Thursday, May 23, 1974 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page rive 'King in New York' Chaplin views America By MICHAEL WILSON Ann Arbor moviegoers should not miss the chance to view Charlie Chaplin's A King In New York (1957) at the Fifth Forums before it winds up a highly suc- cessful week-long rogageme't there this Friday. Produced, directed, written, scored by, and starring mt tnas- ter himself, King was b nned exclusively in the United States for over fifteen years by its embittered creator. It marks his 81st appearance on screen in a career that has spanned over half a century. King was produced in Great Britain and contains what many reviewers in the 30s thought was "anti-American stire." But prior to the 1957 London pre- miere of his film, Chaplin re- torted, "This is by no means an anti-American film. It is not a Communist film. It is simply a film, and a vey goy Ione at that." King is a brillilnt and often times sadly irosia niotion pic- ture. Much if th dialogue seems curiously ap'rsopriate to the situation Chaplin himself was involved with in America when he was being invescigated by the House Committee on Un- American Activities. In the picture, a recently de- throned King of Estrovia de- parts from 'lis nativi land amidst mass revolution between his fellow countrymen: he re- fused to allow them an atomic bomb and now suffers the con- sequences. Journeying to Ntew York City, he tries without success #o con- tact the American Atomic En- ergy Commission about his plans for the peaaefui uses of the A-bomb. During the course of his fres- trated efforts, he unwittingly be- comes an ove:night TV cele- brity through the use of 'hidden TV cameras it w-,oser patty held in msc onar. Alit he King learns is mr_3iv fortune has been embezled by the Fs- trovian Prime in se, he starts accepthng telv isof- fers voraciously. Trouble begiss whet the yKog befriends a 10l-s- old boy whose parents are in jail for re- fusing to divulge the name of their Comnunist friends. "Isn't that Karl Marx you'e reading?" asks the King. "Yes it is," repi -s t e boy (played by Chaplin' real-fufe son Michael). "Are you a Communist)" in- quires King Shahda". "Does reading Marx mtuke ire one?" retorts the boy. The boy is u.ed re narkably well, much like the p'thos Jack- ie Coogan's little tyke gave us in Chaplin's The Kid. Y o it n g Michael lends a striking authen- ticity to the role, and in the end reveals tne important nam- es to save his parnats f r o m jail. Disturbed by the bov s ,se- dicament, humiliated by the American television s'at-us, chagrined at the AEC's rearton to his blueprints for atomic peace, the disgruntled K i n g Shahdov decides to leave the United States and return to his Queen somewhere in Europe. The boy is left crying and the cute advertising employe who conned him before hidden cameras at the start is told, "Oh, that I were 20 years young- er." N]' vor typical Chaplin end- ing? But it is. The Chaplin with baggy pants and mustache left us long ago. In films like Monsieur Ver- doux (a story about a mass murdered), The Great Dictator (concerning Hitler and Nazism) and King In New York, Chap- lin is expressing a desire to communicate realistically with the people who rejected him for politics in the fifties and sixties. He is bitter in King, but the hilarious spoofing of television, rock and roll, dancing and Mc- Carthyism is enough to over- corne any bad aftertaste Nou may find in your mouth. Chaplin was never in de- cline" as so many rotten Amser- iran critics were apt to define him. His humor and increduble perceptive powers are still just as stror.g even- now, while he makes a film in France called The Monster, as they were lif- ty years ago. The negative reviews King re- ceived were numerous in 1957, but ambiguous as well. With the exception of two or three critics, it is doubtful whether any of the reviews were written by people who actually saw the film. Surprisingly enough, use intl- ligent review was printed in The Reporter by a current Uni- versity Professor of American Studies, Marivn Felheim. Writ- ing from London, Felhein con- gratulated Chaplin on producing a film about a dethroned tDing that was "an ironically a p t image." The satire in laing, as he so admirably points out, is no less anti-American than the TV commercial spoofs in the Tony Randall-Jayne Mansfield epic Will Sucess Spoil R o c k Hunter?, a film that vas nak- ing the rounds about the same time King was. Thus we see Charles Chaplin as a victim of paranoid Amer- ican hostility, the butt of count- less numbers of anti-Commuttist jokes aimed at sinking the great American comic's ship before it even left the shore. Go see King and paj C'arlie Chaplin the respect he deserves. The mustache and pants are gone, but he never will be. Beach By DAN BIDDLE Special To The Daily EAST LANSING - Ten years after "Surfer Girl" wooed America's teenage hearts, Mike Love and Al Jardine think they've found the perfect wave. The Beach Boys played loud and long for 7500 fans at Michigan State Uni- versity's cavernous Jenison Fieldhouse Saturday night. But the real show start- ed around suppertime when Love and Jardine chugged across town in a VW bus to a pot luck dinner-reception at the local chapter of the International Medita- tion Society (IMS). As some 40 guests munched on lentil loaf, vegetarian spaghetti and a wagon- load of other organic dishes, skinny old Mike Love exhorted a flock of reporters to "enhance the innerlife, the senses, the mind" through Transcental Meditation. Fresh from an hour's meditation him- self, Love sounded more like a crusader than the golden-haired lad whose wise- guy alto voice lead the Beach Boys to jukebox glory with "California Girl", "Surfin' USA" and "Barbara Ann". The only numbers Love did at Satur- day's dinner sang the praises of Maha- rishi Mahesh Yogi, India's high priest of Transcendental Mediation, or TM. "Maharishi taught me that TM is the way to enhance both sides of life, the material and spiritual, by reaching and developing the deeper, inter recources," intoned Love, whose tiny blue eyes smil- ed out from beneath a wide-brimmed George Raft style hat. "The whole TM philosophy says that man is born not to suffer, but to live life to its fullest," he continued. "Which was our bag anyway. The Beach Boys generally didn't sing songs about bummers! About the worst things that ever happened in our songs, may- Bos: From be a guy lost his girl-friend at the Three of thec beach." Carl, and Den When the laughter subsided, Love ex- brothers, and L plained the basic formula of TM-twen- dine is not rela ty minutes of silent, uninterrupted medi- to the same higl tation every morning and evening to California, "expand one's senses and ameliorate all That was on aspects of life." "Little Deuce C "Look at this." Like magic, the tall into prominence pop hero produced a leather AWOL bag, duced so many opened a compartment, and pulled out said he "lost co a thick gold-bound volume emblazoned The route ht "Meditation International University." smooth as the The volume, Love explained, was a Brian Wilson's brochure and course catalog for the In 1966, Love; Marareshi's own college of TM instruc- term for refusin tion in India. "There's a lot in here about brain tyEtatis"u' waves," Love added excitedly, flipping through the pages. "It says TM increases "It's noti your brain wave rate as it slows down ground. your metabolism. I'm not into brain I waves myself, but it's pretty cool, if give up th you're into brain waves." The big gold book, Love added, con- yisgs# gisggs tains 48 charts testifying that TM im- proves everything from relations with physical. That co-workers, to athletic ability, to sexual "Good Vibratiot appetite. the fibre of roc "It also aids the body in making a of an honest-to- quick metabolic recovery in stress or ex- Now Mike is ertion," added Love as he munched on blond hair has ft a hunk of Dahl, a greyish vegetarian dish publicity photos made of crushed peas. "And that's very him look all-An important if you're a rock star". say about the j "The book contains infinite know- "I'm still glad I ledge," announced Love with a combined said he's given verbal and physical wink. "And I'm a moral decision. great pursuer of knowledge." "Since I've b "Yeah, all the Beach Boys are," as his entourag chimed Al Jardine, who appeared wear- Jenison Fieldho ing a felt hat just like Love's. Both men tally and physi have sun-bleached hair and beards, and anything to ruin look for all the world like brothers. "God, in the Charlie Chaplin Michigan Daily Arts surf to TM her Beach Boys, Brian, road tour and be so tired and tense, we'o is Wilson, really are be ready to break up. Now we actually ve is their cousin. Jar- feel better, stronger after a tour. ed to anyone, but went "It's not really a matter of rejecting school near El Camino, dope on a moral ground. It's that you have to taste something better to give a few years before up the old stuff." upe" rocketed the group The Beach Boys haven't given up all They have since pro- the old stuff. They wowed the Jenison gold records that Love crowd with everything from "Wouldn't nt when we got to 20." It Be Nice" to "Barbara Ann" and not always been so worked in several more introspective four-part harmonies in songs from recent albums. tngs. Near the end came "Good Vibrations" erved a one year prison and Carl Wilson, bathed in silver-blue his pre-induction draft light, fought to keep the delicate vocals Ot inn m -o It at ly ou :e. our as so: st ng It really a matter of rejecting dope on a moral i's that you have to taste something better to e old stuff."-Mike Love #