Friday, January 12, 1973

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

Page Three

Friday, January 12, 1973 THE MICHIGAN DAILY

...


FOREST
FIRES BURN
MORE
THAN
TREES

The Bicycle Thief
Cinema Guild
Thurs. & Fri.
Few people would contest that
The Bicycle Thief is one of the
greatest Neo-realist films. Its
theme and style are deceptively
simple, while the force and
drama which Vittorio de Sica
draws from the poverty of every-
day life is amazing.
The script is written by Cesare
Zavattini and deals with the re-
lationship between a young boy
and his father. Set in post-war
Italy the father is unemployed
and struggling to feed his family.
When he finally gets a job, the
family pawns everything to buy
him a bicycle to get him to work.
But the bicycle is stolen and the
father and son start a search
around Rome which reveals much
about their world and ultimately
their relationship.
De Sica is fond of using non-
actors in his films. His careful
coaching helps them to under-
stand the similarities between
their lives and the lives of the
characters they represent. It is
De Sica's ability to create poetic
realism that gives his film its
beauty.
-CHRISTOPHER PHILLIPS
Rock Around the Clock
Cinema Guild
Sat.
The rock 'n rolling Fifties have
made it big in the cosmic Seven-
ties, and everyone is jumping.
Take a stroll down 'ole Memory
Lane with Bill Haley, his Comets,
and Little Richard in the bom-
bastic revue Rock Around The
Clock. It's better than 50 olden
but goldens ordered from Chubby
Checkers, but if you insist on
singing along, then follow the
bouncing ball .. .
One, Two Three o'clock Four
o'clock ROCK. Five, Six, Seven

o'clock, Eight o'clock ROCK.
Nine, Ten Eleven o'clock Twelve
o'clock ROCK. We're gonna
ROCK around the clock tonight.
Put your glad rags on, an'
join me hon', we're gonna to have
some fun, when the clock strikes
one. We're gonna ROCK around
the clock tonight, we're gonna
ROCK, ROCK ROCK to broad
daylight. We're gonna ROCK
gonna ROCK around the clock
tonight.
And keep those fingers wagin'
and toes tappin'.
-JEFF EPSTEIN
The Maltese Falcon
Cinema Guild
Sun.
Probably the greatest crime-
detective film ever made. John
Huston directs and writes the
screenplay and Humphrey Bo-
gart, of course, stars as detective
Sam Spade. The film's greatness
is surely attributed to the collab-
eration between these two men-
which would also later produce
such American classics as The
Treasure of Sierra Madre.
The character of Spade and
Bogart's. performance of it creat-
ed the Bogart-mystique in the
minds of many. Subsequent films
like Casablanca generally include
a character which closely paral-
lels Spade. In The Maltese Fal-
con the camera focuses on Bo-
gart throughout. It constantly
shadows him, trails him and
never lets him out of view.
Sydney Greenstreet, who plays
the Fat Man, also performs mag-
nificently in the role of a master
criminal who treats his never-
ending search for the Maltese
Falcon as a sort of suave, intel-
lectual exercise. This concept of
villainy has been copied end-
lessly in the past 30 years down
to the latest James Bond movie.
Peter Lorre also adds fascinating-
ly sinister touches in his role
as Cairo.
As in most Bogart films, the
plot gets involved in a myriad of
this W'PKBRD
$2.00 8:30
FRI.-SAT.
Ed Trickelt
and the
GOLDEN RING

double-dealings and searches;
but the plot, for all its complexi-
ties, remains secondary to Bo-
gart's performance.
-JEFF SORENSEN
To Have and Have Not
Cinema II
Fri. & Sat.
Warner Brothers liked Hum-
phrey Bogart's performance in
Casablanca so much that they
decided to transport both him
and the basic plot line to Mar-
tinique and call it To Have and
Have Not. This time Bogart plays
a professional fisherman trying
to remain apolitical just after the
fall of France. Not an easy task,

Topper
Cinema II
Sun.
Topper (1937) is another of
t h o s e "sophisticated" 1930's
comedies, this time starring
Cary Grant and Constance Ben-
nett as George and Marion Ker-
by, a lively socialite couple killed
in a car accident soon after the
picture begins. Of course, you
cannot kill off Cary Grant during
the first reel like that, and in-
deed, he and Miss Bennett soon
reappear as ghosts and the story
continues. Having led a rather
frivolous life, the Kerbys decide
to do one good deed before the
celestial trumpets blow. Appar-


cinema
weekend

............................................................................:".f :":J............................... ............................................

I/- . -

especially when Lauren Bacall
enters the scene and tries to per-
suade him toi smuggle Free
French leaders into Martinique
with his boat. Despite the fabled
Bogart hardboiledness, how can
he resist such invitations as her
husky: "If you need anything
just whistle?" (How could any-
one?) Needless to say, the dame
gets him into a lot of hot water,
but old Bogie learned to swim a
long time ago.
To Have and Have Not was
Lauren Bacall's first movie, and,
besides the opportunity to banter
some great one-liners with Bo-
gart, she also gets to sing "Am
I Blue" with Hoagy Carmichael
as accompanist.
Howard Hawks directs this
screen adaptation of Heming-
way's book, and there are some
fine bit-part characterizations and
action sequences-but still, we
all know it is Bogart and Bacall
in their first picture together that
makes this film worth seeing.
-WILLIAM MITCHELL

ently they think their old friend,
Topper, leads an exceedingly dull
life as the president of a large
bank, and so they contrive to get
him into all sorts of amusing
predicaments to pull him out of
his humdrum existence. A
"whimsical" film with adequate
acting and some nice visual ef-
fects.
-WILLIAM MITCHELL
Sweet Sweetback' s
Badasssss Song
Modern Language Bldg.
Fri. & Sat.
Melvin Van Peebles gained
notoriety by making this uncom-
promising film about a black
man fleeing from police after
being unjustly accused of beat-
ing one of their white officers. It
is uncompromising in that Sweet-
back, the man on the run, is
seen as a totally innocent victim
of white racism and hatred, while
whites are purely tormentors.
Van Peebles seems to have
made the film with a racial ven-

4

I

geance. In the end it is rather
shallow. The characterizations do
not move us to any emotional
response. Native Son has the
same basic plot, but a reader is
able to get inside Bigger Thomas
and feel his anger and humilia-
tion. With Sweetback, one can
only watch the hunted man run
on and on and say, "yes, things
are bad," and then forget about
it.
-DAVID GRUBER
The Getaway
Fox Village
San Peckinpah has always had
a reputation as a rebellious di-
rector. From his first film, Major
Dundee, to Straw Dogs, sponsor-
ing film companies have cut his
work heavily. So much animosity
has arisen between Peckinpah
and producers that in recent in-
terviews he's been given to call-
ing himself a "whore."
The Getaway again bears out
Peckinpah's self-appellation. It
is his most commercial film, the
kind of well executed bank heist
and chase film which Hollywood
has turned out by the dozens
lately. Typically, The Getaway
contains blotches of Peckinpah-
esque humor and deals with his
preoccupation for misfits and
other outcasts. /But it's watered
down Peckinpah and any thema-
tic jabs that could legitimize the
film are weak and muddled.
Even the action in the film
becomes tiresome. How many
times during an hour and a half
can you stand to see another
police car being shot at or slow
motion death scenes? Peckinpah
would have done better to limit
his use of slow motion, especially
in his modern surrealistic ver-
sion of the shoot-out at the O.K.
Corral.
-CHRISTOPHER PHILLIPS
The Poseidon Adventure
Michigan
It's New Year's Eve and the
ocean liner Poseidon is hit by a
ninety foot tidal wave. The ship
is capsized and a small group of
survivors begin a Dante-esque
ascent through the Hell of the
sinking ship. Which one of the
film's fifteen Oscar winners will
survive? Who cares? The Posei-
don is really a ship of fools.
From the Silliphant-Mayes lame
dialogue to some of the rankest
overacting afloat, the Poseidon
Adventure becomes more of a
catastrophe than the tragedy it
depicts.
The film's script is laughably
unsuspenseful. And anyone of the
principles deserved a fate much
worse than the watery death they
received. Whether it be Shelley
Winters as the Jewish grand-
mother with her barrage of "fat"
jokes or Stella Stevens as the
reformed prostitute, it all comes
out as bilge. Even the inside of
the Poseidon looks more like the
interior of a gas range than the
guts of a ship.
-CHRISTOPHER PHILLIPS
Pete and Tillie
State
At the end of Pete and Tillie
the person behind me rose from
his seat exclaiming, "Dirty trash
is alright, but clean trash?!!" He
must be applauded for the energy
with which he made this state-
ment. Pete and Tillie, a thorough-
ly unremarkable and inexhorably
clean film despite a few base
jokes and a shot of Walter
Matthau in the nude, failed to
generate any passion in me what-
soever. There are a few chuckles,
a couple outright laughs, and
one cheap sorrow, but on the
whole the film has a mild-
mannered, safe feeling about it.
One must bear it with a sigh,
or with incredulity like the

gentleman above, or better still,
avoid it and let it pass.
Pete (Matthau) is a 3/4 Luth-
eran, 1/4 Jewish cynic with a
rather base sense of humor.
Tillie is an ordinary, ordinary,
and quite ordinary unmarried
woman at the age when her
friends begin to worry about her,
which is 33. They begin seeing
each other and in a short time
Tillie discovers that Pete is love-
able. They marry and have a
child, and exuberant lovable
little boy who gets leukemia.
There is no hope for him. There

A new Dracula':
Too melodramatic

"... .impeccable taste,
warmth, good feelings,
and beautiful music."
--Mich. Daily

By TANIA EVANS
The major goal of the Theatre
Company of Ann Arbor, Inc. is
to bring all types of literature
to the stage while remaining
true to the particular form. How-
ever, its debut performance of
Dracula, an original adaption by
Annette Martin of Bram Strok-
er's 1897 novel, does little either
for the novel or the stage.
The script concentrates on the
dramatic action of the novel,
while the production, also di-
rected by Annette Martin, in-
tensifies this action to the point
of transforming drama into far-
cical melodrama. While the as-
sumption on the part of the play-
wright-director appears to be
that a highly dramatic style is
both the proper period emphasis
and an accurate imitation of the
gothic flavor, she fails to provide
support theatrically.
The modern set, bare of prop-
erties, is beautifully constructed
for stage movement but is de-
signed to enhance symbol and

Reserved S

eats MICHIGAN UNION 11-5:30
Sorry, no personal checks
DAVID BROMBERG coming JAN. 24, Wed.
POWER CENTER $2.50 also now at Union

Mon.-Sot.

1411 Hill STREET
"

suggestion. The formal victorian
language and gesture, as well
as the unnaturally high level of
intense melodrama, have no be-
lievable framework.
The actors in Dracula are ask-
ed to establish atmosphere and
tone by chopping lines with
heavy breathing, by contorting
faces into grotesque masks of
horror and desperation, and by
extending moans and screams
far beyond effective expression.
They are further asked to sus-
tain thisfunnatural state for three
hours after being robbed of cre-
ative freedom and the depth of
character necessary to do so.
There is one actress, Adrienne
Meyer as Renfield, who escapes
the imposition of ridiculous ste-
reotype by creating a dramatic
structure of her own, one that
properly employs techniques of
the theatre and allows the mad
Renfield to naturally evolve as a
personality out of both situation
and i n herenerg t characteristics.
Meyer energizes the fantasy-
reality of Dracula, giving it
force and believable form.
Other solid moments are pro-
vided by Loretta Pirages as Mina
Murray and by Kathy Gladney
as the light-headed Lucy Wes-
tenra. These three actresses
prove that the combination of
literature and theatre as distinct
but complementary entities can
be successful, and indicate that
the performance might - have
worked had the director relied
on her actors' obvious but ob-
scured talents.
The c o s t u m e s of Dracula's
women, by Janet Pietsch, are
imaginative and the lighting is
skillful if too consciously at work
heightening emotionalism.

Bette Miller comes to Detroit Sunday, Jan. 21 at Masonic Audi-
torium at 7:30. Tickets available at Masonic Box Office and all
J. L. Hudson ticket outlets.
is no hope for us as viewers contributes to the mayhem.
either. It is impossible not to Cabaret makes excellent use of
feel sorry for someone who must the physical beauty and stage
die while young for no apparent settings, balancing the smoky,
reason. Love Story made its mil- dank Kit Kat Club with the
ions on this basic, easily obtained b r e e z y Bavarian landscapes.
human reponse and thankfully Fosse shoots all the musical num-
was blasted for it. Such a situa- bers in the club from tight an-
tion in a film is merely a trap gles again emphasizing the lack
for the spectators. With Pete and of fresh air. Cabaret is more
Tillie, though, it is at least pos- than a musical; it's a fascinating
sible to realize that you have view of a perverse period of his-
been dealt something unneces- tory.
sarily heavy-handed. In a film -JEFF EPSTEIN
whose predominant tone is one
of dull resignation, such a crisis
just doesn't fit. Harold and Maude
-DAVID GRUBER
Campus
CabaretThe current issue of The Na-
are tional Lampoon is entirely de-
Fifth Forum voted to making a mockery of
By all standards Cabaret is a death. One2article, for instance,
spectacular film musical. Direc- suggests Ways to be O n-
tor Bob Fosse has resisted the ou idnt Lunera of Someoae
temptation to adapt the success- to "offer $10,000 to the person
ful Broadway play into a glaring, hoto anrdraw the best me sterho
glittering talent show. The recent wocan draw the bns moustache
disappointment Man of La Man- baby pictures of the deceased."
cha points up the fact that large Here and elsewhere in the mag-
production numbers, beautiful azine the Lampoon writers prove
scenery and big names can carry that irreverance, audacity, and
a good musical to the dregs of grotesqueness can be funny.
cinema. However Cabaret is fully Parts of Harold and Maude are
intact, with the superior musicali.r h
skills of Liza Minelli and Joel ended o wo the same way.
Grey that bring the film to apin- Harold (Bud Co is a young
nacle of both dramatic andmui man with a fantaclystically macabre
clacievb tdrmusi- imagination who is continually
cal achievement, trying to kill himself in front of
Berlin in the pre-World War II his mother. Being a domineering
era was steeped in decadence and sort, she tells him to stop it and
unconcern for the imminent dis- arranges several computer dates
aster that loomed ahead. Sally for him. For their benefit he
Bowles (Liza) is a singer-dancer pulls off his ghastliest deeds, an
at Berlin's Kit Kat Club and they leave the house agog. These
seems to personify the mood of are the film's best moments.
the period. She is outgoing and
livlyyetisdeelytroubled and When he is not trying to kill
lively yet is deeply tobe n himself he attends funerals of
her costume includes the garish hpel hehanedsknrA
trappings of green fingernails peoethe has hneve own. e
and eye makeup. Joel Grey as (Ruth Gordon), a spritely lady of
the Kit Kat Club M.C. presides 79 who steals cars, drives like a
over the club (a microcosm of
Germany) yet he relishes, and See CINEMA, Page 7
8:30 4 Little People
"Honest Sean Drives Again"
7 Partridge Family
9 Amazing world of Kreskin
® 50 Merv Griffin
56 Off the Record
9:00 2 Movie
g "Petulla" (1968)
4 circle of Fear
tonight7 Room 222
tonigo t 9 News er8
56 The Mild Bunch
6:00 2 4 7 News 9:30 7 Odd Couple
9 Courtship of Eddie's Father 9 Sports Scene
50 Fintsones56 Why Man Creates
56 Bridge with Jean Cox .. 10:00 4 Banyon
7 Love, American Style
6:30 2 4 7 News 9TmyHne
9 I Dream of Jeannie 50 Perry Mason
50 Gilkigan's Island 56 High School Basketball
56 Boo Beat11:00 2 4 7 News
7:00 2 Truth or Consequences 9 CBC News
4 News 50 One Step Beyond
7 To Tell the Truth 11:20 9 News
9 Beverly Hillbillies 11:30 2 Movie
50 I Love Lucy "She" (English; 1965)
56 World Press 4 Johnny Carson
7:30 2 What's My Line? 7 Jack PaarsTonite
4 Hollywood squares 50 Movie
7 Wait Till Your Father Gets "The Scarlet Claw." (1944)
Home 12:0 9 Movie
9 Lassie: "The Projected Man." (En-
56 wall street week glish; 1966)
50 Hogan's Heroes 1:00 4 News
8:00 2 Mission: Impossible 7 Movie
4 Sanford and Son "Mystery street." (1950)
7 Brady Bunch 1:30 2 Movie
9 Woods and Wheels "Paid to Kill." (English;
56 Washington Week in Review 1954)
50 Dragnet 3:00 2 7 News
POETRY-The distinguished American poet Richard Wilbur,
winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award,
and the Bollingen Prize, will read his poetry in the
Rackham Amphitheater, today at 4. Also, the following
writing prizes will be awarded: Hopwood Prizes for Un-
derclassmen, Bain-Swiggett Award, Michael R. Gutter-
man Award, and the Academy of American Poets Award.
DRAMA-The Theater Company of Ann Arbor's production
of Dracula is again presented tonight at 8 at Mendels-
sohn.
MUSIC-Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte, presented by the Canadian

Opera Company tonight at 8 at the Power Center.
DANCE-International Folk Dance tonight at the Barbour
Gym from 8-11 (teaching from 8-9).
WEEKEND BARS AND MUSIC-Bimbo's, Gaslighters (Fri.,

PREVIEW
Pick up your complete schedule-poster at the show-
ings, at LSA info booth, or at various places around
town.I
PROGRAM INFORMATION: 662-8871
Sat., Jan. 13: ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK
Sun., Jan. 14: MALTESE FALCON, Bogart
Tue., Jan. 16: CLEOPATRA, Liz Taylor
SHOWS 6:00 & 9:05
Wed., Jan. 17: THE GOSPEL ACCORDING
TO ST. MATTHEW, Pasolini
SHOWS 7 & 9:20
Thu., Fri., Jan. 18/19: A TALE OF
TWO CITIES
Sat., Jan. 20: DON'T KNOCK THE ROCK
Sun., Jan. 21: 39 STEPS, Hitchcock
Mon., Jan. 22: INAUGURAL
EXTRAVAGANZA
TRICIA'S WEDDING & CHECKER SPEECH
SHOWS 7, 8:30 & 10
Tue., Jan. 23: GOLD RUSH, Chaplin
Wed., Jan. 24: THE GENERAL, Keaton
Thu., Fri., Jan.25/26: DR. JEKYLL
& MR. HYDE

NOW IN PROGRESS!!
Men's and Women s
Shoes and Boots
SDRASTIC-ALLY