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Wednesday, February 1, 1984The Daily Tar Heel5
Films have Bisneybm
By JEFF GROVE
Arts Editor
Thanks to the complexities of booking
films in a town with as few screens as
Chapel Hill, Walt Disney Pictures'
Christmas package has only now arrived.
The company's new featurette,
Mickey's Christmas Carol, is but a
qualified success. The studio's decision to
issue the new film on a double bill with a
re-release of The Rescuers, however,
should ensure it an audience.
Mickey's Christmas Carol is a
26-minute adaptation of A Christmas
Carol, with Charles Dickens' characters
played by familiar critters from the
Disney stable.
Some of the "casting" decisions are
obvious: Ebeneezer Scrooge could only
be played by Scrooge McDuck, and Bob
Cratchit provides an excellent vehicle for
Mickey Mouse the rodent's first screen
appearance since a 1953 short cartoon
called The Simple Things.
Other ideas for characters display more
evidence of thought. For example, since
memories of the past often bring on
twinges of remorse over things left un
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Roomful of Blues, an up-and-coming
tonight at Cat's Cradle.
Roomful of Blues to play in
By DAVID SOTOLONGO
Staff Writer
Roomful of Blues, a nine-piece band
from Providence, R.I., will make its
Chapel Hill debut tonight at the Cat's
Crarl e. . .
fusing rhythm and blues with , as
many musical genres as it has band
members, Roomful has established it
self as the hottest dance band on the
East Coast since New Rhythm and
Blues Quartet.
Like NRBQ, the band has grown
from cult status to playing to more than
1,000 fans in Washington, D.C., this
past weekend, manager Bob Bell said in
a telephone interview Saturday.
Bell, who doubles as sound man and
T-shirt vendor, was at a loss when asked
to describe the band.
"Going by what they listen to on the
bus, they like just about everything,"
Bell said. "The band is doing a lot of
New Orleans R&B right now."
Roomful first came together in 1968,
but only pianist Al Copley remains
Full time
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Shop FOWLER'S FOOD STORE for all
those hard to find speciality and gourmet
items. Every department stocks numerous
fancy and specialty items that are not
found in all food stores. Remember, if you
can't find it at Fowlers, you probably can't
find it anywhere.
FOWLER'S
done, Jimmy Cricket, the conscience of
the title character in Pinocchio, is a nicely
symbolic choice for the role of the Ghost
of Christmas Past.
One blatant miscalculation, however,
is the choice of Goofy as the ghost of
Jacob Marley. Clumsy as usual, even in
death, Goofy is simply not frightening
enough not frightening at all to give
Scrooge (and the audience) the shivers.
As far as art direction and animation
are concerned, Mickey's Christmas Carol
is a total victory. The gray, snow
blanketed London streets and houses
may not be strictly Dickensian, but they
somehow seem appropriate in this render
ing. Certainly the Disney crew offers no
dearth of striking visual images. The
graveyard scene, where Scrooge learns
the fate that awaits him should his ways
remain unchanged, is far too frightening
for young children to bear. Unlike tradi
tional renderings of the scene, this version
presents Scrooge with his own open
grave. His coffin belches fire and
brimstone as the earth shakes. A hellishly
gleaming match illuminates his tombstone.
band out of Providence. R.I.. will
from the original band. Horns were
added in 1970 when Greg Piccolo and
Rich Lataille joined the group. ;
It was not until 1979 that Roomful
made a change that may ultimately,
bring it national recognition. Founder
rtDukiRobillard left the band because of
personality differences, and Piccolo
took over vocals. The band also added
another tier of brass, which introduced
59-year-old trombonist Porky Cohen to
the group.
Cohen toured with such notables as
Tommy Dorsey and Artie Shaw during
the big-band '50s.
Rounding out the new brass section is
trumpeter Bob Enos, who joined the
band in 1981.
Before the personnel change, Room
ful had difficulty translating the energy
of its live performances into commer
cially successful studio efforts." Let's
Have a Party (1977), the band's second
album, had some good dance numbers
like "Okie Dokie Stomp," but the band
was best known for playing back-up for
the Blues Brothers' New York City
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YOUR FRIENDLY HOME TOWN
Irwin KostaPs musical underscoring
deserves mention. Kostal, who wort
Oscars for his work on West Side Story
and The Sound of Music and who arrang
ed the songs for Disney's Mary Poppins,
has created an original score of great
charm using Victorian-style chamber
music with economy.
Given the terrors of some scenes of
Mickey's Christmas Carol, perhaps it was
wise to release it coupled with The
Rescuers.
Arguably the best animated feature
length film produced by the Disney
studios without Walt Disney's personal
direction, The Rescuers (1977) is best
described as animated film noir. Both
literally and figuratively a dark film, it
practically drips evil off the screen in spite
of some inventive touches of comedy.
This double billing allows comparisons
of recent Disney animation efforts. And
it's safe to say that, in spite of such disap
pointments as The Fox and the Hound,
the Disney folks have not lost their magic
touch.
be making its debut in Chapel HiM
Cats Cradle
debut. -
After the band change in 1979, the
studio treated Roomful to three steamy
recordings in succession. Hot Little
Mama (1981) landed on many blues
critics' "ten best" lists. Roomful then
played backup for Eddie ."Cleanhead"
" Vinson and Big Joe burner oh tKeu next
two albums, each of which was nomi-
nated for a Grammy award.
Bell said the band is currently looking
for a contract with a major record com
pany. Last year Roomful released its
first single, Please Don't Leave. The
group is now ready to release a new
album, Bell said.
After 15 years, Roomful is a new
band again, he said. The group hopes'
this tour will convince the album-buying
public that swing blues is as fun as rock
'n' roll.
"The band that exists today basically
came together in 1979," Bell said. "It's
blues, it's R&B from the '40s and '50s,
and they throw in a few soul things,
too."
Bring your dancing shoes.
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WINE
Ruffino Riser Va Ducal Chianti Classico,
1978, 5th $6.95
Antonin Rodet Bourgogne Pinot Noir,
1978,5th .... $5.75
Rioja Reserva Special Spanish Red Table Wine,
1973, 5th $4.05
Chateau Lamothe Cissac Haut-Medoc,
1981, 5th . - $4.59
FOOD STORE
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Ebenezer Scrooge (Scrooge McDuck) gets a visit from the Ghost of Christmas Future In Disney's 'Mickey's
Christmas Carol,' which opened along with 'The Rescuers' recently.
Acting, direction save silly 'Luv' story
By JO ELLEN MEEKINS
Staff Writer
Good acting and effective direction
saved a basically silly storyline in the
UNC Laboratory Theatre's production
of Murray SchisgaTs Luv, which was per
formed Sunday and Monday.
Undergraduates E. Eugene Murray,
Kimball Crossley and Allison Hall por
trayed three distinct characters with two
things in common. All three are losers in
their personal lives, but they all have one
thing that sustains their will to live:
"luv." the performers' abilities, combin
ed with Michael Louden' s direction, pro-1
vided some genuinely funny moments in a
play that is, in places, embarrassingly sil
ly. Luv opens with Harry Berlin (Murray)
trying to jump off a bridge to kill himself.
He is saved by an old school buddy, Milt
Manville (Crossley), who persuades him
to seek love to fill his empty life. Milt is
even willing to provide a woman for
Harry his own wife, Ellen. In love with
another woman, Milt is ecstatic when
Harry and Ellen fall in love and want to
get married. Act II, however, finds Milt
and Ellen both miserable in their new
marriages, wanting to remarry each other
and start over.
Murray and Crossley were entertaining
as two old friends who grew apart but
never really grew up. Their childishness
was especially obvious in their "can you
top this?" sessions. Each character thinks
he had the worst possible childhood. Milt
r!)ci? n ah
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complains that he had to eat coffee
grounds for breakfast, and Harry insists
that he didn't know when his birthday
was until he got his draft notice.'
Crossley's marching and singing as he
relived his drum-major days and Murray
playing with knives as if they were swords
were also funny scenes.
Hall's characterization of Ellen was
puzzling at first, especially vfhen she in
formed Milt of the reason for the failure
of their marriage via a graph she hung on
a lamppost. Gradually she became more
believable as she sadly expressed her
disillusionment with the plight of women.
Ellen needs the security of marriage and
motherhood, but her photographic
memory and sharp intelligence scare men
away. "I'll never forgive the Board of
Education for that," Ellen says angrily.
The character of Ellen in Luv makes a
strong statement about women's and
men's views of each other. One of the
most memorable dialogues in the play oc
curs when Harry asks Ellen to make one
wish. "I wish I were a lesbian," Ellen
replies. Harry argues that if she were a
lesbian she would have to learn how to
pick up girls. Ellen answers thatjt would
be easy: she would simply "learn to be a
liar and a hypocrite."
Ellen herself represents a stereotype of
women: they can be either smart or, at-,,
tractive to men, but not both. Ellen, like
Harry and Milt, is very childlike. She and
Harry show their reluctance to trust other
people as they do rotten things to each
other and then ask, "Do you still love
Hollywood, Pompano Beach, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea,
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me?" Ellen is so eager to hear "I love
you" that she uses her hand to make
Harry's lips form the words.
Luv is about love, but although it has
funny moments and a few powerful
points, the play itself cannot compare
with Tootsie, one of SchisgaTs later
works. Luv and Tootsie bothtieal with
women's problems and men's and
women's attitudes toward each other, but
Luv is not as effective.
Considering what they had to work
with, however, the cast and director did
an excellent job.
Book schedule
From 30 January-2 February, 1984 the
following library material will be moved:
Library of Congress Classification:
AC-BF
BH-F
Wilson Library will be closed Feb. 3-5.
On Feb. 6, Wilson will reopen with access
to the Special Collections only. Davis
Library will be closed Feb. 6, 1984. It will
open to the public at 8 a.m. Tuesday Feb.
7. We will offer seven tours a day (9 a.m.
-3, p.m. on tl ourLfon the nex. two
weeks. 1 "c c lSv ,sV" " '
For more information call: 962-1335
For more detailed information call:
962-5759
Deerfield Beach.