Friday, March 2, 1973
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page 'Three
Friday, March 2, 1973 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Three
David Copperfield
Cinema II
Fri.
"I have in my heart of
hearts,' said Dickens, 'a favor-
ite child and his name is David
Copperfield.' The classic story
of David's triumphs and sor-
rows and the amazing people
who were his friends and ene-
mies, has been made into, a
* gorgeous photoplay which en-
compasses the rich and kindly
humanity of the original so bril-
liantly that it becomes a screen
masterpiece in its own right.
The immortal people of David
Copperfield, of whom G.K. Ches-
terton has said they are more
actual than the man who made
them, troop across the . . .
screen like animated duplicates
of- the famous Pliz drawings on
an irresistable and enourmously
heartwarming procession. It is
my belief that this cinema edi-
tion of David Copperfield is the
m o s t profoundly s a t i s f y-
ing screen manipulation of a
novel that the camera has ever
given us." - Andre Sennwald,
N. Y. Times, 1935.
Who knows, it may still be.
The film stars W: C. Fields as
"the magnificent Micawber, the
indigent aristocrat, the tool of
circumstance," Lional Barry-
more as Dan Peggoty, Maureen
O'Sullivan as Dora, Basil Rath-
bone as Mr. Murdstone, and
Freddie Bartholomew as the kid.
Not seen by presstime.
Things to Come
Sat.
Cinema II
Things To Come is the vision of
eminent science - fiction author,
and fortune teller, H. G. Wells,
in 1936. It is the frighteningly,
pessismistic tale of a turbulent
century. However, more import-
ant than the factual accuracy of
the 100 years, is the prophesy of
man's human condition in the fu-
ture.
This is 1973, and for obvious
reasons we can smirk smug-
gishly, confident in the knowl-
edge that the worldwide holo-
caust Wells' predicted for the
past three decades never mater-
ialized H o w e v e r,Things To
Come correctly portrays the
world as an arena for man's
non-stop conflicts.
R a y m o n d Massey's pur-
poseful and quiet portrayal of
John Cabals, a scientist, philoso-
pher, and humanitarian who
leads the world back to civiliz-
ation - underground cities, ar-
tificial sunlight, muzak, etc.-
strongly hints of being a por-
trait of Wells. Cabals, better
than anyone in the film, knows
that the need for confrontation
in men will never subside. He
chooses to conquer science and
space rather than other civiliz-
ations. Yet the insecurity of civi-
lizations because of warfare, both
past and future, leaves the audi-
ence intrigued, much the same
as the conclusion of another
science-fiction classic A Canticle
for Leibowitz. Things To Come is
engrossing and provocative, and
if half way accurate, then we are
in for an interesting century.
-JEFF EPSTEIN
Belle of the Nineties
Cinema II
Sunday
When Belle of the Nineties was
first released in 1934 it was
titled It Ain't No Sin and was
considered so lewd as to be un-
fit for general audience consump-
tion by all the censoring boards,
including the state of New York,
which refused even to license it.
So some of the more objection-
able material was removed and
the film was reissued. Gone are
scenes like the one in which
Mae, slasped in the arms of an
over zealous lover, murmurs se-
ductively: "Take it easy, honey.
You'll last longer." But by and
large, Belle of the Nineties bris-
tles with all the sexual double-
entendres for which Mae West is
famous..
Mae plays Ruby Carter, a
slinky cabaret singer in a swank
New Orleans gambling estab-
lishment called "S e n s a t i o n
House." There she plays queen
bee to a swarm of admirers, but
her real love is a boxer named
Tiger Kid (Roger Pryor). Some-
how she and the slugger have a
falling out due to an unfortunate
misunderstanding p u r p o s e-
Hour of the Fu
Part 1
New World Fil
UGLI
Fri.
This is the first hour
of a long, long, long,t
ary history of Argent
with radical polemics
plistic thinking. Stanli
nann cited this as the
of 1971. Jean-Pierre
"Jean-Luc Godard and'
his romantic French ac
it a "Sheetty movie.".
complimentary.
The Kingo
Marvin Gard
Fifth.,Forum
The cinematic them
as a game" is surel
most originanl of con
The King of Marvin Ga
rarity, in that it stan
crnaces love you for what you are, but
that don't last long.") However,
this can only be part of the
Im cause. In Stockton, any success
is a minor one, and if it comes
and a half at all it does so with some de-
andoauhalf- gree of failure. There is noth-
Jevoluti nl ing worth attaching oneself to,
a, filed and no one has enough strength
and sim- to do so anyway. What there is
best film instead is a shared sense of
Gorin (of frustration, a feeling that the
fame) n only thing people have in com-
ent called mon is the grit of the town.
Admission Behind Fat City one can feel
the sureness of Huston's direc-
-STAFF tion. (except for one moment at
the end when he decides to use a
bit of obvious trickery). He
knows his settings and charac-
lens ters thoroughly, and he knows
their backgrounds. Stories and
e of "life remembrances pop up in gener-
y not the al conversation, deepening and
cepts, but filling out the lives we are
rdens is a watching. There are fine per-
ds unpre- formances by Keach, Bridges, by
Susan Tyrell as Oma, a mixed-
s up, highly emotional woman who
vacillates between fits of tears
and a kind of masculine tough-
ness, and by Nicholas Colasan-
to, whose Ruben is the person-
ification of a coach, short,
paunchy, with a high hoarse
voice, an unending line of pep
talk, and a genuine concern for
his boxers. In Huston's hands all
these elements are blended to-
gether in a rich and unassuming
picture.
-DAVID GRUBER
cinema
weekenc
Sounder
Michigan
Although Sounder is a nicely
photographed a n d pleasant
enough film, it remains a mys-
tery to me why there have been
waves of acclaim for it. Part of
the mystery probably lies in the
very fact that a word like "plea-
sant" can be ascribed to a film
about black sharecropping in the
Deep South. And during the De-
pression, yet.
Hats off, then, to white direc-
tor Martin Ritt He seems to
ha-e once an.d for all commer-
cialized the Black Experience
into a mixture of shimmering
wheatfields and good hard work.
To point out the commercialness
of Sounder, however, need not
entail a total condemnation. The
subject matter is, for the most
part, novel enough, and the act-
ing powerful enough, to with-
stand the almost "breezy" .ap-
proach to the anguishes of pov-
erty and racism.
That is, after all, partly the
point, to break through the
stereo - typical veil, the social
veil that hides the Southern
Black, and move the personality
to the forefront. Indeed, at times
Cicely Tyson, as Rebecca, and
Paul Winfield, as Nathan, move,
nbowt with such an imnenetrable
inner strength th-t their eco-
nomic struggles seem a mere
pittance.
Winfield is often shot with the
camera looking up at him, exag-
gerating his physical stature as
he tugs at his cap and glares for
a moment at the horizon. Cicely
. Tyson, meanwhile, is even more
spiritually imposing than Win-
field. Her thin, almost bony fig-
ure is perfectly suited to Martin
Ritt's idea of the combination
earth - mother andsensual wo-
man. The pose that. Ritt most
often films of Rebecca is one in
which she flares her nostrils and
shows her teeth like a fine race-
horse, supposedly in these mo-
ments breathing in the Despair
and turning it to Love. One can
only look forward to seeing Ty-
son with another director, even
though she provides the' best
dramatic moments in Sounder,
as when she stares back momen-
t'arily at the sheriff who denies
her knowledge of her imprisoned
husband's whereabouts.
Yes, the Morgan family has
its hardships. The film begins
with a nice scene in which Na-
than and his oldest son, David
Lee (Kevin Hooks), run through
a moonlit patch of woods in pur-
suit of a raccoon. Sounder, their
dog, gives exhausting chase, but,
the raccoon gets away. Nathan
takes it in stride, in the manner
of a man accustomed to failure,
but at the same time his sense
of male pride is left totally in-
tact.
With his children going hun-
gry, Nathan steals some meat
("I went where I had to go. My
children was hungry."), and is
promptly arrested for it. As he
driven away in a pick-up truck,
handcuffed, his faithful dog
Sounder chases after him, and is
shot at and wounded by a depu-
ty. Bleeding, Sounder limps off
into the woods. In the absence
of Nathan, David Lee and Re-
becca have to handle the share-
cropping themselves, which they
miraculously manage, although
Ritt leaves it to the imagination
as to how that was actually ac-
complished.
At this point in the narrative,
David Lee becomes the import-
ant character. Determined to
find his father, he finds out, with
the help of a white woman,
where his father has been sent.
He embarks, on foot, on a ri-
diculously long journey, which
proves fruitless - he does not
find his father, but' he shows he
can walk long distances. One of
the things that gives this film
its slow and comfortably melan-
choly pace is the. emphasis on
the distances between theMor-
gans' farm and "civilization."
For instance, when the three
Morgan children deliver the
laundry to the white woman,
Ritt follows them on their jour-
ney for almost five minutes, as
they run, play, and tire them-
selves out on the sun-scorched
fields.
But the visions of the black
farming community as a spac-
ious, free, and colorful garden
of Eden are short-lived. The
baseball game in which Nathan
pitches his team to victory is
followed by a delightfully care-
free stroll with Rebecca and
Ike (Taj Mahal) complimenting
Nathan on his throwing arm and
Ike picking on his guitar - but
the walk ends with Nathan's ar-
rest at his home.
By making David an allegori-
cal figure of the Black movement
away from the farm, away from
poverty and towards Justice and
Equality, Sounder loses much of
its impact. For the film works
on the level of the ordinary and
sometimes heroic "drudgery of
survival," plain and simple. By
trying to inject a detachment
from the characters by allusions
to their historical significance a
la The Emigrants, the charact-
ers, looked at as cogs in a larg-
er framework, appear ludi-
crous.
They appear ludicrous because
the characters of Rebecca and
Nathan already exist outside of
a historical framework by being
so much "larger-than-life." It is
something like trying to look
at Rhett Butler and Scarlett '
Hara as symptomatic personali-
ties of the dying Southern Iaris-
tocracy. No way: it is the South
that revolves around them!
It is surprising that this dis-
parity between theme and execu-
tion would arise, especially with
Lonnie Elder III (Ceremonies in
Dark Old Men) adapting'the
William* Armstrong novel. One
suspects, however, that the whit-
ish liberal "justification" of the
Morgan's hardships might be
traced, to Ritt.
-BRUCE SHLAIN;
And Yet Another
Week Of..
The Emigrants--Campus--See
this by all means.
Deliverance -- Fox Village -
From Germaine Greer to Cosmo
to Deliverance and now to a
poster wearing nothing but a
shirt (but shot from behind).
What next, Burt?
...........
WABX Presents
During their American Tour
the BEE GEES
IN CONCERT
WITH 30 MEMBERS OF DETROIT SYMPHONY
conducted by GLYNDWR W. HALE
Special Guest Star from England JIMMY STEVENS
* CONCERT LOCATION SWITCHED *
From Cobo Arena to Masonic Auditorium
All tickets purchased for Cobo Arena may be exchanged for
comparably priced ticke.ts at Masonic Box Office thru March
10th. After March 10th only refunds will be given.
still TUESDAY, March 20-8 p.m.
Tiickets $5.50 $6.50
At Masonic Box Of., Grinnell's, Hudson's or by Mail Order to t
Masonic Box Office, 500 Temple, Detroit. Send self-addressed
stamped envelope with Certified Check or Money Order.
A GOLDEN GOOSE PRODUCTION
fully to keep them apart by the
proprietor of "Sensation House",
Mr. Ace Lamont - a type that
causes the otherwise agreeable
Ruby to remark: "His mother
should have thrown him away
and kept the stork."
of course, Mae and her man are
reunited, but not before a num-
ber of double - crosses and plans
of revenge have been woven in
and out of the plot.
Actually, the plot of Belle of
the Nineties, as in most of her
movies, merely serves as back-
ground to Mae West, for she
makes her personality the sharp
focus of the picture, knowing
better than most performers
then or since how to use a ve-
hicle to a lady's advantage.
Incidentally, the band accom-
panying Mae on her songs (in-
cluding "St. Louis Blues") is
none other than Duke Ellington.
-WILLIAM MITCHELL
tentiously as a tragic allegory
for the failings of American capi-
talism on the most personal of
levels.
Jacob Brackman's screenplay,
directed by Bob Rafelson (Five
Easy Pieces), involves the strain-
ed reunion of two brothers, David
(Jack Nicholson) and Jason
(Bruce Dern). Nicholson is su-
perb as David, who does a late-
night radio show on which he
slowly creates grotesque and an-
guished tales based upon his own
experiences. Although pessimis-
tically reserved in the discon-
solate existential manner, Nichol-
son still manages to control the
film, if only with his doubting,
bitter squinting and asthmatic
sniffing.
Dern meanwhile, plays his
over-genial, fast-talking brother,
whose home is the Broadwalk,
always ready with a business
scheme, a hustle, always ignor-
ing everything to concentrate on
reaching the jackpot. Only as the
film develops does it become ap-
parent that Jason is basically a
fraud, an "artist" really, whose
every gesture is geared to main-
tain the delicate illusion that he
is flirting with a huge financial
success.
Jason knows that David does
not believe in his manipulations,
and asks him incredulously what
it is that holds him back, so
he can tell David "if it's real."
Indeed, it is Jason who reck-
lessly defines the film's reality,
its game-like quality. He is taking
David on a journey through a
dream that he wants to share, a
dream that enables him to avoid
David's weary hopelessness. The
touching embrace of the two
brothers, occurring after one of
their usual stalemates, demon-.
strates how close they really are,
separated only by the thinnest of
veils, namely American mythol-
ogy.
-BRUCE SHLAIN
Across 110th St.
State
A slick "formula" detective
film set in Harlem, where tough-
ness and nerve are ends in them-
selves. Music by Bobby Womack
in the Isaac Hayes style, and
plenty of tense encounters with
obscenities and radical epithets
to underscore the filthiness of the
city. Anthony Quinn as the aging
detective. One of Dick Gregory's
favorite movies of '72, although
not of one of mine. The situation
in our major cities is simply not
all that bad.
-SPIRO F. AGNEW
to
0
ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATIONS
"THE FBEST PICTURE
' BEST ACTRESS
A T.-C ICELY TYSON
A_ MOVIE BEST ACTOR
"I'd bet on 'Sounder' THE -PAUL W I N F I ELD
to sweep this year's 'LE BEST
Academy Awards. IB
can't recall any film +~SCREEN PLAY
I
tonight
6:00 2 4 7 News
9 Courtship of Eddie's Father
50 Fiintstones
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 World Press
50 I Love Lucy
7:30 2 What's My Line?
4 Hollywood Squares
7 Wait Till Your Father Gets
Home
9 Lassie
50 Hogan's Heroes
8:00 2 Mission: Impossible
4 Peter Pan
7 Brady Bunch
9 Woods and Wheels
56 Washington Week in Review
50 Dragnet
8:30 7 Partrdige Family
9 Pig and Whistle
50 Merv Griffin
56 Off the Record
9:00 2 Movie
"The Magnificent Seven."
(1960)
7 Room 222
9 News
56 San Francisco Mix
9:30 7 Odd Couple
9 sports Scene
56 The Symphony Sound
10:00 4 Bobby Darin
7 Love, American Style
9 Tommy Hunter
50 Perry Mason
56 High School Basketball
11:00 2 4 7 News
9 CBC News
50 OnesStep Beyond
11:20 9 News
11:30 2 Movie
"Moby Dick" (English 1956)
4 Johnny Carson
7 In Concert
Special: The Guess Who, BAL
King and Melanie
50 Movie
"Edge of Darkness" (1943)
12:00 9 Movie
"Blood of the Vampire"
(English; 1958)
1:00 4 Midnight Special
7 Movie
"Roger Touhy, Gangster"
(1944)
1:30 2 Movie
"Lady Possessed" (1952)
2:30 4 News
3:00 2 TV High School
7 News
3:30 2 It's Your Bet
4:00 2 News
cable tv
channel 3
that was so visually.
moving."
-Dave Sheehan, KNXT-TV
CICELY TYSON &
PAUL WINFIELD IN
"SMNDER"
A Robert B. Radnitz/Martin Mitt Film
4th H11
WEEK!
SHOWS DAILY
AT
S1, 3, ,5, 7, 9 P.M
r
3:30
4:00
4:30
5:00
5:30
6:00
6:30
7:00
Pixanne
Today's Woman
Something Else
Strataihere Playhouse
Local news and events
Model Cities
NCAA Sports
Community Dialogue
I
Look what UAC-Daystar has'
waiting for you. when you return
from Spring Break:
BETTE MI DLER THE DIVINE MISS m
.......... ... ...---...-.. . -
.~' *~r v
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.. .:: "i - "::-:}:4;v iii N..::: :.
f~.,
Fat City
Fifth Forum
Characters in John Huston
movies are strongly influenced
by their surroundings; they ob-
tain their energy from them,
they are built up, torn down or
even driven mad from them. The
spirit of their locale is often
what determines their fate.
This is certainly true of Fat
City, one of Huston's finest
films. The story takes place in
Stockton, California, a town
which is, in one word, cheap. It
thrives on bars, urban renewal
projects, and gymnasiums, and
its inhabitants are kept afloat by
alcohol, boxing and bowling.
Billy Tully (Stacy Keach) is one
of the town's many small time
losers. Once a professional
fighter, he is now a broken wan-
derer of Stockton's streets. His
excuse for his condition is that
his wife walked out on him after
he lost an important match
("There are some women who
wcbn
89.5 fin
P3 WCBN listings
9:00 Morning After Show
12:00 Progressive Rock
4:00 Folk
7:30 Rhythm and Blues
11:00 The Oldies Show
W. C. Fields as Micawber and Freddie Bartholomew in the title
role of 'David Copperfield,' showing here this weekend.
From the author of 'Slaughterhouse Five' and 'Cat's Cradle'
rultUR ALEN1DAR
ART-The Ann Arbor Antique Fair & Sale will be held this
week, in the Twining Aviation Building, Ann Arbor Mu-
nicipal Airport, at 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Fri., Sat., and 11 a.m.
-5 p.m. Sun.; Pyramid Gallery brings D. Rubello and
paintings from his "Progressions Series" Sun. from 4-6;.
Lantern Gallery opens collages by Ada Yunkers Fri. 7-9.
CONCERTS-The Raven Gallery, Detroit presents Mill Creek
Station Fri., Sat. at 9:30, 10:30, 12:00, and Sun., at 9:30
and 10:30; Winter Jazz '73 comes to Detroit's Ford Aud.,
Sun. at 8.
THEATRE-Detroit's Vest Pocket Theatre presents Honey
through March 11.
UPCOMING CONCERT TIP-UAC-DAYSTAR brings Bette
Middler Mar. 31 at 8 in Hill. Get tickets now.
WEEKEND BARS AND MUSIC-Bimbo's has Gaslighters Fri.,
Sat. (cover) and Sun. (no cover); Blind Pig brings Gar-
field Blues Band, Fri., Sat. (cover), and classical music.
Sun.; Del Rio presents, Jazz on Sun. (no cover); Golden
Falcon has Bossa Nova Fri., Sat. (no cover) ; Mackinac
Jack's presents, Radio King and his Court of Rhythm
Fri., Sat., Sun. (cover); Mr. Flood's Party brings Diesel
Smoke and Dangerous Curves Fri., Sat., Sun. (cover) ;
Odyssey offers Locomobile Fri., Sat. and Chip Stevens
Sun., Mon. (cover); Pretzel Bell has RFD Boys Fri., Sat.
(cover); Rubaiyat shows Iris Bell Adventure Fri., Sat.,
Sun. (no cover); Bimbo's on the Hill presents Gabriel
Fri., Sat., Sun. (cover).
LAW SCHOOL FILMS
PRESENTS
KURT VONNEGUT
"some of the funniest,
most sardonic lines
to be heard at the
moment on stage or
screen enliven this
macabre comedy."
-WILLIAM WOLF,
Cue Magazine.
'Happy Birthday,
Wanda June' does
revive the play with
all of its varied
delights. Once again,
the pleasure of
Vonnegut is yours."
-JUDITH CRIST,
New York Magazine
JR's
?. J~$ .
starring
D A iCm.A
plus CHAPTER NO. 5 entitled
"THE DESTROYING RAY"
of our continuing
"FLASH4GOR DON"
I