Friday, December 7, 1973
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Five
Notorious
Cinema Guild, Arch. Aud.
Fri., 7, 9
Alfred Hitchcock directed this
intriguing espionage - thriller
with Cary Grant and Ingrid
Bergman in 1946; it stands as
one of the best Hitchcock pic-
tures ever made.
Cary must let Bergman pre-
tend to fall in love with the evil
Claude Rains and marry him be-
cause the U. S. government says
so - even though poor Grant is
madly in love with the beauti-
ful actress himself.
You will marvel at the subtle
direction and the heartbreaking
relationships between the stars.
Rains is unforgettable as the
mother - dominated Nazi who
finds out after it's too late that
he is being duped by Bergman.
Don't miss this film - there
have been hundreds of imitations
but Notorious is the real thing.
-MICHAEL WILSON
McCabe and Mrs. Miller
Friends of Newsreel, MLB
Fri., 7:15, 9:30
Robert Altman is probably the
greatest working commercial
feature director in America, a
fact only dimly being realized as
such films as MASH, Brewster
McCloud and McCabe and Mrs.
Miller are shown and re-shown
on college campuses.
These films age gracefully,
and, most amazingly, Altman is
not a one-theme director. He
molds the most shop-worn gen-
res of film fiction into forms
that allow the audience to think
for itself once again.
McCabe is Altman's revisionist
Western. There are the obliga-
tory chase and shoot-out scenes,
replete with saloons and whore-
houses. But there are also capi-
talists and entrepreneurs, ex-
ploited Chinese, homilies on wo-
men's rights, ambivalence, and
the songs of Leonard Cohen.
Best of all, unlike the Westerns
of Sam Peckinpah, there is a
sense of the frailty of all hu-
man life. See it.
-PHILIP MIROWSKI
Monkey Business
Cinema Guild, Arch. Aud.
Sat., Sun., 7, 9:05
One should never miss the
chance to see the Marx Brothers
on screen, larger than life and
sans commercials.
Monkey Business is one of the
better Marx films, ranking just
slightly behind Duck Soup and
A Night at the Opera. The film
(Paramount, 1931) casts the
brothers as stowaways, and pro-
vides them with more than am-
ple material. Watch out for the
customs scene and Harpo's solo
a; a puppet.
This movie, unfortunately,
doesn't have Margaret Dumont,
but it also doesn't have the hor-
rible "young love" sideplot
which hampered so many of their
later movies.
-ROBERT BIANCO
Monsieur Verdoux
Friends of Newsreel, MLB
Sat., 7:15, 9730
Although not seen at press
time, Monsieur Verdoux is ru-
mored to be unadulterated, vin-
dictive Charlie Chaplin in one of
his finest moments as an aging,
murderous Frenchman.
Made in 1947, Verdoux, like
many of the later Chaplin pic-
tures, had difficult distribution
proble~ms. Many felt the master
was sacrificing comedy for phi-
losophy in his later years and
wouldn't give him a tumble.
Friends of Newsreel should be
comolimented for their policy of
continuing to show later period
Chaplin films in the face of pur-
chasing problems.
-MICHAEL WILSON
The Fox
Friends of Newsreel, MLB
Sat., 7:15, 9:30
The Fox (1968) a screen adap-
t.tion of the D. H. Lawrence no-
vella, is the story of two intel-
lectual young women who try to
run a farm together until a fox
gets into their chicken house
and a man appears at their door.
Sandy Dennis and Anne Hey-
wood are the two women, and
both give fine performances, as
does Keir Dullea playing the
young man.
Special credit should also go to
director Mark Rydell for cre-
ating an evocative sense of
mood, achieved mainly through
beautifully photographed images,
all held together by a spare,
haunting theme played on solo
flute.
-WILLIAM MITCHELL
Oscar Wilde
Friends of Newsreel, MLB
Fri., 7:15, 9:30
A courtroom drama about a
sex scandal, Oscar Wilde may
unfortunately force the viewer
into a state of catatonic bore-
dom. Robert Morley, playing the
great author Wilde somehow
holds the film together with a
flawless performance, while
Ralph Richardson enacts the role
of prosecuting attorney.
The film's faults lie in the
hands of director Gregory Rat-
lowe in Robert Altman's latest
and greatest motion picture.
Gould's performance will re-
mind you of his funny roles be-
fore he began making all those
terrible flops which almost
drained his talent.
The Long Goodbye is a com-
plicated mystery mix-up involv-
ing the beautiful Nina Van Pal-
landt (Clifford Irving's ex-) in a
series of plot twists that remind
one of Bogart's Big Sleep. It is
no coincidence that both films
share the same super-cool detec-
tive and unexplained murders.
Altman is trying to recapture
the 1940's thriller genre here, and
Cinema II schedule
Not seen at press time
Wild Strawberries (I n g m a r
Bergman, 1958). Fri., 7 and 9 in
And. A.
The Kremlin Letter (John Hus-
ton, 1969). Sat., same time and
place.
Madame Bovary (Rene Clair).
Sun., subtitled.
Also ..+.
The Michigan Theater presents
American Graffiti, a look at the
rockin' boppin' early Sixties
.% X,
. . . . .
Cinema
weekeiid .. .
........................ .............................. . . ......................
off, whose eager hands seem to
destroy every film they touch.
He's the filmmaker who tried to
shoot All About Eve in 1950 and
won the hatred of star Bette
Davis for the rest of his life.
Wilde, shot in 1960, is a testi-
monial to Ratoff's incompetence.
-MICHAEL WILSON
The Long Goodbye
Fifth Forum
Elliot Gould makes a well-de-
served comeback as the popular
private detective Phillip Mar-
Arits fair to
run Suanday
So you won't be home from
exams in time to do much Christ-
mas shopping? Check out-the De-
cember Art Fair this Sunday in
the Michigan Union Ballroom for
crafts from jewelry to leather-
work.
From 12 to 6 p.m. artists will
display their work and will wel-
come questions on their crafts.
Prices are often negotiable, and
haggling is an art form in itself,
isn't it?
The fair is sponsored by the
University of Michigan Artists
and Craftsmen Guild.
he does a terrific job.
Although Goodbye had prob-
lems over the summer when it
first opened in New York - Alt-
man pulled it out of distribution
to re-edit the entire picture-
there seem to be no difficulties
anymore.
This is first-rate entertainment
and one of the better films to
come out this year.
through the lives of four young
men.
The State features Fantasia,
Walt Disney's masterpiece of an-
imation set to classical music.
The Campus shows Kubrick's
Clockwork Orange.
UAC-Mediatrics presents David
0. Selznick's Gone With .the
Wind, Friday through Sunday at
7 p.m. in Nat. Sci. Aud.
T E-IllORANGE BACKI
A-Is
Stanley
Kubrick's
Thur. &
Fri. at
a A& w from
1:30
LOE \
HELD OVER114 HITes n
BECAUSEHT
YOU WEEK!
LOVE IT!**e Poh 661
Daily Photo by JOHN UPTON
Jazz at Rackhamr
Edward Louis Smith conducts the Jazz Band at Rackham Auditorium last night.
Varying quali m
U' Players~o'
m8
By JIM KENTCH
The world of Shakespeare's
Cymbeline is one in which any-
thing can happen and just about
does. A decapitated corpse, ex-
pulsion of political repressors,
disguises, treachery and happy
reunions all have their place in
the play.
The current University Players'
production of Cymbeline at True-
blood Theater is an incongruous
as the play itself. The quality of
all theatrical elements Wednes-
day night varied greatly.
Cymbeline is a romance, a
category invented by academians
who somehow couldn't see some
Shakespearian plays as tragic
or comic. Romance has elements
of both traditional genres.
All ends happily with the es-
tranged lovers reunited and the
Romans driven out of Britain.
But along the way the queen kills
herself, the prince is decapitat-
ed, and things look very bleak in-
deed when the heroine Imogen is
thought dead.
The costumes are impressive.
Cymbeline appears every inch
a king in his royal robes. Be-
larius and his two companions
live the pastoral life of ease
in caveman regalia. But ;i e
queen and her attendants look
more like Oriental praying man-
tises than anything else in their
ridiculous hats and robes.
The set reflects the fairy tale
atmosphere and somewhat facil-
itated the quick change of scen-
es. Many exits are delayed and
awkward. Difficulties in mov-
ing the variouscprops detract-
ed from the flow of the action.
The music was trite - trum-
pets announce the king's entrance
- and without value.
Some fine and not so fin3 act-
ing was exhibited by the lead-
ing actors. Marshall Levijohi as
the treacherous seducer Iachimo
and David Swan as the knavish
prince Cloten dominated the
stage.
James Symmons was truly a
noble savage. Evan Jeffries as
king Cymbeline, though, w a s
not as splendid as his costume--
he was a fine fuddy-duddy but
not regally compelling. Richard
Frank as Posthumous and Law-
rence Harbison as Pisanio flatly
recited their lines.
In the demanding role of Irno-
gen Judith Levitt did well as
far as she went but lacked the
versatility which the part re-
quired.
All the actors and actresses
but Levijokitand Swan had pro-
lems with the language. They
treated it too piously to retain
completely natural speeci. But
Levijoki consummately lives his
speech in Imogen's bedcliabe'r,
and Swan doesn't let words get
in his way as he stuabies to h:s
death.
The production's worst afflic-
tion was the audience, wno
laughed throughout the entire
production. Cloten's very realis-
tic and gruesome head being
carried onstage and his headless
body lying next to the sleeping
Imogen were met with great
mirth. Parts of this play are
funny, but a decapitated b ) d y
has never been slap;:ick.
It is difficult to produce a
Shakespearian play, but this
production, although flawed and
not completed smooth, must be
praised for its ambition.
FIFTH FORUM
210 S. FIFTH AVE.
ANN ARBOR
761-9700
ELLIOTT KASTNER presents A ROBERT ALTMAN film
ELLIOTT GOULD in
"THE LONG GOODBYE"
2nd SMASH HIT WEEK!
231 S. STATE ! DIAL 662-6264
UA I" TA I$TUIUTIOU Co, Ki"wnDi".oot
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Bob Salmaggi, Group W Network
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United Artists
SHOW TIMES
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7:00 and 9:00
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Open daily 12:45-Shows at1,3,5,7, 9:05
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