Canadian Film Weekly (Feb 27, 1970)

CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY FEBRUARY 27, 1970 _ Page 4 movie reviews By GARY TOPP The Molly Maguires Pennsylvania, 1876. The Molly Maguires were an underground (in the very true sense of the word) terrorist outfit dedicated to the overthrow of the white society ruling that state’s coal mines and miners. The laborers were also white. But unfortunately, they were white, Irish Catholic immigrants who had come to the United States not necessarily for great success, but certainly for a good life. The rebels sought to gain this goal. Paramount’s The Molly Maguires tells the story of an informer, played by actor/singer Richard Harris, who is hired by ‘the establishment’ to join the ranks of the militants for the purpose of detecting the ring-leaders. Harris plays his part exceptionally well, as the down-and-out soul who realizes his circumstances and takes full advantage of fate in order to climb the ladder. He understands all too well that violence begets violence. On the other side of the fence, the rebel leader, portrayed with surprising strength by Sean Connery, sees no alternative to revolutionary violence when everything else is hopeless. There is definite morality involved in this movie — the morality of class struggle, leading to painful slum life, leading to militancy aimed for a “power to the people”, a needed change. It seems that in those days, terrorism was the only way that the desperate, middle-aged miners could possibly gain anything from their selfish employers. The thoughts of today’s youth are not much different, and it is perhaps this parallel that makes The Molly Maguires so relevant. The Molly Maguires is not a perfect movie but there are enough virtues to compensate for all of its failings. It’s not really new for the oppressed peoples of the world to take to the streets with guns. Nowadays, the majority of political statement movies talk about, and tend to be in favor of, revolution. Some succeed and some do not. The Molly Maguires examines the subject, and rationally and subtlely delivers the message. There’s no flash and the story is history by nearly 100 years. Hopefully though, today’s audiences will support the film, even though the protagonists do not ride motorcycles or smoke dope. * * * The Damned Films have generally moved towards a far greater realism. This new look tended to establish itself in the early 1940’s, appearing mainly in the European cinema and gradually taking its place in that of the United States. Luchino Visconti, from Italy, was one of the forerunners — to produce a wholly realistic film. With such motion pictures as Rocco and His Brothers, The Leopard and The Stranger, Visconti helped lead this powerful new movement of social criticism in the cinema. Visconti’s most recent venture, The Damned (distributed by Warner Bros.), is playing to overwhelming audiences, making it perhaps his greatest success financially. It is a shame, however, that The Damned turns out to be nothing more than an over-done, Hollywood-style historical spectacular. The title refers to the entire Nazi experience in pre-war Germany during the early 1930’s and to the Von Essenbeck family in particular, an extremely powerful but doomed family which owned a vast steelworks empire in that country. It appears obvious that Visconti had hoped to present an allegory of the evils of Nazi Germany at the beginning of that period, but what he offers is a tedious domestic melodrama concerning a household of deviates. What I found interesting about The Damned was the gloomy images, created by the director, of the various stages of the German situation. A marvellous screenplay miraculously carries across Visconti’s visions of terror and confusion. Unfortunately, everything else fails. The characterizations, revealing such personality flaws as cowardice, back-stabbing, sadism, and numerous sexual perversions, are not at all convincing, and this is a pity because Visconti has assembled together quite an exciting troupe. The mixture of German accented English with authentic German (with and without subtitles) dialogue becomes very distracting after a while, giving an unreal air to the entire production. The photography is definitely a joke. Composed almost exclusively of zooms, in and out, it was so pretentious that I finally made up my mind that everyone else is wrong. Andy Warhol does have tremendous talent with his camera. The Damned runs much too long — approximately 2 hours and 20 minutes — and what Visconti eventually produces is a dull historical account of an era in Germany when “anything can happen” and where “enormous interests are at stake”. but I just wasn’t tired! I could have slept through it all, olooking ae Peter Sellers has been signed to star opposite Academy Awardnominee Goldie Hawn in There’s a Girl in My Soup, which will be produced by John and Roy Boulting and directed by the latter. The Frankovich production for Colum‘bia Pictures release which will be made in association with British Lion, begins filming in England in’ March. Unique film project at Sir George Williams The Conservatory of Cinematographic Art of Sir George Williams University was created in January, 1968, by its present director, Dr. Serge Losique, in order to increase the tremendous interest in film as an art form. Now in full swing, the conservatory presents specialized film programs as well as lectures by noted film-makers and historians. The first Canadian Student Film Festival, organized in September, 1969, highlighted films from across Canada, and due to the tremendous success of the event, will be held annually. A film library consisting of 2,000 films with an additional 300 on loan from the Cinématheque Francaise in Paris has _ been created. Already the collection has attracted the interest of many other institutions to which it has loaned movies for special showings. The conservatory is a member of the World Union of Film Museums and is the only Canadian correspondent of the two leading museums of cinema in the world — Cinématheque Frangaise (of which Henri Langlois, its director, travels from Paris every two weeks in order to lecture and to stimulate public movie showings) and the George Eastman House. Recently, a D. W. Griffith festival was presented at the university. Nine rarely seen films were screened, including those in which W. C. Fields, Walter Huston and Tyrone Power played their earliest roles for the pioneer American director. Any donations in support of this unique film project should be forwarded to Sir George Williams University, 1435 Drummond St., Montreal 107, Quebec. El Weirdo will be the first of Woody Allen’s three films to be made for United Artists by Jack Rollins-Charles H. Joffee Productions. Allen will also direct and write the film. * * * Beverly Todd has been signed to — co-star opposite Sidney Poitier in Kane, which Poitier’s E & R Productions Corp. will film for Columbia Pictures. The film marks the fourth teaming of Miss Todd and Poitier which began when he directed her on Broadway in Carry Me Back to Morningside Heights. They then appeared together in the motion pictures, The Lost Man and the recently completed They Call Me Mister Tibbs. * * * Michael Douglas has been signed to star in Summertree, the motion picture version of the hit offBroadway play to be filmed by Kirk Douglas’ Bryna Company and directed by Anthony Newley for Columbia Pictures. Douglas portrays a young soldier in Viet Nam in the new film which is scheduled to begin production on March 16 on location in California. 2k k * Ruth Gordon has been signed — for Where’s Poppa?, starring George Segal. Miss Gordon will be seen as an octogenarian widow who is constantly asking her son, Where’s Poppa? The picture is based on the forthcoming novel by Robert Klane and will be directed by Carl Reiner as a Jarry Tokofsky-Marvin Worth Production. It will be released by United Artists. FP hosts free movie show for Tor. schools A special morning showing of Hansel and Gretel was held Feb. 28 in Toronto’s 3,200-seat Imperial Theatre where pupils and teachers from nine downtown elementary schools were the invited guests of Famous Players Canadian Corp. The free showing was organized by the company as a community relations project, working closely with the Neighborhood Youth Corps, Toronto Education Encouragement Inc. and the Metro Toronto Social Planning Council. ©