in
North Africa.
Life becomes complicated
when, in the midst of World
War II, an imperiled Czech pa-
triot (Paul Henreid) and his
wife (Ingrid Bergman), with
whom Rick had fallen passion-
ately in love years earlier, ar-
rive in Casablanca.
Thus confronted, pangs of un-
. requitted love are revived with-
in Rick. Possessing two visas
that will transport them out of
the country, Rick must ultimate-
ly decide whether his love for
Ilsa is more important than her
husband's work for freedom.
Convincing acting by Bogey,
in his first romantic lead, and
solid performances from Sidney
Greenstreet and Claude Rains
highlight this Academy Award-
winning film. For those who
haven't seen Bogart at his best,
Casablanca "could be the be-
ginning of a beautiful friend-
ship.''
--Jeff Ferro
The General
Burley Hall Enterprises
Bursley West Cafeteria
Sat., 9
Yes, it's true The General is
a silent film. Needless to say
it's also true that it was shot
in black and white. However,
this Buster Keaton classic is
one of the most skillfully made
comedies ever and certainly
i
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Les iches If you are an ardent Sellers
Cinema II, And. A fan, I recommend this one. If
Sat., 7 9 not, wait for Thanksgiving.
Claude Chabrol is one of the --Melissa Harris
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN THEATRE PROGRAM
BREAD aryd ROSES
a new play by Donald Hall
O;R 1fTHE;'
Ford forgoes lavish luncheons
-- --- ---1- --- L -. 1-'1--- L _._.t T"- I
TL..... L .. .. ....... ...
WASHINGTON (UPI)-
President Ford usually eats a
75-cent lunch.
Things have improved at the'
White House since Eleanor
Roosevelt's guests used to hide
their grisly fare under napkins
and in jacket pockets.
They may not be quite as
haute cuisine as when John
Kennedy would scrape away
the sauce of Jacqueline's chef
to find out whether what was
underneath once mooed, went
bah-bah or had made bubbles.
And they are not quite the
just-plain victuals of Harry
Truman nor the empty-the-
icebox stews of Dwight Eisen-
hower. Nor even the catsup on
cottage -cheese of Richard
Nixon. Not quite.
Ford's menu is not much.
dictated by Julia Childs,
Georgetown's French Market or!
even what he likes best. For This has raised some eye-
example, Ford hankers mighti- brows at the White House. No
ly for pecan pie. But his doctor, one was quite sure of the sig-
Adm. William Lukash, limits nificance of Ford using Wor-
him to that sugar lode only on cestershire sauce while Nixon
such feast days as a leap year lathered his cottage cheese
birthday. with catsup.
What dictates what Ford eats "Worcestershire sauce, huh?"
is his determination to remain said a presidential adviser. "I,!
at what he calls "fighting trim" like others, had made jokes
-195 pounds. Thus, that 75-cent about Nixon's catsup on cot-
The President and all his men
pay for their lunches. The
White House kitchens send a
menu around at midmorning.
Sandwiches, salads and cot-
tage cheese are listed along
with the set price meals such
as a fish called trout, stew and
steaks. Average price is about
$2.50 and the President's men
and women-from counselor to
secretary-pay up at the end of
each month.
Only relatively rarely do they
-and never Ford-find time to
go out to lunch.
When they do, they find the
prices higher.
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lunch.
It is what he eats most
weekdays. It is a lunch for'
which his staff has much re-
spect but little appetite. It was,
according to a check of the
presidential lunch tray: Cottage
cheese. Sliced tomatoes. Iced
tea. Buttered pecan ice cream.
Like some who accept the
need but not the bland taste ofa
cottage cheese, the President
plops sauce on top. He puts
Worcestershire sauce on it.
tage cheese.
"I'm a cottage cheese eater,
too, a weight-watcher. The oth-
er day my wife and I were
looking at the cottage cheese
and we laughed about catsup
on it, but we looked at each oth-
er and well, we tried it.
"You know, it wasn't too bad.
Tasted all right."
He admitted, however, he
never tried it again.
It isn't all cottage cheese for
Ford. Seven hours after the in-
spected cottage cheese with
Worcestershire sauce tray. Ford
sat down at the state dinner he
gave for British Prime Minister
Harold Wilson and had no trou-
ble at all downing the turtle
soup with sherry, the squab with
wild rice and - Lukash not be-
ing present - the sauteed zuc-
chini and the pudding desert.
But state dinners are almost
P17/
\-
ADVANCE SALE AND INFORMATION:
TICKET OFFICE, MENDELSSOHN LOBBY, 764-0450
TICKETS NOW ON SALE
1' ; t a. .' ~r y,<. ,t '. ''' 'apt,°. ,r.. -.,+.^...: s3< .a ''.'.'17 ,,d ; ;'3 F ...s + t ';i:
Vegetable. Union: A
herbivore's haven
By KEVIN O'SHEA singers are preferred. "Charlie
Looking for a bowl of hot said they tried a coffee house
rice and vegetables to tide you here before and it worked,"
over until supper? The Vege- says Dan, adding that sugges-
table Union may be what you tions from the public are wel
are looking for. come."
The new vegetarian cafeteria
is located in the basement of
the Michigan Union, set back
to the left . of the Union Sta-
tion, in the Wolverine Room
(fall training table of the car-
nivorous Michigan Wolverines.)
According to Charlie Riedel,
manager of both restaurants,
the Vegetable Union is intend-: TOMMallow
ed to provide "what the students
want; good food at a good
price."
The bill of fare includes sal-
ads, sandwiches, fresh gruit,
soup, delicious home-made yo-
gurt, teas, and juices. A hot'
meal with salad, soup and a
drink costs about two dollars.
The restaurant is operated by
Pat Harraigan, Cynthia Hunt-
ington, and Dan Bredehorst, a ~
resident of a local ashram. Pan
said the fare is "basically E
wholesome, cheap natural toods;
unprocessed and unpreserved."
The restaurant is open from 10
-
; =
pss4t
e'
e
as rare as tax cuts and the
work-a-day, desktop tray meals
- the President eats fall into the
75-cent category.
directed by
written and
JOSEPH A.
WALKER
TEA
I