Take One (Sep-Oct 1972)

THE INSIDE STORY Real-time: December 20, 1973. Leigh Brackett writes: ‘The cat [in The Long Goodbye] was Robert Altman’s idea. | quit putting animals into screenplays years ago because... they're expensive and hard to work with. But that big yellow SOB was marvellous, and just the right touch. On animals, of course, Hatari! was the exception — animals were mandatory. But Howard Hawks did tell me, with tears in his eyes, ‘Don’t ever write me any more scenes with forty goats!’” ~ You can read a lot more about Hawks, Altman and Raymond Chandler in From The Big Sleep to The Long Goodbye,a new article by Ms. Brackett beginning on page 26. God only knows why Leigh writes for us; it surely isn’t for the money. (Nobody writes for us for the money. Ask any of our regular contributors.) But every now and then Leigh presents us with one of her fine pieces and we, being no fools, run it first and ask questions second. This one is the best yet; we're delighted to be able to share it with you. Only days after the Brackett arrived, Scott Eyman came through with his Mae West interview — a story we’d been waiting on for months. (Eyman was hoping, no doubt, that we’d run his William Wellman interview first; fat chance.) You may have noticed that we’ve gone to colour covers and slick paper these last few issues. Not to worry: we’re not selling out quite yet. It’s merely the latest gambit in our campaign to land a National newsstand distributor. Some of us prefer the old, funky style, but distributors won't even look at you these days unless you’re slick. We still haven't got a distributor, of course, and Take One is as hard to find as ever — but Publisher Lebensold insists that he knows what he’s doing. We've got some amazing things in the works for the next few issues. Coming up in the months ahead are interviews with The New Yorker's Dan Talbot, Monte Hellman, René Clair (not to mention William Wellman), plus articles on Robert Aldrich and The Killers, and a few surprises as well. Then, if Goodwin and Naomi Wise can ever get it finished, there’s The World’s Greatest Nicholas Ray Interview, featuring things like the movie James Dean never made, Groucho Marx as Judge Hoffman, and the inside story on Howard Hughes. The anticipation is killing us. The Editors 4 {A SAD NOTE } Readers of ‘“Feedback’”’ will be familiar with the name G.G. Patterson. Over the years, most English-language film magazines have found themselves printing numerous letters above that signature — always correcting some factual error that had found its way into type. The letters were always __ interesting, informative and constructive. G.G. Patterson was the signature of George Patterson — one of Canada’s foremost film buffs. A longtime member of the Toronto Film Society, he wrote programme notes and reviews for the Society’s newsletter, as well as contributing articles to Filmograph magazine. Employed as a civil servant, Mr. Patterson usually arranged his vacations so that he could attend the New York or Stratford film festivals. A newspaper article written a few years ago estimated that he had seen some 10,000 films. It is, therefore, with a great deal of regret that we inform our readers of George Patterson’s death in Toronto in early December. He will be missed. — The Editors. FEEDNDAaG TAKE ONE welcomes communications from its readers, but can rarely accommodate letters over 500 words in length. The editors assume that any letter received (unless otherwise stated) is free for publication. Minish besieged Over a period of several years | have enjoyed your magazine as the one publication on films which | read. | find, however, that | must protest at the review of State of Siege written by Geoffrey Minish in Take One, Vol. 3 No. 11. The review is written by a person who has no knowledge of events in Latin America. Nevertheless this person presumes to go beyond an artistic analysis of the film into a discussion of the political-economic situation. Minish has written a review that discredits your otherwise excellent publication. He fails to understand that objective exploitation of South American countries by North America and Europe goes on every day. To increase his understanding of exploitation, | would direct Mr. Minish to Karl Marx’s Kapital, Vol. 1 and perhaps some papal encyclicals such as Mater et Magistra and Progress of Peoples. Marx was responsible for the scientific understanding of the theory of surplus value. What particularly disgusts me _ is that we all, including Mr. Minish, live off the proceeds of international imperialism. At least we could have the graciousness to recognize this’ and not to mock people who are trying to break the links of exploitation. As Mr. Minish eats out at a gourmet restaurant or as he drives his plush car, | hope he remembers this letter. Exploitation is objective and real. The efforts by subjects of imperialism should not be mocked. David Nock Edmonton, Alberta Mr. Minish replies: | could answer Mr. Nock better if he were more specific. He seems to be saying that the situation in Latin America is so bad we should applaud any left-wing group that tries to alter it, regardless of the means used. | wish he and those liberal critics who praised State of Siege would tell us what kind of society to expect from revolutionaries who deal out the totalitarian justice shown in the film. Or is capital punishment acceptable when imposed by the left? Marx wouldn't have said so. Simply to oppose American imperialism is not enough. Peron was sounding off years ago against the Yankees. | suppose in Mr. Nock’s eyes that makes him a bold bad revolutionary, like the Pope. It’s easy to be fooled by anti-imperialist rhetoric or triggerhappy activism, but what counts is changing the relations of production. Today’s national liberation movement can be tomorrow’s bureaucracy. Look what’s happened in Cuba. Frankly, after Chile, | don’t see much hope for even liberal democratic regimes in Latin America until, or unless, there is a revolution in the United States. Latin Americans will certainly continue fighting oppression, but as State of Siege itself shows, there will always be an American functionary to fly in and restore order. The Goulash Hand! Thou shalt not misspell a Hungarian name! (Annotated version of King James Bible — First Commandment.) Love the magazine, but on page 30 of Vol. 3 No. 12, Pierre Greenfield spelled one of Hollywood’s best cameramen’s name as Lazslo Kovaks — WRONG! It is correctly spelled Laszlo Kovacs. Keep up the good work —but beware of the Hungarian Mafia! A. |lbranyi-Kiss Managing Editor Cinema Canada Toronto Lelouch’s film school Could you send me any further information concerning Claude Lelouch’s