Page Three Friday, February 23, 1973 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Friday, February 23, 1973 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Three 1 The Exterminating Angel Cinema Guild Fri. A group of well-dressed society people go to a party, and find that they cannot leave. T h e y cannot step over the threshhold, though there is nothing in outer reality, or in their conscious minds, to stop them. This is the premise of Bun- el's Exterminating Angel. The guests, forced to re-enact the events in their lives that have led to this suspension of time in the salon, speak their disjointed private thoughts. The individual- ist, conformist, shame-centered ideology of the bourgeois is giv- en a rough going-over by Bunuel, who demonstrates the disintegra- tion of rationality into fetishist fixations and violence. The superficiality of the char- acters' sanity is portrayed in a surreal blend of Lord of the Flies. and Huis Clos; they "discover'" their primitive selves, but at the same time a private hell accom- panies the discovery. -BRUCE SHLAIN * * * Hamlet Cinema Guild Sat. & Sun. Any production of Hamlet is certainly a monumental under- taking, though not always a monumental success. Being a long play and one which many people have read and/or seen several times, it demands a great deal of energy and imagina- tion from. actors and directors alike. By all accounts the Sov- iet rendition of Hamlet made in 1964 is a powerful and very ex- citing film which fails only in that it is too conventional for certain critical tastes. Its direc- tor, Grigori Kozintsev, was once a prominent force in early ex- perimental film movements and one critic who saw his Hamlet called it a "successful" film but one which is overall "depress- ing." Its many fine touches, he said, were "like the last flare- ups of a dying fire." But this evidently does not de- tract from the force and visual quality of the film. Kozintsev cut down much of Bosis Pasternak's Russian translation to make the story of the young prince into one of action and grand scale melodrama. The setting is sinister, uneasy, turbulent. The characters, even the ones with lesser roles, a r e solid -and real; they are not re- duced to abstractions. Hamlet himself is portrayed as a man of action rather than a brood- ing thinker which, for s o m e people, has made an even deep- er mystery out of his inability to avenge his father's dedth. A fine score was composed for the film by Dmitri Shostakovitch; his ghost theme has made the ap- pearance of the cloaked a n d armored King Hamlet one of the most frightening scenes in any Shakespearian film. It seems as though Hamlet will be the sleep- er of the weekend. Film not seen by press time. -DAVID GRUBER *~~ * * .V."N::: t1:".:::::.".'.".".:: cinema weekend . . ....... .... .. ...,.. . ......... .......... . ....... . . . . *.~*.*..*.*.**... **.*.*.**. ........... . . . ... . . .. . . tred in greener feminine pas- tread in greener feminine pas- "The Seven Year Itch" in this Billy Wilder film, is the focus of much universal fantasizing and farce. A happy hubby, Tom Ewell, is left to fend for himself in New York City, while his wife of sev- en years and son are cooling it in Maine. Manhattan's summer climate is predominantly sticky and humid, and not making the tempid matters any better is Ewell's sizzling upstairs neigh- bor Marilyn Monroe. Ewell's fertile imagination pro- duces varied romantic adven- tures with MM, while Wilder's theatrical sense of direction draws together an amusing story. Wilder's camera takes long lin- gering looks at the action in the cramped quarters of an apart- ment, similar to "The Apart- ment', without resorting to flat stage right/stage left movement. It is very painful to watch t h e married man fantasize; that is all he can do because marriage is too sacred an institution to sur- render to base instincts. At the same time the frustration of Ewell's libido becomes tedious and dull toward the end of "The Seven Year Itch." There is, alas, no fulfillment, as Ewell does not get the girl or even conquer the evil - he just remains married. -JEFF EPSTEIN Guys and Dolls Cinema II Sat. & Sun. In the winter of 1955, when you may have been sucking nipple or swapping likenesses of Yogi Berra, the film version of Guys and Dolls was knocking 'em dead all over our sleeping nation. "Un- der the direction of Joseph L. Mankiewicz who received a leg- up from choregrapher Michael Kidd", film critic Bosley Crow- ther echoes from yesteryear, "and with a fine cast of actors and chorines hollering and stomp- ing like crazy to boot it home, this musical classic, based upon a Damon Runyon tale and with wonderful songs by Frank Loes- ser gets a great ride all t h e way." In deflationary 1973 terms "fine cast" is a gross under- statement. I think it safe to say that you aren't likely to see as much talent (Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra, Vivian Blaine, Stubby Kaye, Re- gis Toomy, Sheldon Leonard) on the same screen ever again. The great tunes, (including "Your Eyes Are the Eyes of a Woman in Love", "Luck Be a Lady", "Adelaide', "I'll Know", "Guys and Dolls," lively dance routines, and syrupy plot line provide two and one half hour's of the most delightful variety of escapism. A few minor complaints. Frank Sinatra isn't very convincing, and Marlon Brando mumbles as if he were recovering from a stroke. The truth of the matter is that if Godfather Marlon Brando had not been responsible for the placement of a certain horse's head in a certain producer's bed, we would never have been cursed with Sinatra's comatose perform- ance. Such irony, however is be- yond the scope of this review. This aside, if by some quirk of circumstances you have never seen Guys and Dolls, or if per- haps you feel ready for an n th go-around, a treat awaits. -MARTY MARMOR The Licherish Quartet and Therese and Isabelle Modern Language Building Fri. & Sat. New Morning is bringing us a double dose of Radley Metzger this weekend. Metzger is gen- erally known as a prime produc- er of smooth, classy soft-core porn, but several critics have re- cently claimed that there's more to the man's filmsathan just pink, heaving breasts and -shiny but- tocks. Therese and Isabelle is the older of the two films. It's con- cerned with a Lesbian love af- fair in a French boarding school, and features Easy Persson and Anna Gael in the title roles. The Lickerish Quartet is of more recent vintage, and has a repu- tation as a kinkier, more bizar- re and outlandishly entertaining film. If Deep Throat leaves you hankering for something m o r e subtle (and less dull), this may be it. (Not reviewed at press time). -STAFF Shaft UAC Mediatrics Friday and Saturday John Shaft is a black private t Seven Year Itch Cinema II Fri. The carnal urge of all men to PROF. ORLANDO PATTERSON Sociology Dept., Harvard University "A Framework for the Study of Black Cultures in the Americas" MONDAY, February 26-4 p.m. E. Conference Rm., Rackham SPONSORS: Sociology Dept., Center for Afroameriacon & African Studies " **2... SHEER AND UNEXPECTED TER- ROR! A TOUGH, BITTER LITTLE SLEEPER OF A MOVIE ABOUT FOUR TIMES AS GOOD AS YOU'D EXPECT! UNBEARABLE TENSION!"-Chicago Sun Times MAR, SEVENTEEN, IS DYING. EVEN FOR HER THE WORST IS YET .4 TO COMET ...IT'S ACROSS THE STREET rn FROM 00 FRI.: 7:20, 9:00 JOE". SAT., SUN.: 5:45, 7:20, 9:00 Mick Jagger in "PERFORMANCE" - 11:00 p.m. See Separate Advertisement LIVE MAGIC SHOW - Sat. and Sun. Only with "THE 3 STOOGES," cartoons, and "FLASH GORDON" 1:00 & 3:15 p.m. All seats 75c UAC-DAYSTAR PRESENTS 2 JAZZ GREATS IN ONE CONCERT h e rbi e hancock and special guest star freddie hubbard SAT., FEB. 24 8 P.M.-HILL AUD. $4.50-4.00-3.50-2.50 reserved seats on sale MICH. UNION 11-5:30 Mon.-Sat and Salvation Records ALSO DON'T MISS 1__.. LiaU2. (_.. aa2__ I' a a detective who hires out at approx- imately fifty dollars an hour to find and return Bumpy Jones' daughter, who, you see, has been kidnapped and is being held cap- tive somewhere deep in the bowels of Manhattan. Bumpy is a kingpin in the Harlem syndi- cate and he wants his daughter back, no questions asked as to methods employed. Thus a thread of plot is provided, and Shaft goes off jaywalking across New York City to the pulsating music of Isaac Hayes. Shaft has all the accoutre- ments of the classic underdog movie detective-,a shabby office with a large window looking out on nothing, a quiet East Village duplex, and a cold, calculating manner guaranteed to earn him a certain amount of grudging respect. Then there is the string of mindless, mediocre women (whom he treats badly) and his classy leather wardrobe (which he wears nicely and treats bet- ter than the women). But the best thing of all is his amazing recuperative ability -three ma- chine gun slugs inthe chest and an hour later he's up and around ,and apparently feeling no pain. All of this while averting a nasty gang-and-race war b e t w e e n Bumpy's syndicate and some white (Mafia) hoods with the help of a small group of black revolutionaries. Directed by Gordon Parks and starring Richard Roundtree in the title role, Shaft (1971) is ob- viously an exploitation film, but it is not as offensive as most and it does contain some good, sim- ple entertaining moments. -WILLIAM MITCHELL Lolly Madonna XXX State I suppose it is a sane and sound reaction to become fairly suspicious when a major film company decides to hecticly pro- mote a new film and to give the work its virtual world premiere here in little old Ann Arbor. Strange fruit that wilts in more mundane soil, the company's logic all too often seems to go, may blossom in the unpredict- able earth of a big college town. Well, Lolly Madonna XXX is a very strange fruit indeed, and one I think we could all do with- out. I'm not quite sure what the movie is up to, and I'm even less sure that the people involved with the film could tell us. Lolly is a story of clan feuds in Ten- nessee hill country, and at times it seems pretentious as all hell. In several scenes and bits of dia- logue-a boy's amazement at seeing his older brother cry, Laban Feather's (Rod Steiger) and P a p Gutshall's (Robert Ryan) various proclamations of the Cumberland Mountains Moral Code, Zack Feather's (Jeff Bridges) El Sensitivsmo hillbilly awareness of the possibilities of love and pacifism - the movie seems to be attempting nothing less than to create a microcosm of America, her values and her problems. Yet more often, Lolly tries to be a whammo suspense movie by building tension that is let off in a climactic battle between the Feather and Gutshall famiiles. The movie fails abysmally at this, and I would suspect this is primarily due to the extreme lack of tight plot cohesion here. It all begins when Roonie Gill (played by Season Hubley, a comely y o u n g model whose pained facial expressions seem constantly to betray a case of cramps) is mistaken by the Feather clan for Lolly Madonna, the mythical fiancee of one of the Thieves' Carnivtal':* Light, well-paced escapism By ALVIN CHARLES KATZ Thieves' Carnival, a play in four acts by Jean Anouilh, directed by Alan Eisenstock, presented by Ann Arbor Civic Theatre, February 21-24, Mendelssohn, 8:00. Who were all those people in turn of the century dress running around Mendelssohn Theatre fif- teen minutes before show time, chatting with the audience and improvising games and dance routines on the stage? Merely the cast of Thieves' Carnival, the latest offering of Ann Arbor Civic Theatre, getting the audi- ence in the proper mood for the amiable nonsense which was to follow. Written by French author Jean Anouilh at the age of 22 as an attempt to compose a piece for 'I this K*WMD $2.00 8:30 FRI-SAT JOE HICKERSON West Quad's production of "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown," t h e "boulevard theatre," Thieves' Carnival lacks, literary distinction, but nonetheless is a witty and often charming play. Set in some vague time, probably around the 1920's, the play is a fantasy about three incredibly in- competent thieves working in Vichy, who set their sights on two wealthy and eligible young ladies. As a result of the desire of the girls' bored noblewoman aunt for intrigue, the thieves manage to become houseguests in their victims residence, mas- querading as Spanish nobility. From there, the plot gets even more ludicrous, with a variety of love affairs and mistaken identi- ties rounding out the action. The play features a great many pre- dictable scenes spoofing the rich and making the thieves look foolish which rarely elicit any real laughter, but are more than sufficient to provide a number of chuckles in the course of the show. Director Alan Eisenstock's pro- duction has style, approaching the play with just the right amount of camp and rarely re- sorting to slapstick or overt mug- ging to establish the play's hu- mor. The show incorporates some cleverly choreographed a n d clumsily executed dance num- bers which constitute some of the evening's funniest moments, highlighted nicely by musical di- rector Eric Stern's original per- iod music, which he performs ably on the piano. Diane Daver- man's creative and appropriate-, ly comical costumes further en- hance the production. The performances were all correctly artificial, with the en- tire case delivering good portray- als. Charles Stallman, Peter Brown, and James Cromar were very good as the three thieves, as were Ed Stein and Aleksander Wierzbicki as a father and son team of fortune hunters. I par- ticularly enjoyed Beverley Poo- ley as a stereotypical English gentlemen. A professor in the Law School and a veteran of sev- eral Civic Theatre productions, he very nearly stole the show at the end of the play with the eve- ning's best comic performance. The production moved along at a nice pace with the exception of one or two scenes dealing with the romantic plot, where the play momentarily began to take itself too seriously and bogged down. In addition, Anouilh chose to in- sert a comedia dell'arte musical faun who appears almost con- stantly and soon became a pre- tentious bore - so much so, in fact, that a line dismissing him evoked the strongest audience approval in the show. There is a message somewhere in this silly little play, which Anouilh seems to stick in at the end lest the work be a total liter- ary loss. Near the end of the play, one of the characters be- comes suddenly philosophical and says, "It is only for those who have played it with all their youth that the comedy has been successful . . . and they didn't even perceive that it was a com- edy." This frail message about the failure of youth toperceive the bitter comedy of life is eas- ily and best ignored, in which case Thieves' Carnival becomes an readily enjoyable bit of fool- ish fluff. featuring Housing director Leon rival Gutshall family. The Feath- ers kidnap Roonie and this, one would think, should be the cat- alytic event that leads inexor- ably to the film's big conclusion. But no, most of the movie is simply a dull alternation between Zack and Roonie-Lolly's love scenes and family conflict scenes. Furthermore, Roonie's connec- tion with the film's final explo- sion of violence is a tenuous one to say the least. After careful consideration I have managed to find Roonie's link with the climactic. battle, which is this: the primary act which precipitates the family war is the Weather boy's raping of Sister E. (sic) Gutshall (Joan Goodfellow). How does this come about? It seems Roonie has left her underthings where those Feather boys can get their hands on them. Hawk Feather (Ed Lauter), dressed in Lolly's dain- ties, then, treats brother Thrush (Scott Wilson) and us to a bit of flaming drag. This excites the two guys tremendously. And then when Sister E. arrives . . . Well boys will be boys. Lolly M's connection, then, with the clan warfare, is that of hav- ing left her bra and gridle where the fellas could fool with them- a connection to be sure, but then again, Ma Feather (Katherine Squire) could have been just as careless wth her clothes. Con- sider the possibilities. And as for the final battle, di- rector Richard Sarafian is much more adept at dishing out blood and guts than he is at creating genuine suspense. The movie left me with the bad feeling of hav- ing seen the equivalent of a fea- ture - length, slow - building stag film for sadists. Two things impressed me about Lolly - Madonna: t h e stunning Cumberland mountain scenery, and Jeff Bridges' amazing facil- ity for overcoming bad material. Bridges seems to be rapidly es- tablishing himself as a first-rate character actor, a resource we are desperately in need of. -RICHARD GLATZER The Last House on the Left Fifth Forum Three psychotic killers escaped West as Snoopy. from the State penitentiary. Two nubile teenage girls out on a lark in the City. They meet. A knife here, a knife there, and soon blood is gushing every- where. An avenging father, a cock-sucking mother (watch the teeth, honey), two incompetent cops, a child molester, a dyke, and a junkie. What more could you ask for? Oh ye of little taste? Personally, I think Dustin Hoff- man did it better in his little stone cottage in Cornwall. -WILLIAM MITCHELL And Yet Another Week Of... The Emigrants - Campus - a carefully made, moving, epic de- piction of Swedes leaving their country in search of the brighter horizons of America. Sounder - Michigan-Smooth, sweet, nice, with a fine lady named Cicely Tyson. Bring the kids. Deliverance - Fox Village - It's nomination for Best Picture shows just how far Hollywood has declined. A fair adventure , film, nothing more, nothing less. 0 S CU11UR CALENDAR DRAMA-The Ann Arbor Civic Theatre's production of Jean Anouilh's Thieves' Carnival will be presented tonight at 8 at Lydia Mendelssohn. And the Residential College Players present Williams' Something Unspoken and Io- nesco's The Lesson tonight at RC Aud. at 8. DANCE-The UM Dancers will present be in concert tonight at the Power Center at 8. And there will be a Turkish Dance Workshop at the Barbour Gym tonight from 8-11. MUSIC-Pianist Claudio Arrau will perform tonight at Hill at 8:30.' WEEKEND BARS AND MUSIC-Ark, Joe Hickerson (Fri., Sat.) admission; Blind Pig, Okra (Fri., Sat.) cover, Clas- sical Music (Sun.) no cover; Golden Falcon, Oz Nova (Fri., Sat.) cover; Mackinac Jack's, Detroit (Fri., Sat., Sun.) cover; Mr. Flood's Party, Cadillac Cowboys (Fri., Sat.) cover, Diesel Smoke and Dangerous Curves (Sun., 3 p.m.) cover; Bimbo's on the Hill, Cricket Smith (Fri., Sat.) cover; Del Rio, Jazz Music (Sun.) no cover; Rubal- yat, Iris Bell Adventure (Fri., Sat., Sun.) no cover; Bim- bo's, Gaslighters (Fri., Sat., Sun.) cover; Pretzel Bell, RFD Boys (Fri., Sat.) cover; Odyssey, Brooklyn Blues- busters (Fri., Sat.) cover, Okra (Sun.) cover. M9 Mediatrics LHF tonight, 6:00 2 4 7 News 9 Courtship of Eddie's Father 50 Flintstones 56 Operation Second Chance 6:30 2 CBS News 4 NBC News 7 ABC News 9 I Dream of Jeannie 50 Gilligan's Island 56 Bridge with Jean Cox 7:00 2 Truth or Consequences 4 News 7 To Tell the Truth 9 Beverly Hillbillies 50 1 Love Lucy 56 World Press 7:30 2 What's My Line? 4 Hollywood squares 7 Wait Till Your Father Gets Home 56 Wall Street Week 50 Hogan's Heroes 8:00 2 Mission: Impossible 4 sanford and Son 7 Brady Bunch 9 Woods and Wheels 56 Washington Week in Review 50 Dragnet 8:30 4 Little People 7 Partridge Family 9 Pig and Whistle 50 Merv Griffin 56 Off the Record 9:00 2 Movie "Boccaccio '70" (Italian 1962) 4 Circle of Fear 7 Room 222 9 News 56 San Francisco Mix 9:30 7 Odd Couple 9 Sports Scene 56 Opera with Henry Butler 10:00 4 Bobby Darin 7 Love, American Style f 9 Dan Gibson'saNature Family 50 Perry Mason 56 High School Basketball 11:00 4 7 News 9 CBC News 50 One Step Beyond 11:20 9 News 11:302 News 4 Johnny Carson 7 Dick Cavett 50 Movie "Captains of the Clouds" (1942) 12:00 2 Movie "The Family Jewels" (1965) 9 Movie "Night Gallery" (1969) 1:00 4 Midnight Special 7 Movie "Outside the Law" (1956) 2:00 2 Movie "Operation Bottleneck" (1961) 2:30 4 News 3:00 7 News 3:30 2 TV High School 4:00 It's Your Bet 4:30 2 News cable tv channel 3 The entire Ann Arbor area is great picture this is-you must talking about what a see it to appreciate it! H E LD OVE R-3rd H IT W E E K WINNER OF 4 ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATIONS, including * BEST PICTURE * BEST ACTRESS-LIV ULLMAN F I THURS-FRi at 6:40 & 9:05 SAT, SUN & WED at PM, 3:30, 6 PM, & 8:45 r "MASTERFUL !' OF A SECURE- "A FILM WORTHY INTEGRITY PLACE ON AN ARTIS OF IMMENSE Y, AS CERTAIN TIC ACHIEVE- 3:30 4:00 4:30 5:00 Pixanne Today's Woman Something Else (rock) Strataspliere Playhouse I '