MOVIES: Just plain bad
By RICHARD GEARY Kansan Reviewer
What are movies for, essentially, but relaxation? What moviegoer, when faced with a choice between a well-touted art film and a glossy piece of Hollywood trash, has chosen the latter—usually because he knew it wouldn't make unnecessary demands of him?
Bad movies are in such profusion and variety that they exist on many complex levels of enjoyability. A bad film can be interesting for its far-reaching ambitions (John Huston's "The Bible"), its visual style (Orsón Welles' "The Trial"); it can be liked for a single performance ("Funny Girl") or for a virtuoso scene or two (Hitchcock's "Torn Curtain"). Finally, a film can be so unprepetentently awful that it is fun simply on that level ("Bloody Mama").
Best sellers
Fiction
LOVE STORY—Erich Segal
DELIVERANCE—James Dickey
THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S
WOMAN—John Fowles
GREA LION OF GOD-Haylor Caldwell
LOSING BATTLE—Eudora Welty
TRAVELS WITH MY AUNT-
Graham Greene
THE VALUE OF NOTHING-
John Weitz
THE GANG THAT COULDN'T SHOOT STRAIGHT—Jimmy Breslin
MR. SAMMLER'S PLANET- Saul Bellow
Non fiction
THE GODFATHER—Mario Puzo
UP THE ORGANIZATION— Robert Townsend
EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX—David Reuben
MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS— Antonia Fraser
THE SENSUOUS WOMAN—"J"
THE NEW ENGLISH BIBLE—
Oxford University Press and
Cambridge University Press.
HUMAN SEGUAL INADEQUACY-William Masters, M.D., and Virginia E. Johnson LONE PARK
DOVE AND WILL—Rolio May
I KNOW WHY THE CAGED
BIRD SINGS—Maya Angelou
THE SELLING OF THE PRESI DENT 1968-Joe McGinniss
Notice that eggs today appear smaller when they're broken and cooked. The fact that eggs don't spread out in the pan as much as did yesteryear's eggs is an indication of good quality. And though they look smaller, they weigh more. As far as weight goes, modern hens produce heavier eggs than ever before.
July 3
1970 KANSAN 5
"The Adventurers" falls into none of the above categories; it treads a thin line between being and enjoyably bad film and a dismally bad one.
This story of an amoral, uncommitted international playboy who shuttles between his revolution-torn homeland and the glamor capitals of Europe is lavishy mounted, with the care and attention usually accorded Biblical spectacles. There are many, many stars, thousands of extras, sumptuous sets, exquisite location photography, and lots of action. The film isn't a total disaster because its physical trappings at least hold one's attention.
The material, though, is another matter. Harold Robbins' novel was a slick piece of hack work, and, basically, so is its film adaptation. At no point do we ever become really involved with the story or characters; no one seems at all likable, or even very human.
Most crucially, the film-makers obviously were in doubt as to the attitude they should take toward their central character (a charmingly shallow, brutal, and cold fellow), and so we never come to understand him. Some of the stars do come off well (particularly Charles Azvantow as a creepy little hanger-on) but one can sense their struggles; all the others die before our eyes. Director Lewis Gilbert tries valiantly to keep everything alive with lots of lens and cutting trickery, but, more often than not, he hinders rather than helps (cutting, for instance, to Roman statues or fireworks during love scenes).
"The Adventurers" is most certainly a failure, but not a "noble" failure or a "colorful" failure or even an "interesting" failure (Its makers weren't ambitious or skillful enough even to let it go down the drain in a big way). It is merely a "watchable" failure, and, despite its hugeness, a very small and forgettable movie.
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Nothing has been left out of "The Adventurers"
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