PLAYS: Rewarding experience
By MARILYN McMULLEN
Kansan Staff Writer
Outstanding performances and a superb technical crew made the opening performance of "The Rimers of Eldritch" a richly rewarding dramatic experience. Though the play was long, characterizations were maintained throughout and the split-second timing of the scene changes kept interest from lagging.
The play deals with the acceptance and rejection of truth by members of the dying town of Eldritch, Iowa. Each person buries lies under a veneer of rime, which, according to Eva, "Makes everything sparkling white like the hoarfrost of autumn."
Peggy Freisen's portrayal of an old woman losing her faculties, done without the aid of makeup or props, was flawless. Patty McGill and Marilyn Mackey were convincing as two gossiping cronies and Betsy Miller was excellent as a confused and rebellious teenager who came to know the tragedy of trying to grow up too quickly.
The teamwork displayed by the entire cast in developing and maintaining character saved somewhat pat incidents from becoming melodramatic.
The success of the play depends on fine rapport between cast and audience. Lanford Wilson has written a drama using stereotyped smalltown characters to jolt his audiences out of the blindness one develops when living with a situation from day to day. The cast mingles with the audience before the first act, requesting that the audience think of them as real people portraying real people on stage.
The mingling period, though it lasts only a few minutes, is rather tedious if one is not sitting on the periphery of the stage where the members of the cast place themselves.
Wilson has used only the undesirable stereotypes of small-town people. The characters who are not already gossips, whores, or hypocrites, are rapidly becoming tainted by the stagnancy and narrow-mindedness supposedly characteristic of all small towns. However, he has made his point effectively, and leaves audiences with an opportunity and a reason for extensive soul-searching.
FILMS: 'Spirits' visit screen
By RICHARD GEARY
Assistant Arts & Reviews Editor
Poor Edgar Allan Poe is probably still revolving wildly in his grave from the rash of cheap horror movies which have glutted the market in the past decade, exploiting his name in an almost criminal way. American International Pictures, the chief perpetrator of those outrages (with the aid of Roger Corman and Vincent Price), has now released yet another picture based upon the work of America's great "artist of anxiety."
But "Spirits of the Dead" is different from its predecessors, in execution if not always in quality. It was made in Europe and gives us a trio of Poe stories adapted and directed by three of the continent's foremost film-makers: Roger Vadim, Louis Malle, and Federico Fellini.
Fortunately, the producers knew enough to present the worst of the three first. Vadim uses "Metzengerstein" as an excuse to display his wife, Jane Fonda, in a dizzying succession of kinky costumes. Poe's story, about a medieval prince who has the head of a rival family murdered and then becomes strangely attached to the dead man's huge horse, is somewhat distorted to include a couple of orgies and the suggestion of romance between Jane and her brother Peter.
"William Wilson" is one of Poe's best and most famous works, and Louis Malle treats it with evident respect, even though he turns the title character into a super-cool playboy-sadist. The tale of a cruel young man, pursued through life by his virtuous alter ego, has its exciting moments, including a card game between Wilson (Alain Delon) and a black-wigged Brigitte Bardot, but cannot overcome a poor script and general lack of tension.
The last, and by far the best, of the three adaptations is from a minor story entitled, "Toby Dammit, or, Never Bet the Devil Your Head," and is the first film directed by Fellini in four years, which, in itself, is an event. He has moved the tale into the twentieth century: Terrence Stamp plays a broken-down British actor, brought to Rome to star in "the First Catholic western," and pursued everywhere by
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the devil, in the form of a grinning little girl with luridly painted fingernails. In his elegantly horrifying surrealistic style, Fellini does better justice to the Spirit of Poe than the previous two efforts combined, and this suggests that, for the past twelve or so years, the great romantic stylist has been out of his genre. His subtly moving camera, ingenious selection of character types, and mastery of briefly-seen images are far better suited to the horror film than to the psychological "confession films" he has been producing lately. In his last three movies, Fellini's imagery constantly overpowered whatever he had to say, so he is probably better off not trying to say anything.
Vadim and Malle are semitalented hacks, while Fellini is a sensitive craftsman, who at least used to be an artist; those who sit through the first two-thirds of "Spirits of the Dead" will be amply rewarded if they keep their seats to the last.
The Weekend Scene
“THE REIVERS” — Held over for everyone to enjoy again.
"TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN"—The story of an unlucky bank robber, written, directed by and starring Woody Allen.
"TICK . . . TICK . . . TICK . . ."
—An action melodrama set in a small southern town, where the sheriff is none other than big Jim Brown.
"SPIRITS OF THE DEAD"— See review this page.
"FANNY HILL" — Another Swedish skin epic. Those who go probably deserve what they get.
'Baby Maker' to screen
HOLLYWOOD (UPI) — Robert Wise, who produced and directed "Sound of Music," will star Barbara Hershey in "The Baby Maker" for National General.
Lynn Redgrave signs
HOLLYWOOD (UPI) — Lynn Redgrave signed with Warner Bros. to star with James Coburn in "Blood Kin."
Let this picture speak for itself!
Steve McQueen "The Reivers"
Pavison & Technicolor*
A Cinema Center Films Presentation
A National General Pictures Release.
Eve. 7:20 & 9:25
Mat. Sat. & Sun. 2:20
Adult $1.50; Child $7.5
"THE IPCRESS FILE" (SUA Popular Film, Fri. and Sat.- Back when spy movies were the rage, this was one of the best. Directed by Sidney J. Furie; 1965.
"THE RIMERS OF ELD-RITCH" (theatre production)see review this page.
KU SYMPHONIC BAND IN CONCERT (Sunday)—Included in the program will be the premier performance of a new work by Claude T. Smith who is also the guest conductor.
CLYDE HOLLOWAY (Sunday)—Holloway performs on the organ in this concert.
From the country that gave you "I,A WOMAN"
"INGA" and "I AM CURIOUS"
(YELLOW)
'FANNY HILL' is a 'porno-classic!'
— ARCHER WINSTON
"In there with sex and love all the way!"
Jerry Gross and Nicholas Demetroules
Fanny Hill
Distributed by CINEMATION INDUSTRIES • COLOR by DeLuxe
Mat. DAILY 2:30
Eve. 7:15 - 9:15
EDGAR ALLAN POE'S ULTIMATE ORGY
Eve. 7:10 & 9:20
Mat. Sat. & Sun. 2:10