ge Six THE MICHIGAN DAILY SUNDAY MAGAZINE
February 6, 1977 February 6, 1977
THE MICHIGAN DAILY SUNDAY MAGAZINE
_.., _.
w
hiapjpnings . .
events and entertainment
week of Feb. 6 -12
Ernie
Vick:
The
alartn
Flappenings film reviews are written
Christopher Potter,
all week
COMMERCIAL CINEMA
ietwork-(State)
[he Pink Panther Strikes Again (The
vies, Briarwood)
king Kong-(Michigan)
Cocky-(Fifth Forum)
Iugsy Malone-(Campus)
he Seven Per Cent Solution - (The
vies, Briarwood)
Sn day
CINEMA
)arling-(Cinema II, Ang. Aud. A, 7
-Julie Christie gave her first-anL
' best-full-length performance in this
S film about a footloose London model
o wants to be both artist and lover,
whose intellectual limitations and
otional vacuity continually thwart her.
'ector John Schlesinger's disecting eye
lows his heroine's progressive bed-
)ping from a gloomy working-class
riage into an eventual fairy-princess
ion complete with prince and palace,
of which only leave her as lonely and
strated as when she began. Darling
't about a Dietrich-type man-killer; it
a poignant though unrelenting study
a victim who doesn't have the slight-
clue to her own psyche.
Thristie is brilliantly believable as the
happy protagonist as is Dirk Bogarde
an intellectual journalist who sees
ough her yet can't resist her. Darling
s in the forefront of the new wave of
i ish cinema which burst loose in the
's but has waned badly in the '70's.
krthur Rubenstein-Love of Life-(Ann
bor Film Co-op, MLB 4, 7 only) - A
8 documentary on the multi-talented
tuoso (and yes, his name is not Artur,
itrary to popular mystique). You don't
ve to be a classical music lover to
absorbed in this Oscar-winning study
an unextinguishably joyous life.
'ainters Painting-(Ann Arbor Film
-op, MLB 4, 9 only)-A much acclaim-
feature film on Modern American
inting, including features on Pollock,
Kooning, Motherwell and other con-
nporary trend-setters.
1 Posto-(Cinema Guild, Arch Au'd., 7
9:05)-The blurb says this is about a
Lng worker and his life on an Italian
lustrial farm. And tha 's all I know
(ut it.
EVENTS
Faculty Recital-Rackham Aud., 4 p.m.
Iajko (UMS) - Hungarian entertain-
mt-Power Center, 8 p.m.
ITiOR d
CINEMA
9othing scheduled.
EVENTS
krt Worlds Photo Show-Ten Michigan
tists-Feb. 7-Mar. 11.
CINEMA
Bonnie and Clyde - (Cinema Guild,
ch. Aud., 7 & 9:05) - Simply, the most
portant motion picture of the last three
cades; with the impact of an electric
pck, it efficiently torpedoed and sank
ever the Hollywood concep of "the
l-made film"., and crippled along with
the whole Shirley Temple-Mickey Roo-
y mystique through which movie stu-
dios straightjacketed and spoon-fed in-
tellectual and emotional pablum to
numbed audiences for years. They'll nev-
er get away with it aga'n, for which we
all owe profound thanks to director Ar-
thur Penn and everyone else involved in
this brilliant, socially shattering film,
The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty
Kick-(Ann Arbor Film Co-op, MLB 4,
7 only)-A recent product of the sup-
posed German film renaissance, this
work deals with the paranoic existence
of an ex-soccer goalie who may or may
not be s'alked by murderers.
The Lost Honor pf Katharina Blum -
(Ann Arbor Film Co-op, Ang. Aud. A, 9
only)-A crude and artless film about a
young West German whose boyfriend is
the subject of a sensation-saturated po-
lice hunt due to his political terrorism.
Technically innocent of wrongdoing her-
self, Katharina is badgered and ques-
tioned by scapegoat-seeking police, while
endlessly hounded throughout by a sa-
tanic reporter from a daily scandal
sheet. Driven to desperation by the on-
slaught of public humiliation, she finally
shoots the reporter dead, then is hauled
off to prison while her tormentor is eulo-
gized as a noble vicim of the enemies
of the press. A printed postscript at
film's end says Katharina is a true story
and implies that the atrocities of the
fictitious scandal sheet's real-life coun-
terpart served as the picture's raison
d'etre.
And that's the drawback-Katharina
Blum is so regionalized that it carries
not a speck of the universality that flows
through a French film of comparable
subject, The Clockmaker. Artistically,
Blum is about at the level of American
made-for-TV features, lacking any inno-
vation technically or thematically. If
this drab work is representative of the
so-called "rebirth" of the German Film,
then I think we had best restrict our
cross-cultural joys to Volkswagens. *
wednesday
CINEMA
Even Dwarfs Started Small and Signs
of Life-(Ann Arbor Film Co-op, Ang.
Aud. A, Dwarfs at 7 & 10:30, Signs of
Life at 8:45 only)-The New German
reprospective continues with this double
bill. Even Dwarfs Started Small is des-
cribed as depicting 27 prisoners at a
"deformatory for dwarfs", who stage a
mad riot that swiftly turns order into
apocalypse (wow). Signs of Life deals
with the singular freak-out of a German
soldier left to solitarily guard an ammu-
nition dump near the end of WW II. Good
luck, audience.
Sullivan's Travels and Hail the Con-
quering Hero. - (Cinema Guild, Arch.
Aud., (Sullivan's Travels at 7, Hail the
Conquering Hero at 9:05)-A pair of re-
ported gems from comedy director of the
'40's, Pres on Sturges. Frustratingly, my
only contact with S t u r g e's was some
years back when I turned on the second
half of a Sturges film called Unfaith-
fully Yours on the late show. Within five
minutes I was rolling on the floor in
comic convulsions, where I remained the
rest of the film. I've never seen either
of 'he films shown tonight. but if they're
even a tenth as funny, then they're worth
the admission price.
thuarsday
CINEMA
Everything You Always Wanted to
Know About Sex-(People's Bicentennial
Commission, Nat. Sci. Aud., 7, 8:45, 10)
-Woody Allen's extremely mixed-bag
comedy is less a satire on Dr. Ruben's
book than it is on various movie genres
( he horror film, the sci-fi film, etc.).
Generally speaking, the Allen-starring
segments are wonderful, the non-Allen
segments dreadful. * * 2
Flesh and Women in Revolt-(Ann Ar-
bor Film Co-op, Ang. Aud. A, Flesh at 7,
Women in Revolt at 9)-A pair of in-
tended atrocities from Andy Warhol.
Flesh first established and defined the
torpid joys of s ud-zombie Joe Dallesan-
dro; Women in Revolt deals (quite obli-
quely) with Women's Lib.
Promised Lands-(Cinema Guild, Arch
Aud., 7 & 9:05)-Susan Sontag wrote and
directed this documentary on the Yom
Kippur War with a presumed ideological
slant, but in which.direction I don't know.
EVENTS
Leningrad Symphony-Hill Aud., 8:30
p.m.
CINEMA
The Big Sleep-(Cinema Guild, Arch.
Aud., 7 & 9:05)-Phillip Marlowe is hired
to investigate a suspected scandal in an
aristorcratic family, predictably uncov-
ers perplexing complications. The per-
plexedness of this 1946 film wasn't con-
fined to the characters alone; co-scrip-
ters Howard Hawks and William Faulk-
ner reportedly grew so bewildered over
the tangled machinations of the Ray-
mond Chander-based plot that they fin-
ally had to call in Chandler himself to
explain just what was going on-and
apparently even he couldn't figure out
exactly what was happening. But it's
amazing how little one minds these ob-
scurities w h i l e watching the picture:
Hawks' directing is so tinglingly right,
Humphrey Bogart's and Marlowe's man-
ner so perfectly synonymous that some-
how you simply know the film is uniin-
peachable, even if it's not always, making
sense. * * * %4
La Salamandre-(Cinema II, Ang. Aud.
A, 7 & 9)-A film by recently-acclaimed
Swiss director Alain Tanner about the
life and loves of a non-repressed young
woman, I haven't seen the film, but
those who have love it.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way
to the Forum-(Ann Arbor Film Co-op,
MLB 4, 7 only)-A reasonably funny film
version of the Broadway musical, but
crippled by a grevious misjudgement:
Somewhere amidst the difficult process
of transposing stage to screen, director
Richard Lester decided to eliminate
about two-thirds of show's musical num-
bers. Such artistie- moves have proved
beneficial when the artists were faced
with the trenchant immobility of Sound
of Music-ish goo; unfortunately, when
Lester d e t e r m i n e d to emasculate
Forum's Stephen Sondheim score, he
sacrificed one of the most verbally in-
spired and musically accessible crea-
tions ever to grace an audience.
What is left is a kind of bare-bones
comedy which comes on as flat as often
as it does funny, minus the supreme wit
of most of Sondheim's musical barbs.
One result is that the actors seem to be
trying, to overcompensate for the com-
poser's faded presence by perennially
overemoting. Indeed, star Zero Mostel
comes on so galvanically strong that he
seems constantly in danger of lurching
right out of the screen. * * 1/
How I Won the War-(Ann Arbor Film
Co-op, MLB 4, 9 only)-Richard Lester's
blistering 1967 satire on World War II
was loved by New Republic critic Stanley
Kauffmann and loathed by just about
everyone else. It hasn't seen much cir-
culation since then, but is probably worth
a look-I can't imagine a Lester film
devoid of any interest.
Seventh Annual Ann Arbor 8mm Film
Festival (7 & 9, Schorling Aud., School
of Education) - 8mm filmmakers com-
pete nationwide in this two-day competi-
tion of various short works. Four sets of
different films will be shown tonight and
Saturday, with a special winners' show
set for Sunday night.
EVENTS
Peter Kubelka, filmmaker--Nat. c..
Aud., 8 p.m.
saturday
CINEMA
Putney Swope-(Ann Arbor Film Co-op,
MLB 3. 7, 8:45, 10)-A black junior ex-
ecutive is accidentally voted into the
chairmanship of a top Madisbn Avenue
ad agency, soon starts triggering cul-
tural shockwaves throughout the indus
try and the country. Robert Downey's
nihilistic fantasy-satire was embraced
as the ultimate "in" film by aesthetic
hipsters upon release, then just as swift-
ly fell into disrepute and scorn. Unearth-
ed and viewed again after a seven-year
breathing spell, Putney inspires neither
of the aforementioned extremes but sim-
ply exists as a very funny (if undis-
clinined) movie. * *
Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother --
(Mediatries, Nat. Sci. Aud., 7, 8:45,
10:30)-Gene Wilder wrote, directed and
stars in this supersleuth farce, and front
what I've heard bit off a bit more than
his talents could chew.
Jack Johnson-(Ann Arbor Film Co-
op, MLB 4, 8:45 only)-Film documen-
tarv of the first black heavyweight cham-
pion and one of the great individualists
of the century.
Mingus-(Ann Arbor Film Co-op, MLB
4, 7 & 10:30)-A reportedly no holns-
barred documentary made in 1966 on
the jazz bassist (and sometimes pianis-
tic) genis, depicting in harrowing in-
timacy the economically and emotionally
slendor-thread existence often led by
even the greatest jazzmen. This one's
almost surely worth seeing.
The Missouri Breaks-(Cinema Guild,
Arch. And., 7 & 9:15)-The superstar
pairing of Jack Nicholson as a noble
outlaw and Marlon Brando as a psy-
chotic killer hired to track him down is
about the only thing this muddled, mean-
dering Western has going for it, and it's
not enough. Director Arthur Penn pre-
sents us with a series of stunningly gor-
geous visuals and then proceeds to do
absolutely nothing with them; the film
just rambles along, often incoherently
and never compellingly - a pastiche
that's one third Altman, one third Pec-
kinpah and three thirds tedium.
Brando's determinedly weird portrayal
of the brilliant, half-mad "regulator
provides some sparks of life to the still-
born proceedings, but his characteriza-
tion certainly hashlittle to do with the
general tone of the film, and while it's
ironically more entertaining than any-
thing else in the picture it's still little
more than an exercise in self-indulgence;
and the script provides precious few
scenes for Brando and Nicholson to play
off.each other. Saddest of all is the bor-
derline hack job turned in by Arthur
Penn--once considered the brightest and
most original of American directors, but
now seemingly host and wandering in an
artistic wilderness not even his own. * 12
McCabe and Mrs. Miller-(Cinema II,
Ang. Aud. A, 7 & 9)-Robert Altman's
overrated film about big-time corruption
of small-time free enterprise in the West.
Loaded with atmosphere and wonderful
supporting performances, but dragged
down by a plodding pace and by the
usual undefinable but ever-present qual-
ity of deadness that permeates almost
all of Altman's films. * * '!
Seventh Annual Ann Arbor 8mm Film
Festival-(7 & 9, Schorling Aud., School
of Education)-See Friday Cinema.
A/I-American
foo thall
sto
By SUSAN ADES
Pho/os by PAULINE LUBENS
ERNIE VICK AND I exchanged
few words all last summer and
fall, since I and ,seven friends
moved in next door on Hamilton.
But h i s meticulously cultivated
sunflowers appeared like magic on
our dining-room table weekly, and
our homemade "health bread," as
he called it in a grandfatherly way,
was delivered, still warm, to his
doorstep every now and then. Be-
sides that cherished c o n t a c t, I
watched him from my window as
he tended to his garden, and fed
the flock of grey pigeons that sea-
sonally made his yard their home
instead of going South. I thought
I knew a lot about Ernie Vick. I
was wrong.
Fifty-six years ago, a Saturday
back in the fall of 1921, the Mich-
igan Wolverines broke huddle and
before some 20,000 fans on Ferry
Field, moved into' formation.
Stooped over the ball at center was
a man destined for all-American
honors. "His passing was accurate
to the half-inch and his timing
was perfect," his coach Fielding
Yost would later say of the star.
That was Henry "Ernie" Vick in his
prime. Today, at 76, he has the dis-
tinction of being the oldest living
50 years of memories
months of silent comraderie, I felt
I was in a time warp. The house it-
self, stands modestly in the old
part of town where telephone nooks
and window seats live on and you
find n o t h i n g but wood-moulded
doorways and 'gracefully yellowed,
flowered wallpaper. The student
houses in the a r e a, in contrast,
have been re-modeled again and
again over the decades and have
sadly lost their charm in the tran-
sition.
Now, the man himself looks as-
tonishingly youthful for his age-
his laughing eyes, a radiant blue
and his cotton-white hair almost
thicker than it was the day he
graduated. Sitting tall in a hard-
backed chair in his study, arms
crossed over his massive chest, Mr.
Vick sddenly looked every bit the
football player I had never known
him to be. At the same time
though, he had the congenial man-
ner of a Captain Kangaroo and a
voice made to tell stories,
Henry "Ernie" (nicknamed for his
father) Vick's story began in To-
ledo, Ohio although he has called
Ann Arbor his home since his col-
lege days.
"I graduated from Scott High
School in Toledo in June of 1918."
("And oh yes," he later adds, "I
played football for Scott in 1916
and 1917.)
"I didn't know where I was going
to college because in those days
you didn't get any scholarships or
anything like that."
So Vick decided, whimsically, to
head to Ann Arbor just because a
bunch of his friends happened to
be driving that way. Vick looked
for no better reason. About the
only t h i n g he carried with him
when he left Toledo, he says, were
four ambitions. And as history re-
veals, not one of those ambitions
dared vex an aggressive, outgoing
Vick-every one materialized.
"I had some ambitions when I
was a boy: one of them was to be
an all-American and another to
be on a World Series team. Oh yes,
I had all those ambitions! They-
turned out. Then, I had third and
fourth ambitions which have work-
ed out too-to have a happy mar-
riage and be financially settled.
"I've been retired since 1955 and
I've been leading a very leisurely
life."
VICK EARNED his right to leisure
early on. Not only did he play
college football and baseball but he
weathered a pre-med program and
footed the $125 out-of-state tuition
bill, room and board too, by waiting
tables and stoking furnaces, and
eventually, opening a concession
stand at the football field.
"I was the first one who started
the concession stand here," Vick
says, proud to have established a
tradition. "Well, I got smart. I had
the in and one of my good friends,
Cushing, who had a drugstore, he
furnished the financial end of it.
So that was two years I got through
school that way. Now you can see
what the concession stand has be-
come today compared to when I
started it.
"Oh, I'll never forget, I think we
made $1500 apiece in 1919. That
was real good money back then."
But even with $1500 under his
mattress, he recalls, "I had a rough
time, I'll tell you that. In those
days you practiced in the same
suits you played your game in on
Saturday. If they were dirty, you
went into the game with the only
uniform that you had."
Even the uniforms weren't much,
compared ounce - to - ounce to the
Santa Claus padding of the uni-
forms today. And thf
nothing but soft leat
never sustained an
enough to keep him
In fact, Ernie Vick r
minute of play in his
a Wolverine.
"Every minute I
minute." he said in
characteristic b o a s
even mentioned in Ri
it or Not) once on s
played for sixty :
game and was never
"But you see, foo
fairly scientific and
cialized," the veterar
fully.
"When we played,
about thirty men. o
ever you want to call
squad and we nlayec
had to play both of
fense."
A TRIBUTE by Fiel
1933 Minnesota
See ERNIE,]l
University of Michigan all-Ameri-
can football player.
Vick claims he was never quite
good enough for the pros. Maybe
not pro football, but with two var-
sity letters in baseball, he got him-
self a job with the St. Louis Cardi-
nals and 'wore the uniform for
four years as a catcher. By 1926,
lie had achieved a .232 batting av-
erage over 57 games. And in that
year, the Cardinals met the -New
York Yankees in the World Series;
B a b e R u t h was performing his
magic back-then. Though St. Louis
was a hands-down underdog, hav-
ing risen up from nowhere, the day
the series ended - October 10 -
Ernie Vick found himself a mem-
ber of the championship: team.
THE FIRST TIME I stood in my
n e i g h b o r' s house after six,
Susan Ades is the Daily's Sunday
Magazine co-editor.
Memories of Ernie Vick's athletic past dot
his study, but today he enjoys a more leisure
gardening, bowling, reading and relaxing in the
of-the house he has lived in for over 30 years.