THE MICHIGAN DAILY Arts & Entertainm ent Thursday, March 3, 1977 Page Five 'Cassandra Crossing Limp disaster By MICHAEL BROIDY at political "awareness" occurs, when we learn that the virus TH"flE HOLLYWOOD disaster is part of an illegal experiment sweepstakes continues with by the United States, making its latest cataclysmic entry, They things rather sticky for Burt Cassandra Crossing, now play-, Lancaster (very busy these days ing at The Movies at Briarwood. at playing military officers), What this misbegotten ven- who is assigned to prevent both ture lacks in intelligence, it at- panic on the train and embar- tempt's to make up for with assment to his country. sheer profusion of disasters as painfully familiar as these things are likely to get. Very little of the film makes even the slightest bit of sense. This problem hays not kept oth- er similar movies from attain-. ing at least some modicum of success as carefully construct- ed thrillers (witness Robert Ald- rich's Twilight's Last Gleam- ing). But Cassandra Crossing lacks even this safety valve, and ends up being nothing more thanj a terrible embarrassment toz all concerned - especially its C audience, who shelled out good money to see otherwise compe- tent performers ambushed by a ludicrous script and direction which borders on sheer care-! lessness.y THE FILM OPENS as a mem- ber of some terrorist group isk exposed to a deadly plague vi- rus during an attempt to bomb Simpson the International Health Organ- ization headquarters in Geneva. As the "thousands" of pas- He then boards a train headed sengers (we see only the 10 or for Stockholm, in the process so big-name cast members plus exposing the 1,000 passengers to a few extras) sweat it out, Lan- the deadly virus. caster and medical assistant In- The film's rather limp attempt grid Thulin (of the Ingmar Berg- j man repertory company) re- and quite busy); Sophia Loren Cosmatos wrote the original er films of this genre to evade route the train to Poland. This as his twice divorced wife; O.J. story and much of the material the pratfalls inherent in dis- means going over the Cassandra Simpson as a government agent seems to have been gleaned aster flicks. A relatively ui- Crossing, a bridge that has been! masquerading as a priest in or-, from other films in this or oth- known Greek filmmaker, Cos closed since shortly after World I der to grab heroin smuggler er genres such as Panic In The matos does display a flair for War II and doesn't look as if Martin Sheen; and Lee Stras- Streets, The Andromeda Strain, action. But this talent is giv- it could hold a caboose, much' beirg as an elderly Jew who and, of course, the rather ob-, en little chance to manifest it- less this elongated and im- fears returning to Cassandra scure mystery, Murder On The self. Cosmaltos, however, has mensely weighty express train. and facing horrible memories. Orient Express. The dialogue only himself to blame - he co- Robert Katz and George Panithat has been given to these scripted, after all. K actors (courtesy of the Robert THE INITIAL break-in and a.:i:i{