FILMS: Very,very sad
By MIKE SHEARER Arts & Reviews Editor
Here's what you do. You take a man, say the Marquis de Sade. You subtract all of the qualities the man ever had, put the whole mess on film and advertise it as erotic . . . and SOCKO! —you're in the monev.
The Marquis de Sade was many things: He was a political mastermind, a gifted writer, somewhat of a madman and the ultimate eroticist. "de Sade," directed by John Huston, is about a man who is none of these. It is about a man much more characteristic of The Age of Playboy than The Age of de Sade.
Keir Dullea does the most fantastic job of turning parlor sex into cowboy antics ever recorded on film. After dragging himself through two sparkling films ("The Fox" and "2001: A Space Odyssey"), Dullea has failed once again to answer that growing question, "Yes, but can he act?"
Easily, Huston could have been forgiven for forgetting to include any facet of de Sade. After all, "Bonnie & Clyde" in no way represented Bonnie and Clyde. Yes, Huston can be forgiven for ignoring the political de Sade, the literary de Sade, the genius de Sade and the madman de Sade.
But Huston cannot be forgiven for not capturing the eroticism of de Sade, because that is what he was obviously setting out to do. Whether pure eroticism is a legitimate goal might be debated by some critics, but considering the shallow and dull product Huston has given us—at least eroticism would have been something!
Perhaps the cinema will one day be ready to depict the savage eroticism of de Sade, but any attempt at Doris-Dayizing de Sade is bound to fail, and John Huston could hardly have failed more miserably.
Huston surely deserves some kind of trinket for having turned the most complex sensualist of all times into the most shallow bore Hollywood has ever begotten.
BOOKS: Readable Miss Gish
By RENE RONDEAU
Kansan Reviewer
LILLIAN GISH: THE MOVIES, MR. GRIFFITH, AND ME, by Lillian Gish (Prentice Hall, $7.95)
"I've lived long enough now to know that the whole truth is never told in history texts. Only the people who lived through an era . . . know the truth. The people of each generation . . . are the most accurate historians of their time."
In "Lillian Gish, the Movies, Mr. Griffith, and Me," Lillian Gish recounts the history of the birth of the American cinema, from the viewpoint of one who was a participant.
As anyone who was fortunate enough to see her presentation here recently can say, Lillian Gish is a charming historian. She grew up in show business, and started working with the immortal D. W. Griffith at the beginning of his career.
She gave a tantalizing introduction to the rise of movies in America last week, an introduction which is further elaborated in her autobiography.
While not a literary masterpiece, her book describes her career in a delightfully personal style, offering numerous anecdotes about the successes and failures of movies and movie stars of the silent era.
Actually, her book is two biographies in one: her own, and that of David Wark Griffith, the creative genius who gave her her start in movies, and who gave movies their real start in "The Birth of a Nation."
Lillian Gish knows her subject; she started in show business as a child, and hasn't left the spotlights since. Most recently she performed in "The Comedians" and the TV production last year of "Arsenic and Old Lace."
For anyone who is interested in movies, Lillian Gish's personal history of the art is every bit as charming as she is personally.
Griffith once said, "Any actress can look good at any age, if she is good enough and still holds interest, whereas mere beauty fades and grows dull." Lillian Gish is beautiful.
PADUCAH, Ky. (UPI) — The Alben W. Barkley monument in Paducah contains the vice president's last words spoken a moment before his death: "I would rather be a servant in the house of the Lord than to sit in the seats of the mighty."
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
Dec. 4
1969 KANSAN 5
BOOKS: Dr. Spock vs. American justice
THE TRIAL OF DR. SPOCK,
by Jessica Mitford (Alfred A.
Knopf, $5.95)
By MIKE SHEARER
Arts & Reviews Editor
"Dr. Spock had been out all day on various errands and could not be reached by telephone. Coming home in the afternoon on the subway he saw a headline over his seatmate's shoulder; SPOCK INDICTED. 'I was dying to read it, but the man kept twitching it away just out of my sight. I felt like saying to him, But that's me! I want to see what I've been indicted for.' "
The Justice Department, with all the diplomacy it is known for, had hand delivered to the press the indictments against Spock and his so-called conspirators and had mailed the indictments to the five men themselves, the men who have become known as The Boston Five. So Spock, Rev. William Sloane Coffin Jr., Michael Ferber, Mitchell Goodman and Marcus Raskin were off to trial.
And so was Jessica Mitford.
Miss Mitford nestled herself into a corner of the press box and started collecting material for her first book since "The American Way of Death," the book that drastically rocked the undertaking industry (no euphismism needed) a few years ago. The only legitimate criticism of Miss Mitford is that her books are too infrequent.
In this book, Miss Mitford trounces upon the trial judge (Judge Francis Ford, 85 at the time of the trial), the Justice Department and even the moments of pettiness among the defending lawyers. Further, she tackles the whole idea of political trials.
The author reaches beyond the courtroom to include telling interviews with insights into the clearly prejudiced judge, the brilliant lawyers, the troubled jurors and particularly the saintly defendants.
The conspirators had never conspired (they had to be introduced to each other after they were all named in the conspiracy indictments!); the judge refused any discussion of the defense—the legality and morality of the Vietnam war; the jury was sent to make its decision with instructions which clearly called for a verdict of guilty (which all but Raskin got).
But Miss Mitford adds a great deal of interpretative writing to show the very ridiculousness of the trial ever having occurred. Adding to the Spook trial a list of other political trials, Miss Mitford says, "... Behind these prosecutions lay the decision of government to move against what it deemed to be the threatening and discordant voices of opposition to the established order."
Further, the diligent author gives a view of the jury which can't be found in every "courtroom" book. Miss Mitford's view is tempered with the wisdom of several judicial sources, and her opinion—that the jury is responsible to decide not only guilt or innocence but also the worthiness of the law under which the prosecution is made—is an opinion which should be studied in detail.
Possibly the most enjoyable part of the book, though, is the glimpse of Spock, Coffin and Ferber which she gives us. For instance, in telling the history of Dr. Spock, the author quotes Spock saying his first encounters with marching were "ex cruciatingly embarrassing, like one of those bad dreams where suddenly you are downtown without any clothes on." And for the Puritan, always well-clothed Spock, it took a lot of courage to wake up downtown naked.
Miss Mitford's evidence and the courtroom evidence clearly prove that a baby doctor need not be stupid on the subject of war, as was naturally supposed by a vast number of American pseudopatriots. Sadly, the Defense and Justice departments of the federal government show a decided inferiority up against Spock's war wisdom.
But the crime was committed.
Not the crime of conspiracy, but
the crime of trying five patriotic and devoted men for disagreeing with their government. And though the trial court's decision was later reversed, there will forever be a black mark on the annals of America's legal and moral history.
The Film that shocked the readers of Playboy (June issue.
JAMES H. NICHIOLSON ... SAMUEL 2: ARKOFF ...
NIGHT PEOPLE'S SPECIAL Fri. and Sat. Night Only presents "MIRACLE OF LOVE"
Show at 11:45
OFFER GOOD THRU DEC.
"Battle of Britain"
A Harry Saltzman Production
COLOR BY Technicolor* Unted
FILMED IN Panavision* Artists
NOW SHOWING
Eve. 7:00 - 9:30
Mat. Sat. - Sun. 2:00
Adult $1.50, Child $.75
HAVE STOLEN THE Hillcrest FOR A 10TH WEEK! Eve. 7:15 - 9:15 Mat. Sat. - Sun. 2:15