Spotlight-
Apologies to Huston
Arts & Reviews Editor
By MIKE SHEARER
No, John Huston did not direct "de Sade."
Everyone who read my review ("Very, very sad") of the film last week and did not write a note or letter to me objecting to the accusation should have.
Huston merely played a small part in the movie, and deserved anything but the haughty scorn I gave him, thinking he had directed the movie.
I did get several notes and letters criticizing the review and I lost a little sleep thinking just how stupid and inaccurate it had been to tack the responsibility for such a bad movie onto such a great director. That kind of an oversight on a reviewer's part should never be permitted without objection by readers, just as that kind of an oversight on anybody's part should not be permitted without objection.
I have always believed that a writer who is camouflaging a lack of research and thought with his own writing talents is worse than poor—he's a dangerous hack.
And while I still agree with my analysis of film "de Sade," I will rely more heavily on two other movie reviewers in the future. I will stick with books and records for the rest of the semester.
In sharing my embarassment over the bad review, I hope I have accomplished more than self-flagellation (praise de Sade!). I hope I have cleared the air about director John Huston and I hope everyone has shared in this bit of my education.
I have several excellent reviewers working on the page and I hope their work isn't considered any less reliable for this blunder. Here is one letter I received: Dear Sirs:
The Daily Kansan theatre and movie reviews have never been noted for their reliability. In the past they have made such colossal errors as attributing roles to the wrong actors ("The Hostage"), and even slaughtering the title of
BOOKS
THE CENTER OF THE ACTION, by Jerome Weidman (Random House, $6.95)—In his latest novel Jerome Weidman seems to be back in the mood of the late 1930's, when "I Can It for You Wholesale" appeared. For his hero, Ted Leff, is as thoroughly unlikable, yet just as interesting, as the hero of the earlier book, who bludgeoned his way to success in the garment district of New York.
Weidman starts his young man there, and then takes him into a career in publishing. Leff is absolutely amoral, but he is also quite funny, and he tells his story in that brittle Manhattan vernacular that Weidman puts into most of his books. All in all it is an exercise in studied amorality.
The figures of speech are a bit numerous. Metaphors and similes abound. One troubled me: it was hard to see how a gal could sound like Renee Adoree on that haystack with John Gilbert in "The Big Parade" when "The Big Parade" was a silent movie. Almost everything reminds Weidman of some old movie or movie star or Broadway actor. It's a lot of fun, but it gets old, too.-CMP
The Battle of Bunker Hill was actually fought on Breeds Hill in Boston.
the playbeing reviewed ("The Day The Fish Got Away"). But even these blunders pale beside the stupidity of the column that ace reviewer Mike Shearer unleashed on us Thursday.
Dec. 8 KANSAN 1969
The movie he had presumably seen was "de Sade," a skin-flick starring Kier Dullea and assorted beauties. Perhaps the most illustrious (and talented) member of the cast is director-actor John Huston, making a cameo appearance as "the Abbe." It's hard to tell how a man the calibre of Mr. Huston got involved in something like "de Sade," but it certainly wasn't one of his smarter decisions. Mr. Shearer, however, has added insult to injury by basing his entire literary effort on the monumental misconception that John Huston not only acted in but directed the entire mess. In practically every paragraph Mr. Shearer goes on about Huston's "shallow and dull product" while rhapsodizing about what a great movie could have been made about the Marquis de Sade. Maybe so, but it would behove Mr. Shearer to pay less attention to pictures that might be made and more to the ones that he's actually reviewing. Perhaps he arrived too late to see the movie's opening titles, or perhaps he just grabbed Mr. Huston's name from the movie ads, but for his enlightenment I would like to establish the fact that "de Sade" was not directed by John Huston but by Cy Endfield.
Stuart Cieland Wilmett, Illinois sophomore
By MIKE SHEARER
BOOKS: The land of magic Puffins
Arts & Reviews Editor
LESLIE TURNAGE, by David Brune (Coronado Press, $1.94)
"Leslie Turnage," as you might not imagine, is not a book about anyone named Leslie Turnage (whoever that is). It is, rather, a cartoon book about a strange race of birds (sort-of birds) called Puffins.
Puffins have strange and nonviolent ways which are usually amusing but decidedly not hilarious. Hilarity, like violence maybe, is far too severe to occur amongst Puffins.
Here is a sample of Puffin dialogue:
The Film that shocked the readers of Playboy (June issue)
A Harry Saltzman Production
COLOR OR TECHNOLOGIC
FILMED IN Panavision
United Artists
Shows 7:00 - 9:30
HILLERSTUDIO
JAMFS H. NICHOLSON AND SAMUEL Z. ARKOFF present
"Lewis, you're going to have to talk to our son; I'm worried about him."
"I'm not sure, but I think I noticed nicotine stains on his wings!"
"Why, what's he done?"
"Well that's not so bad, he's just going through a phase."
"A phase? What about this dime novel I found hidden in the corncrib? You call that a
phase? And have you noticed that certain words are creeping into his conversation?"
"You mean words like 'swell' and so's-your-old-man-"
'Hardly, I mean words like psilanthropy' and 'infralapsarianism,'
Anything but pretentious,
"Leslie Turnage" is a simple book with simple messages, simple situations and simple charm.
THE BUTCH CASSIDY
MEMORIAL THEATRE #2
PROUDLY PRESENTS . .
WHO ELSE . !
PAUL NEWMAN
ROBERT REDFORD KATHARINE ROSS
BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID
The Hillcrest
Shows 7:15 - 9:20
Adults $1.50; Child $.75
University of Kansas Theatre
presents
THE COUNTRY WIFE
by
William Wycherley
December 10, 11, 12 & 13 8:20 p.m.
December 14, Matinee at 2:30 p.m.
University Theatre Murphy Hall
For Ticket Reservations Call UN 4-3982