Films: ringing the chime
By JOHN TIBBETTS
Kansan Reviewer
Imagine an edifice, built partly of rude oaken beams, steel, and vaulted stone and you have a conception of England during the time of the Iron Men. This film by Orson Welles is also such an edifice; it is literally built out of the bare bones of several plays by William Shakespeare dealing with such an England; and it rears up for us massive stone walls, flings aloft trumpeters into high towers, spurs horses across clouded meadows, and lifts flagons of fireside wine to our health. Fleshing out those bare bones forms the chief glory of the film.
Although there are problems in its construction (the first half is a swift, finely-drawn line of motion exploding into the ferocity of the battle marking Harry Percy's defeat; the second half subsides from that pulse and limps to a bitter but effective end), "Falstaff" should be dealt with as a succession of images and its evocation of the simplicity and chivalry of Merrie Olde England, an England Sir John Falstaff seems to represent. We see Henry IV and Prince Hal imprisoned within the rigid, tall shafts of castle towers and soldiers' spears; Harry Percy wheeling about to the wars with glittering sword; and great, gigantic, mammoth Sir John Falstaff muttering of Merrie Olde England while wheezing and lumbering his way through the taverns and inns of the land.
Orson Welles has mounted his camera very low so the figures and castles move above us like true giants. With colossal audacity he has created a dream of taverns and Iron Men that, mythic or not, is of properly heroic proportions, wholly fitting Falstaff's vast bulk. It is a fitting lament for the death of an oversized dream.
BOOKS: extremely disappointing
By WILLIAM MORISSEY
Kansan Staff Writer
TITLE OF REBELLION, by William O. Douglas (Vintage, $1.95)
At a time when social unrest, racial fear, sectional bitterness and a widening generation gap are at a height it was extremely disappointing to read William O. Douglas's "Points of Rebellion."
Douglas, Supreme Court liberal in residence, at the end of his 97 page book (which reads at times like one of his extended Supreme Court opinions) suggests that unless the "Establishment" restructures itself, revolution may be the only alternative
The pitch is struck when Douglas refers to the American Establishment as a modern day George III.
"George III was the symbol against which our Founders made a revolution now considered grand and glorious. We must realize that today's Establishment is the new George III. Whether it will continue to adhere to his tactics, we do not know. If it does, the redress, honored in tradition, is also revolution."
What makes this analogy especially distressing is the fatalistic position to which Douglas seems to have succumbed.
Dr. John Spiegel, head of the Lembrey Center for the Study of Violence, says, "There is an increase in violent ideology by radical young people in response to the despair that the goals the radical movement has pursued vigorously over the last eight years have not met with any apparent success. Hopelessness and despair give rise to more extreme measures."
Douglas states that "At the international level we have become virtually paranoid The world is filled with dangerous people. Every troublemaker across the globe is a communist."
The reader wonders, however, if Douglas is not a victim of paranoia in the guise of the "Establishment."
Nobody can argue that there are many problems in American society that need correction. But to point your finger at everything wrong in this country and label it the "Establishment" is not going to solve the problem.
And yet Douglas adds to the confusion when he writes, "But where grievances pile high and most of the elected spokesmen represent the Establishment, violence may be the only effective weapon."
Instead of offering constructive courses of action for the young Douglas labels the establishment as corrupt and raises the ominous specter of revolution.
This comes as an extreme disappointment from an associate justice of the Supreme Court.
It disdains hard rock, acid rock, even thundering jive popular among young people to create a "new sound" that Larry Meredith, a former Marine who is the leader of the group, said "we hope will be acceptable to all ages—effectively bridging the generation gap.
By MYRAM BORDERS
In fact, the 10—five young men and five young women—have adopted the name, "The Establishment," for their singing and dancing act that critics say is the hottest entertainment attraction since the Fifth Dimension.
Appearing on Las Vegas' glittering Strip, the Establishment underscored its versatility and range by introducing their interpretation of "Aquarius" and "People Got to Be Free," then breaking into "Born Free" and moving on to "Cry," the song that Johnny Ray made famous, and finally resurrecting a World War I song, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again," and giving it a modern sound.
LAS VEGAS, Nev. (UPI)—Ten young men and women, who say "we don't agree with everything the Establishment does but we'll never be caught marching around a courthouse," have added a new dimension to that much-abused aspect of political life.
Group's aim 'to entertain'
BOOKS
THE "F" CERTIFICATE, by David Gurney (Pocket Books, 95 cents)—A gamy but well-written shocker about what happens when, in Britain, young people appear naked on the beaches and parade there openly, and when young men, high on drugs, race through the streets on their scooters and create chaos, and when a moviemaker decides to exploit all this and get his picture an "F" certificate, for showing things that would make "I Am Curious (Yellow)" look tame. Violence marks this one much more than erotic, and in some ways it's a serious comment.
A MURDER OF QUALITY, by John Le Carre (Pocket Books, 75 cents); CALL FOR THE DEAD, by John Le Carre (Pocket Books, 75 cents)—Two older ones by Le Carre, dating back to 1964 and 1963, respectively. The first is a murder mystery dealing with a killing at a British public school, and the efforts of a former secret service agent to solve the crime. The second is a suspense story with the same hero, George Smiley, it being an episode in international espionage, more like the better known Le Carre novels, "The Spy Who Came In from the Cold" and "The Looking Glass
"The Establishment may mean different things to different people." Meredith said, "but to us it is just a name for the group. We admit we first used it as an attention-getter and it stuck.
"However, we don't agree with those young people who contend that everything people over 30 think and say is wrong.
"We may not agree with everything but, gosh, that doesn't mean anything. There are ways to disagree without tearing things apart. We're not hippies or speed freaks and we're too busy doing our own thing the best way we can to join some of these misguided factions."
Meredith, 6 feet 3,180 pounds, attended junior college in his home town of Bakersfield, Calif., then the University of California at Riverside, Calif., where he majored in music with a pre-med minor. He intended to study medicine when music caught his interest.
had made a daring promise to provide a singing group for Andy Griffith who then was readying a show for Las Vegas.
The Establishment was organized in 1968 by Leonard Grant, an artists' manager, choreographer Howard Parker and musical director D'Arneil Pershing, who
They had two weeks to put the group together and they did—welding 10 musical individualists, soloists, into a choral whole. To this they added dancing to make a singing-dancing act that has scored in West Coast niteries and now is turning to records.
The members of the Establishment span the continent: Bill Bowersock hails from Kansas City; Suzy Cadham was born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba; Michael Cody is native of Chicago; Ron Dexter is from Ohio; Lois LaBonte was born in Montana; Jean Lyons is from California; Phyllis Mitchell hails from Baltimore, Matt Vernon is from Atlanta, Ga., and Marilou Mundy from California.
"We are not trying to entertain any specific age group—we are just trying to entertain," Meredith said. "We are interested in appealing to young people, of course, but an appeal to all ages is more universal."
"In a nutshell, we have only one goal—just to entertain."