Friday, July 19, 1974
Pick of the week:
Streetcar Named
Desire
Campus
A Streetcar Named Desire
(1951), directed with a power-
fully constrained hand by Elia
Kazan, is undoubtedly one of
the finest stage-to-screen Holly-
wood-from-Broadway film adap-
tations produced. Tennessee
Williams wrote the screenplay
from his own brilliantly pathetic
stage play along with a little
help from Oscar Saul, and the
excellent cast includes Marlon
Brando, Vivien Leigh, Kim
Hunter and Karl Malden.
When Brando unleashes the
Stanley Kowalski hidden be-
neath his rough press agent-
publicity profile your eyes won't
believe your ears - the role is
solid Brando, 100 per cent per-
fection. He is the rebellious ty-
rant containing unpredictable
bursts of titanic fury whenever
his sister-in-law Blanche enters
a room. He is the sugar-coated
mumble scratching a defiantly
ripped T-shirt whenever his wife
scolds him out of more love
than anger.
This dirty, sweaty, smiling
tank of undeceiving sensuality
is a characterization you won't
soon see again. Brando consid-
ers Stanley one of his best film
performances: Tennessee Wil-
llams won the Pulitzer Prize
and the New York Drama Cri-
tics award for Streetcar yet he
says he considers the film a
better interpretation of his ma-
terial than the play. Please-
don't miss it.
-Michael Wilson
* * *
Last Tanqo In Pars
Campus
The Brando that we view in
Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tan-
go in Paris (1972) is probably
the closest thing to the real
Marlon Brando we will ever
come across. His acting. is so
vivid, so realistically torment-
ed, that you will be compelled
from the start not to take your
eyes off him for more than a
second.
Much of Tango was shot and
derived in a kind of improvisa-
tory nature: Bertolucci would
walk into that X-rated apart-
ment with a handful of shooting
script notes and Marlon would
say turn those cameras on and
throwrthose screenplay details
away.
Last Tango In Paris is about
a middle-aged American living
in France whose wife has just
committed suicide in the apart-
ment where they both lived. To
forget his troubles and Parisian
blues, the expatriate gets an
apartment near the Eiffel Tow-
er and has an affair with soon-
to-be-married Maria Schneider.
The dialogues between the two
(and there are many) contain
some of the finest moments in
Brando's long-lived acting ca-
reer, a life that spans well
over 25 movies. The film is ov-
errated, but the Tango sequence
towards the finale is a neat
conclusion to an otherwise som-
ber and self-satisfying piece of
artistic triumph.
-Michael Wilson
99 and 44/100
Percent Dead
The Movies, Briarwood
Richard Harris and Ann Tur-
kel head up a lousy cast in this
latest turkey from 20th Century..
Fox. This is film number three
in what Fox has been billing as
the "Great Movie Summer of
'74'; so far they're only bat-
ting .333 (Three Musketeers was
a success; S*P*Y*S was a
Bomb).
There's plenty of nice loca-
tion photography from Seattle,
but no plot ''worth sitting
through. In fact, just look at
the ads: the film is so bad
that Fox isn't even using the
flick's real title.
-David Blomquist
They Shoot Horses,
Don't They?
Friends ofNewsreel,;MLB
Sat., 7, 9:30
Based on the excellent 1935
novel by Horace McCoy, Sid-
ney Pollack's They Shoot
Horses, Don't They? (1969) is a
very fine film starring Jane
Fonda, Michael Sarrazin, Gig
Young, Susannah York and Red
Buttons in a story about dance
marathon contests. Y o u n g
shines as the incredibly seedy,
depressed, and boozing "Yowsa,
Yowsa" man who manages the
marathons and pushes the cou-
ples to just this once go all the
way.
Set during the Depression,
when there wasn't a thing for
even Jane Fonda to eat, Horses
studies the individual members
of a group trying for the big
prize and dancing their lives
away in the meantime.
York plays a Hollywood star-
let down on her luck and re-
minds one of Tina Louise in
Gilligan's Island, only more
professional. Red Buttons has
a typically self-pitying and
doomed Red Buttons role as a
sailor. Sarrazin is the necessary
romantic hero and he doesn't
act so his part is extremely
effective. Fonda is the star who
get to mumble the title line in
between shuffles and blows her
brains out at the end because
Gig Young tells it like it is.
I love Gig Young - he al-,
ways lost the girl in all those
40's and 50's pictures but this
time he gets her because he has
the power and the ability, only
he couldn't care less. Horses
leaves a bad aftertaste, but hits
home.
-Michael Wilson
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
thrills contained in Blonde
Venus, however, are the songs.
Dig these titles: "Hot Voo-
doo" and "You Little So and
So" by Sam Coslow and Ralph
Rainger; "I Couldn't Be An-'
noyed" by Leo Robin - here
is 1932 raunchiness at its sleazy
best, before the censors start-
ed clamping down in 1934.
When Dietrich emerges from
her gorilla suit during the voo-
doo number you'll wonder why
she didn't retire after this pic-
ture.
Sidney Toler, the second Char-
lie Chan, has a minor role as
an intriguing Detective Wilson.
His part in the film, as well as
Grant's, makes absolutely no
sense whatsoever.
-Michael Wilson
Nine Lives of
Fritz the Cat
Fifth Forum
The feature-length animated
film and grade B studio Ameri-
can International Pictures re-
ceived a much-needed shot in
the arm a couple of years back
when Ralph Bashki turned out
Fritz the Cat, a lewd, definite-
ly X-rated cartoon that no
doubt started Walt Disney roll-
ing over in his grave.
Naturally, we now have a
sequel to Fritz entitled (what
else?) The Nine Lives of guess
who. Be prepared: it isn't as
blue (or as funny) as Fritz No.
1.
Michigan Daily
Arts
without exception, excellent.
But the key, of course, is
Olivier's Hamlet. In his hands,
Hamlet becomes a more virile
and comprehensible character,
shedding light on the true na-
ture of the tragedy - his moth-
er's treachery and his lost of
trust in women.
-Louis Meldman
Parallax View
State
The Parallax View is a con-
vincing but pointless thriller di-
rected by Klute's Alan J. Pa-
kula with a kind of effortless
feel for characterization and a
self - serving myopia when it
comes to photography or plot
exposition.
The story concerns a Sena-
torial assassination and the wit-
nesses who viewed the incident.
One by one, they start dying at
a rate fast enough to play jacks
by, and a leftish-type journal-
ist played in a shag haircut by
Warren Beatty decides to do
something when he notices the
high improbability of the
deaths.
The reporter dives under-
ground to seek out the myster-
ious motives behind the mur-
ders, uncovering a big-time or-
ganization that lends out "hit
men" for various crimes of
passion and power the way
Kroger hands out green stamps
for lawn furniture and char-
coal grills.
Pakula is no director. For
years he worked with Robert
Mulligan as producer and sud-
denly in 1969 turned ingenue
with Liza Mineli in a dopey
film called The Sterile Cuckoo.
After hitting it big with Klute
Pakula can now afford to get
big-time backers for nonsensi-
cal stuff like this thing.
Warren Beatty is currently
trying to look twenty instead
of his fast-approaching 40, and
the "hip look" just doesn't suit
his talents. The screenplay for
Parallax was churned out by
David Giler and Lorenzo Sem-
ple, Jr.
-Michael Wilson
Macbeth
Cinema Guild, Arch. And.
Fri., 7:30, 9:30
Orson Welles' Macbeth is a
study in how not to make a
movie of a Shakespearean play.
Welles gives credit to every-
one in the film, including him-
self as writer, director, produc-
er, and star. The only one who
gets very little credit is The
Bard himself.
Welles clothes his set in dark
colors and shades, and gives
the impression that people in
medieval Scotland lived in
caves, and spent their time
plotting and killing each other.
He also seems to have a pen-
chant for his own face. He gives
us closeups that are distorted,
and constantly remind us of the
grotesque nature of man.
The acting is terrible. No one
has the force or talent to por-
tray their characters in more
than two dimensions. Welles
butchers this great play. Save
your money.
-David Warren
Chinatown
Fox Village
Roman Polanski has a repu-
tation for being a great direc-
tor. However, he also has a
reputation for being inconsist-
ent. His latest film, China-
town, is possibly the best film
he has ever made. It is a thrill-
er mystery of the first order.
It is the tale of a private in-
vestigator, Jack Nicholson, who
is caught up in a scandal and
a series of murders involving
the leading citizens of Los An-
geles of the 1930's. .
The action is fast, and the-
acting is the best in years. Ni-
cholson plays his role with a
cool and cynical style reminis-
cent of Bogart. Faye Dunaway
plays the woman who is trying
to run away from her past in
the best performance of her
career.
Page Five
Polanski has been compared
to Hitchcock, but the compari-
son is not justified. Polanski has
proven in this film that he is
equal to any of the great direc-
tors of mystery movies.
-David Warren
What's Up, Doc?
The Movies, Briarwood
Peter Bogdanovich takes no
chances when it comes to mak-
ing a comedy. The ingredients
for his slap-happy and slightly
hysterical What's Up Doc? in-
clude filming a partial remake
of Howard Hawk's screwball
Bringing Up Baby (1938), en-
listing the penmanship talents
of not only Buck Henry (who
did the screenplay for Mike Ni-
chols's smash The Graduate)
but David Newman and Robert
Benton as well (they wrote
Arthur Penn's cenebrated Bon-
nie and Clyde), and finally, as-
sembling a cast with spectacu-
lar stars like Barbra Striesand,
Ryan O'Neal, Madeline Kahn,
and Kenneth Mars.
Having realized what appears
to be the ultimate in comedy
production, Bogdanovich t h e n
hired every out-of-work Holly-
wood stuntman he could find to
make his dream come true.
What's Up Doc? may not be
very funny, but it at least
brings meaning to the w o r d
zany again. Many feel Striesand
and O'Neal are mere puppts
and hinder the film. Beliee
me - nothing could hinder
What's Up, Doc?"
-Michael w'Ason
Blazing Saddles
The Movies, Briarwood
Mel Brooks has hit it big with
Blazing Saddles. The film is cur-
rently breaking a lot of box-of-
fice records all over the coun-
try and plays to sold-out aud-
iences through Europe as well.
The picture is a Western spoof
in the tradition at Cat Ballou,
only it's much, much better.
The cast features Gene Wilder,
Brooks, Madeline Kahn, Cleavn
Little and Slim Pickens.
In Saddles, a black sheriff is
appointed to an all-white town,
and that's where the fun begins.
His Gucci saddle bag and pear-
ly-white smile will bowl you over
with surprise and delight, as
Brooks takes every opportunity
to kick his patrons in the rear
with jokes, slapstick, anachron-
isms and appropriately inappro-
priate music. Blazing Saddles is
pure 100 per cent fun.
-Michael Wilson
The Candidate
The Movies, Briarwood
The Candidate is a fairly in-
teresting tale of political be-
hind-the-scenes wheeling a n d
dealing with Robert Redford in
the title role as an up-and-com-
ing possible senator if the right
chips fall in the right places on
election night.
There's a lot of stimuli in this
film, and that's what keeps it
going: Melvyn Douglas has a
bit part playing Redford's fa-
ther, a crusty old former gover-
nor who steals scenes every
time he's on the screen. Peter
Boyle is great as the tough
campaign manager, a ruthless
and balding neurotic who mani-
pulates people like so mny ;up-
pets.
Michael Ritchie directed, as
in Downhill Racer, with _-harac-
teristic unsentimentality. Ritoh-
ie knows what he's doing be-
cause he was media adviser to
Senator John Tunney during
that political celebrity's 1968
underdog campaign against
George Murphy. Consequently,
the film achieves a hard-edged
reality unequaled in most semi-
documentary studies of political
ambition.
Of course, after it's all over,
you still know Robert Redford
- didn't really win anything. But
it's fun believing that for a lit-
tle while.
-Michael Wilson
The Confession
Cinema II, Aud. A
Fri., 7:30, 9:30
The Confession by Costa-Gav-
ras is another in his excellent
line of political commentary
films. His previous movie, Z
was about political repression
from the right. Confession is
about political repression from
the left.
Based on the true story of
Arthur London, a Communist
who is caught up in the last of
the Stalinist purges in 1951, and
loses faith in the political val-
ues that he fought for. This
film is a great contrast to his
other works.
Costra - Gavras's direction is
great, as usual. He uses flash-
backs, and even flashes forward
to accentuate the tension of the
story. Yves Montand and Si-
mon Signoret play the main
characters, and their perform-
ance is very human. This film
is a must for those who saw Z
and enjoyed it.
-David Warren
Blonde Venus
Friends of Newsreel, MLB
Sat., 7, 9:30
Blonde Venus (1932) was di-
rected by the immortal Josef
Von Sternberg, the Vienna-born
man responsible for m a n y
moody melodramas like Shang-
hai Express (1932) and Scarlet
Empress (1934). With a script
by Hollywood's finest screen-
writer -Jules Furthman -and
a cast that features such not-
ables as Marlene Dietrich, Her-
bert Marshall, Cary Grant, and
Cecil Cunningham, it seems.dif-
ficult for the film to fail. But
fail it does, and miserably.
The story .is something about
a gangster and a gangster's mis-
tress and a baby and C a r y
-Grant ad a monkey. suit-it
moved so slow the last time I
saw it I fell asleep. The real
Bashki's excuse probably will
be that during the period when
Nine Lives was in production,
the Supreme Court appeared to
be taking a tougher stand on
pOrno, and he didn't want to
get caught in the squeeze.
Nonsense. Well, you be the
judge.
-David Blomquist
Sound of Music
Michigan
Before anybody starts laugh-
ing let's set the record straight
on Julie Andrews and The
Sound of Music: it won Acad-
emy Awards for Robert Wise's
direction, William Reynolds's
editing, Jane Corcoran's sound
recording, Irwin Kostal's scor-
ing, and Ted McCord's photog-
raphy. It has been seen probab-
ly more times by more people
than any other film.
Your parents most likely took
you to see this one and bought
you popcorn in between the big
Rodgers and Hammerstein mu-
sical interludes. Along with
How the West Was Won, The
Sound of Music was seen by
more fifth-grade field trips
than any other motion picture in
Hollywood history. Many peo-
ple have seen this picture over
twenty times. These people
should be put away.
. -Michael Wilson
Hamlet
This 1948 British version of
Hamlet was the first film made
from Shakespeare's classic, and
is probably the best to date.
Laurence Olivier is simply bril-
liant in the tragic title role; he
also produced and directed this
fine movie.
For me, in fact, this movieis
more gripping than the stage
play. Rosencrantz and Guild-
enstern. are .funier here, and'
Ophelia (played by Jean Sim-
mons) will bring tears to your
eyes. The rest of the cast is,