Newspapers / The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.) / Feb. 21, 1974, edition 1 / Page 4
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PAGE FOUR Window Falls at Hanging Rock Stale Park. Photo by Causey Movie Review: Tinsel Town On Parade by Phillip Margulies I recently took in Serpico, Sleeper, and The Paper Chase, all of which are worth seeing. Serpico is the best of them, a well acted, scripted and directed (these tasks performed by A 1 Pacino, Walt Salt and Normon Wexler, and Sidney Lumet, respectively) real-life account of the attempts of an honest, idealistic New York cop to combat corruption on the Force. All the good things that John Simon, Judith Crist, and all the other real-life movie reviewers in the real-life magazines and newspapers have said about this movie are absolutely true. Just one thing puzzled me: the motivation. About halfway through the picture, when our hero had discovered corruption above, below, and at either side of him, had earned the active animosity of his peers, with no kudos from his superiors, a devil tugged at my left elbow, and queried in an insidious whisper, "Who is this guy? What's he trying to prove? Why is he rocking the boat?" I looked to my right, but found no angel there to reply. That's the clincher, see? Heroism has no place in the twenthieth century. It is an anomaly, something freakish. The workings of the mind of a man like Frank Serpico are as obscure and alien to most of us as those of the Boston Strangler, and a movie about him ought to deal with the causes of this queer psychosis. But that's a quibble. I have no quibbles about the Paper Chase, a less ambitious but well-nigh perfect movie about the struggle for survival in Harvard Law School, with strong virtues of the literary sort: a tight, involving story-line, good characteriza tion, and a lot of very funny incidental business. 1 also found it convincing as an account of what-law-school-is like. It jibes with things I've heard from other sources. Believe me, those guys have it rough! But don't you worry, potential Guilford alumni, because you can't get there from here. Sleeper is great if you like this Woody Allen creep. I would without hesitation lay down my life for Woody Allen, so I thought it was great. Don't let your Lit teachers tell you about Aristophanes or Petronius or Moliere. Without they've seen Bananas, Take the Money and Run, or this latest opus, they don't know anything about comedy. But then, that's a common failing. Take, for example, Claude Berri, the humorless frog responsible for Le Sex Shop, anglicized on some theater marquees to read Ye Olde Sexe Shoppe. This is the one I saw last. I'm typing with one hand now because I need the other to keep my nostrils pinched. The movie has an X rating, and there's a lot of naked fashion models in it, but it just wasn't worth it. If only I had had a friend as perceptive as myself, willing to sit through this garbage and then advise me to do otherwise! Take heed. Serpico is playing at the Golden Gate, in the Golden Gate Shopping Center. Sleep er and The Paper Chase are now at the Janus 111 and IV. Le Sex Shop is bilking the marks at the Janus Screening Room 11. GUILFORDIAN Film Notes •• "Bus Stop" Stars MM Last December, the slap stick comedy Some Like It Hot, featuring Marilyn Mon roe, enjoyed great success the night it was shown. Tommor row night, February 22, another film also starring Marilyn Monroe will be shown in the Leak Room at 8:15. This film, a comedy-drama based on a play by William Inge, is entitled Bus Stop. Joshua Logan, a theatrical producer whose film credits include Picnic, South Pacific, and Camelot, directed; George Axelrod, who also wrote The Seven Year Itch, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, and the screenplay for Breakfast at Tiffany's, adapted Inge's successful Broadway play to the screen. In addition to Monroe, the film features Don Murray, Arthur 0' Connell, Eileen Heckhart, and a number of others. The plot revolves around the relationship between a rather naive rodeo cowboy (Murray) and a cabaret singer (Monroe) of uncertain virtue and talent. While performing in a rodeo in Phoenix with his friend Virgil (O'Conneil) this cowboy, 80, falls in love with Cherie, the singer, on first seeing her perform her number at the Blue Dragon nightclub. Moreover, he determines then and there to make her his wife. Despite her attempts to avoid his unwanted attention, he resou lutely pursuses her and when she attempts to get out of town, he finds her and forces her to get on the bus with him to his home in Montana. When the bus they are on is forced to a stop at a roadside restaurant because the road ahead is blocked by snow, the conflict between their differ ing ideas on their respective futures is brought to a climax, but not without first involving everyone who is with them, on one side or the other. Axelrod has expanded the script from its original limits, to include scenes in a rodeo, sleazy nightclub, and the Arizona desert, all of which are captured to their best advantage by the fine color photography. Moreover, in the opinion of many, Monroe v-ylf* J x I \ H I \ :^|J^ Koy Williams gives a rappelling demonstration on Brvan Hall wall- photo by Fregosi gives her best performance in this film. Having just returned from studying with the Strasberg Actor's Studio in New York, her acting is unusually perceptive, as attested by these reviewers: "Mr. Logan has got her to do a great deal more than wiggle and pout and pop her eyes...He has got her to be the tinseled floozie, the semi moronic doll who is found in a Phoenix clip-joint by a cowboy of equally limited brains... And, what's more important, he has got her to light the small flame of dignity that sputters in this chippie and to make a rather moving sort of Bosley Crowther, New York Times "In Bus Stop, (Monroe) has a wonderful role, and she plays it with a mixture of humor and pain that is very touching. This is also the special genus of the movie. One minute it is uproariously funny, the next minute tender and fragile, and somehow Musical Satire To Be Staged By Revelers By Janice Kreuzburg The musical satire "Oh What A Lovely War" will be presented by the Guilford College Revelers in Dana Auditorium at 8:15 p.m. Friday through Sunday, March 1-3. The anti-war satire, as its director Dean Regenos re lates, is a series of scenes depicting World War I from beginning to end, in all its glory and tragedy. The basic intent of the comedy is to make one laugh at something very serious. Compositely written by members of Joan Littlewood's Theater Workshop in London, the production first opened in 1963 in London, where it played for a year before coming to the United States. The production died on Broadway, however, due in part to the immediacy of this nation's involvement in the Viet Nam War. Since then it Thursday, February 21, 1974 director Logan preserves the delicate balance." William Zinsser, New York Herald Tribune Note: right now a ramdom survey is being taken in the cafeteria to see what films people might be interested in seeing on the film series next year. The survey - that is, blank paper and pencil for your suggestions - is attached to the Union bulletin board near the front of the cafeteria. Please let us hear from you: if you have a suggestion for one or more films please add them to the list already up in the cafeteria; if you would like to work on the selection and promotion of films for next year, please leave your name in Jim Baxter's mailbox in the Student Personnel offices downstairs in Bryan Hall. The film committee will be meeting sometime in the next couple of weeks. Next film: Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, in color, Tuesday March 5. has played all over the country and has been adapted in movie form. There are approximately 30 songs in the musical, 10 of which are full-scale musical numbers such as "Johnny Jones," "Make a Man of You," "Hitchy-Koo," and, of course, "Oh What a Lovely War." Regenos explained that the songs and tunes are all World War I originals supplanted by more comical lyrics. Props are minimal and costumes nebulous. The performance is strictly en semble: there are no "leads," with the 14-member cast rapidly changing characters from scene to scene. The cast listing is as follows: John Allnut, Rockville, Md.; Lisa Baker, Lynchburg, Va.; Karen Borreson, Silver Spring, Md.; John Byrnes, Lindenhurst, N.J.; Ellen Chinn, Falls Church, Va.; Stephen Elrod and Rose Anne Pipkin, Greensboro; Jane Fairchild, High Point. Also, Robert Gold, Mal verne, N.Y.; Gina Rumfelt and Daniel Rumfelt, Leesburg, Va.; Mark Underwood, Ba rium Springs; Theodore Waile; Baltimore, Md.; and William Wells, Wallace. Mary Ann Arkel of Green Meadows, N.J., and D. Forrest Hughes of Atlanta will serve as backup pianist and bass respectively. Clyde Robert Hiles of High Point is acting stage crew manager. Guilford students will be admitted free of charge. Reservations are necessary, however. Box office will be open each day and evening. For reservations, call 292- 5511, extension 46, during the day; 292-5513 in the evening.
The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.)
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Feb. 21, 1974, edition 1
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