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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Friday, November 1, 1968
Hope for peace talks
Halt breaks gloom
Last night, President Lyndon Johnson announced to the nation and the world that at 8 a.m., Friday, the U.S. bombing of North Vietnam would cease.
Hopefully, the bombing halt will quicken the pace of the Paris peace talks and the United States will in the foreseeable future find a way out of the maze of its involvement in Vietnam.
The announcement of the bombing halt has been hinted at since the first rumors of a breakthrough in the Paris peace talks first began circulating over a week ago.
The Paris talks, which first began last spring after the President's dramatic announcement that the bombing of the North would be restricted and that the U.S. would try to begin negotiations for peace in Vietnam, have dragged through the summer and early fall with little hope of progress.
Hanoi had insisted upon a total bombing halt before seriously mapping out a peace treaty but the U.S. has countered that the bombing of the North couldn't end until some assurance was given that the Viet Cong would not take advantage of the cessation to increase its military operations.
Apparently this assurance has been sufficiently given or at least promised at to justify, in the President's and his advisors's estimations, the bombing halt.
Dissatisfaction with the Vietnam war has grown steadily and overwhelmingly in the past few years, not only in the United States but abroad.
The arguments that the United States will lose world prestige if a clear-cut victory is not obtained in Vietnam are scarcely, if ever, voiced anymore.
Ending the war has instead become almost a necessity to restore the slipping respect for the United States in the eyes of the world.
In view of the veiled promises and hints of Hanoi about their possible actions after a bombing cessation, the United States is taking a decided risk by the bombing halt.
But certainly it is now a necessary risk.
The future of the Paris talks hinges on more than the cessation of bombing in the North; the problem of whether to acknowledge the South Vietnamese government of President Nguyen Van Thieu or the Viet Cong's National Liberation Front or both as the official voice of the Vietnam people in the talks is a major problem not completely solved by Johnson's address.
Johnson said that, although the NLF would be present, this in no way would involve their recognition.
And for the citizens of the United States, soured by the labryinth of the war and its effect on the domestic scene, the hope of peace sharply breaks into the rising gloom of a nation clamoring for change.
The bombing halt, however, marks a distinct beginning in the search for peace.
The bombing halt signifies more than a way to get the Paris talks moving; it also offers hope that the pessimism and cynicism of the United States citizens, both old and young, can be assuaged. The advent of peace in Vietnam gives the American citizens a reason for hope in tomorrow.
Editorial Editor
Alison Steimel
'Go along without us. We can't face up to the re-entry problem.'
The rock hound
Streisand excellent
By WILL HARDESTY
The soundtrack recording of FUNNY GIRL on Columbia is
'Kismet' good despite drawbacks
Bv LINDA FABRY
what the movie is said to be Barbra Streisand with accompaniment.
After a run of current musicals, this year the University Theatre has dipped it's hand into the past, 1953 to be exact, and pulled out a musical Arabian Night called "Kismet."
In it's day "Kismet" was not the kind of hit that other musicals such as "South Pacific" and "Guys and Dolls" were. For some "Kismet" was a step backward, a return to the complex idiocies of story, the love-in-a-garden type romance, mistaken identities and all the flashy sets and beautiful girls that so enchanted Depression audiences.
And "Kismet's" score, a patchwork of themes from Alexander Borodin's "Prince Igor." Second Symphony, and some of his other works, does not provide the consistently good singing music that musicals such as "My Fair Lady," "West Side Story" and "Oliver" do. From "Kismet" the audience remembers only a handful of songs "Baubles, Bangles and Beads," "Stranger in Paradise," "Night of My Nights" and the haunting "This is My Beloved."
In this day of theatrical realism and the Stanislawski method of acting, a fantasy such as "Kismet" is a chore for trained actors. The characters are basically types—hero, heroine, scoundrel, villain, seductress—and such roughly-drawn characters can be even more difficult for actors than the well-drawn type. The actor in such a case is forced to fill in for the playwrite and this takes a good deal of imagination and skill.
Considering all the drawbacks of a musical fantasy such as "Kismet" and the problems involved in presenting it to today's audience, the University Theatre's production was indeed good. And though opening night started out at a painfully slow pace, things soon livened up and the second act had the magic which was missing from the first.
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Miss Streisand is reputed to be a perfectionist. For example, 14 attempts were needed before she was satisfied with the way "People" sounded for the soundtrack. The album comes through as a wonderful study of her voice. It is happy, sad, elated, depressed, lower New York City uneducated Jewish, high class sophisticated, shy and timid, bold and brassy, whispery and husky, round and full. But most of all, it is always a beautiful instrument of expression.
"Funny Girl" is supposed to be the story of how Fanny Brice made it in the entertainment world. It would appear the story and the legend of Barbra have become so entwined that it is now "The Story of How Barbra Streisand became a Star" portraying "How Fanny Brice Became a Star."
Kismet is a nice show to see. It has beautiful scenery, costumes and lighting, a few very lovely songs, and some good actors. But there are some musicals which leave you inspired, unfortunately "Kismet" isn't one of them.
Other fine performers worth mentioning begin with David M. Miller as the Chief of Wazir Police. With a flair for comedy, Miller added an "odd" voice to some rather straight lines and came out with a character who caused a great deal of laughter. Becky Balding and Susan Lombard also deserve some praise for their fine dancing as two princesses sent to win the Caliph's heart. And Bill Meikle as the outlaw Jawan was a pathetic as he was crude. Meikle's performance was perhaps the most realistic in the whole show, though he was only onstage for a few fleeting moments.
How else could it be? The album includes "People," "You Are Woman, I A Man" and "My Man"-songs which Miss Streisand has "made," or, perhaps, vice versa. At any rate, the "Funny Girl" and Barbra Streisand personalities and persons have become so associated, they are almost the same entity.
The actors, on the whole, did the best they could with the material they had to work with. As the poet Hajj, Mike Rapport turned in a fine performance, despite his rather slow start. Melinda Grable, as Hajj's daughter Marsinah, was not the tall, willowy heroine we are so used to seeing. But, whatever Miss Grable lacked in height, she certainly made up in voice. As the Wazir of Police, Lance Hewett gave the show a bit of a "high." Though a far cry from the original Wazir—an unappetizing fat man with blue lips—Hewett's infectious cackle and slinky ways made him equally as evil. Onnallee Zimmerman, the Wazir's seductress wife, pushed her lines much too hard and consequently seemed terribly affected. Miss Zimmerman's slow, emphatic way of speaking and her "theater" voice were at times appropriate, but at others were not. Unfortunately Miss Zimmerman didn't seem to know which to do when.
Kansan Movie Review
'Hot Millions' has British cool
By SCOTT NUNLEY
"Hot Millions" is a movie cool in the British tradition of humour, written and starred by that most "British" of gentlemen, Peter Ustinov. The addition of Maggie Smith's outrageously feminine incompetency makes "Hot Millions" a very competent (if never quite hot) crime comedy.
For those of us with a Ustinov fetish, of course, the film is a certain success. With his dapper self in disguise under unkempt clothing and hair, Petter Ustinow establishes another of his fondly remembered characterizations—Pendleton, an aging and rather ineffectual embezzler.
It is important for the levity of "Hot Millions" that Pendleton never be mistaken for a true master criminal. Not only is his field of crime relatively "harmless" socially, but on the rebound from one jail sentence, Pendleton is again neatly apprehended by a wary mechanical watchdog.
Rather than Pendleton's criminal "genius," it is a very plebian Human Element—a tea-thirsty washwerwoman—who finally cracks the inhuman virginity of the computer. Ustinov's embezzler is bright, of course, and he skillfully exploits his opportunity—but the point is his very kinship to the rest of us average bumblers.
Supporting stars Karl Malden and Newbairn are virtual throwaways in Director Eric Till's film.
Their roles consist of occasional mugs at and rather constant pursuit of our rotund hero. By now, Malden has leered his dreary way through so many movie roles that he must find it difficult to encounter a female in public without accosting her!
Not only does she have that best-of-Britain sunless milk-complexion, but her tiny nose with its flawless arch seems to be the perfect focus of every shot of her. If the Ustinov-fetish doesn't attract you, a Smith-fetish surely should.
But Maggie Smith, as Patty, is absolutely delicious.
It is between these two delightful hams that the film finds its few "hot" moments. Patty's futile attempts to cope with any sort of gainful employment and Pendleton's unabashed sexual naivetie mesh to create an outcast couple that should certainly be tragically overwhelmed by life. That they transcend each new blow by laughing at it together is exactly the refreshing reason that "Hot Millions" is a calm but surprisingly invigorating film.
Burdened with an action-less plot, repeating the by-now-stale formula of crime comedy, saddled with colorless supporting actors, "Hot Millions" cannot be considered a shoo-in for the American comedy market. Its pace (and its ultimate value) is rather more British. And a pleasant evening for all us Anglo-philes.