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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 6, 1982)
of censors Most video disc pressing is done in Japan (Japanese pressing plants are like hospitals. Their Ameri can equivalents are generally more like slaughterhouses). Officials in the Land of the Rising Sun have refused to allow even such non-sexy fare as First Monday m October, Serptco and £s cape from Alcatraz to be made. No such problem for tapes, which can be more crudely manufactured — it's es unrated that half of all pre-recorded video tapes sold are pornographic. Or as Zippy the Pinhead likes to say, por nograbbic. Pioneer is about to start pressing videodiscs at a plant in Car son, California, so America can soon choose whether to catch Debbie Does Dallas on platter or cassette. The Tube The paper chase, which re-ran nicely on res last year, will reappear — on Showtime. Once again, we re being promised new episodes. We won t hold our breath, but we’ll be eternally grateful A four-hour mini series of Little Gloria, Happy at Last will appear on NBC starring Bette Davis as Alice Gwynne Vanderbilt and Angela Lansbury as Gertrude Vanderbilt Whit ney, grandmother and aunt of Gloria (now the jeans queen), who fought for custody of the little girl back in the Thirties Action Flicks Sean connery is still promising to re turn to the screen as James Bond (and about time, whom does Roger Moore think he's kidding?) in Warhead. an original script, it will nevertheless hew closely to the origi nal Fleming character. The road warrior (see Summer Movie Guide this issue) turns out to be the sequel to Mad Max, directed by Australian George Miller The first of the two was said by some to be so action-packed "It made Raiders of the Lost Ark lot* like an Ingmar Bergman film.” This gave rise to the rumor that Miller will direct Raiders // (he won t, Spielberg claims he’ll do it), and to the unconfirmed rumor that Connery wants Miller to direct the above mentioned Warhead QN gCREEN Conan the Barbarian starring Arnold Schuarzenegger, San dahl Bergman, James Earl Jones, writ ten by John Milius and Oliver Stone directed by Milius rhe Wintl and the Lion, also written and directed by John Milius, is one of my all-time favorite romantic adven tures when Sean Conners- lifts Candice Bergen onto his horse and rides off with her, after vanquishing the threatening horde heartstopping There aren't many such images to fire female (or male) fantasies these days And there are none in Conan Schwarzenegger looks perfect as the pulp heroic Sumerian hulk (he han dles a sword with authority and his oc casional sly smile betrays an intelli gence behind the muscle), but there is no sense of the mythic about him, no suggestion of the fantastic Even less about the others Jones, as the evil Thulsa Doom, fust stares into the cam era intently, while Bergman (a nimble sword wieider herself) has a startling American accent and vernacular Noth ing seems real, but there Is no sense of otherworldliness either The elaborate temples look phony, the battles are unconvincing (swords miss by inches), and the zillions of Doom's followers seem to pop out of the earth, existing on mxhing in the middle of nowhere — jast like the fanes defenses (aman constructs while waiting ta vers long time) for Doom's arms Where did he get all those sticks, when there were no trees for miles'' (I ktittu it's a tan tasy. but even Walt Disney would have given as a crumb to nibble, like "the wind brought as the sticks or some thing equally silly but logical I don t ask for much, but I do expect hp ser vice to logic, however bizarre the lope) It's not that Conan is a waste of time, it s good mindless, violent fun — but it lias no challenge, no mystery I expected Milias to give as at least two dimensions Perhaps he'll do better with the promised sequel Judith Sims tJ in**. Victor/Victoria starring Julie Andrews, James Gamer at id Kohert Preston, written by HUtite Eduards, /traduced by Edwards and Tony Adams, directed b\ Edwards It ls Paris, 193V You can tell this be cause the shops and cafes have French names and the actors speak ze English with ze French accent Victoria — a hard luck case wtio hasn't had a det cm meal in days and who can't get a |ob in a cabaret even though she happens to sing exactly like Julie An drews — finally lands employment in the guise of Victor, a Polish count whom everybody believes to be a female impersonator Since Parisians — and especially gav Parisians — are vers big on transvestites who sing like Julie .Andrews and who look like Julie Andrews with a boy s haircut, Victor soon liecomes the toast of the town Victor/Victoria's meteoric rise to tame and fortune comes at the hand of several remarkably implausible coin eidences a chance encounter with a cockroach, a sudden rainstorm that shrinks Victoria's clothing half its size and the sudden brainstorm of a gay Good Samaritan named Toddy who happens to look and sing exactly like Robert Preston. So enter King Mar chan, a Chicago club owner/gangster-type who hap pens to look exactly like James Gamer with a Clark Gable moustache. Of course, he falls head over heels for Victor/Victoria and Is convinced that she’s really a woman because there’s no way he could fall in love with an other (gulp) guy If all this sounds incredibly stupid, it Is Based on a 1933 German movie, Vik tor und Viktoria, Blake Edwards' re make Is an embarrassment. Even Ed wards' flair for visual comedy, which he worked to near mastery with Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther films, Is here almost nonexistent. If your idea erf a gtxxl time is to lis ten to an endless succession of very polite but not terribly amusing jokes about homosexuals and to watch coundess table-throwing, cake-in-the 1 face restaurant melees, then hurry off to see Victor/Victoria Steven X. Rea Cat People starring Nastassia Kinski, Malcolm McDowell and John Heard, written by Alan Orrnsby, directed by Paid Schrader In 1942, Val Lewton, a producer with very little money and a great deal of imagination, made Cat People, a B movie that has since gone on to cult status Now Cat People is a remake, a costly remake, full of costly mistakes. While it's far more psychologically complex than its inspiration, this up date defeats itself at every turn with muddled writing, pretentious direction and ludicrous plotting. Director Paul Schrader (writer of Taxi Driver and The Yakuza and di rector erf American Gigolo) ought to have been perfectly suited to the mate rial By his own admission he’s fairly obsessed by Big Themes: God, moral ity, guilt, sex. Cat People is awash in notions of beast and man, salvation and lust, sex and animalism, but the movie doesn’t so much grapple with these themes as paw through them. The setting is New Orleans, and Nas tassia Kinski plays an exotic young woman who is reunited after many years with her pre^fher brother (McDowell). Things are pretty weird right off, but Kinski doesn’t seem con cerned, not even after McDowell dis appears for days on end without ex planation. Kinski just trots off on a tour of the city. Naturally she’s drawn to the zoo, and naturally she’s drawn to the zoologist played by John Heard. But love or sex isn’t for McDowell and Kinski It turns their, into cats who must kill to become human again. In a ridiculous dream sequence that opens the movie, designed by Ferdinando Scarfiotti (Schrader's collaborator on American Gigolo), we learn more than we ever wanted to know about the special relationship between leopards and humans. Cat People has some startling im ages and an ending that’s as haunting as any in a horror film, but Schrader subverts the power of his material with bad storytelling. Ultimately horror films have to play into our dreams, and although Schrader’s come up with three or four strong moments, he can't sustain the illusions. The movie is also very bloody and contains some misguided special ef fects that seem left over from An Amer ican Werewolf in London. Cat People has been sadly declawed. Jacoba Atlas I Oughta Be in Pictures starring Dinah Manoff, Walter Matthau, Ann-Margret; directed by Herbert Ross; written by Neil Simon Neil Simon does it again. And again. And again. And again. Dinah Manoff plays Libby Tucker, a bright and irresistible teenager who travels all the way from New York to Los Angeles to visit the man she hates most: Walter Matthau as gruff and stubborn Herbie Tucker who can’t have relationships, and would rather gamble his money at the races than his ideas at the studio. And Ann-Margret has big breasts. Together, father and daughter fight and joke (he gruff, stubborn; she bright, irresistible) until he cries, she cries, they hug. Marsha Mason, I mean Ann-Margret, interrupts the feisty yet loving relationship by begging dumpy, grumpy Richard Dreyfuss, 1 mean Wal ter Matthau, to make a commitment. Simon’s spontaneous repartee is not so spontaneous. The formula works as most formulas do, but one becomes resistant to the coldness of this Broadway-put-on-film cardboard cutout. As a small film, / Ougtba Be m Pictures could have been wonderful—it has nice visual tone and talented acting, but every nice scene has to end with a punchline, as if once the film gets good, we might forget who wrote it Who ought to be in pictures? I don’t know. I only know who ought not to be. Jody Eve Grant MAKE FUN LESS WORK. If you dorft like the song the Pioneer SK-600 Personal Stereo is playing, no problem. With new Music Search your Pioneer will search, either forward or backward, stopping and playing at the beginning of a song so you can find the exact one you want. And unlike other stereos, you can switch from tape to radio or from radio to tape with the push of a single button. With Pioneer Personal Stereos you and your fingers don’t have to stand there pushing button after button. You can all go off and have fun. i iiiiiiiiMiiiwwiiwtWii ©1982 Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc., P.O. Box 1540, Long Beach, CA 90801. (ID PIONEER' We never miss a performance.
