every mummy is
Student Nite
entertainment
at
mmmmmmmmmmmmm
'Orient Express' old elegance
Could it be that for the first time we have'
entered a movie era when film makers have
finally stopped droning on and on that they
don't make movies like they used to and, instead,
have started making movies like they used to?
Chinatown, Young Frankenstein, The Front
Page and Peter Bogdanovich's upcoming musical
At Long Last Love all seem to look back in envy
and reach back in time to capture a bit of the
style, wit and flair of a more golden age of movie
making.
To be sure, the biggest motivation still may be
the perpetual nostalgia trend yet there seems to
be some respect involved as old genres are
reworked. As we enter our own "mild recession,"
people turn back to the movies and movies turn
back the clock. People still won't go see an old
movie but they'll eagerly flock to see a new
movie that's dressed in old clothes.
greg lukow
30's styled mystery
Which brings us to Murder on the Orient
Express, an opulent, '30s-styled mystery taken
literally from Agatha Christie's novel and
cinema tically from Alfred Hitchcock, all via The
Great Gatsby. The movie is bathed in
unbelievably classy costuming, shimmering
photographic style and a myriad of shady
superstars cavorting in properly balanced
proportions of elegance and evasiveness.
Albert Finney plays the famous Belgian
detective, Hercule Poirot. He just happens to be
on the Orient Express (a train traveling through
Europe from Istanbul) irj. the winter of 1935,
when a wealthy American businessman is
brutally murdered in his sleeping car. The nicest
little mysteries always seem to happen on trains.
The suspects come from the host of
international names that make up the rest of the
case. Some are very big stars. A few are legends. I
won't name them all but my favorites turned out
to be Anthony Perkins (with his usual neurotic
quirks), Lauren Bacall (acting obnoxiously
bitchy), Vanessa Redgrave (in a small but
earthily seductive role) and, most of all, one of
the great cinema grande dames, Ingrid Bergman.
Bergman closeup
The movie makers must have especially
appreciated getting Bergman in the picture. In
one scene, when Poirot interrogates her, the
camera comes close to making an icon of her,
lingering on an extreme close-up on her face
without interruption for what must be nearly
five minutes.
The movie was directed by Sidney Lumet,
Serpico). There is no apparent link between that
socially conscious cop movie and this film to
even indicate they were done by the same man. I
guess this is another sign of how things have
changed in the past year.
Lumet and cinematographer Geoffrey
Unsworth have given us a delectable movie to
look at, even aside from the fashion show.
Unfortunately, once inside the train, the film is
shot with so many close ups that it becomes
suffocating. If one didn't know better, one might
think most of it was filmed inside an actual train
compartment with little room for camera setups.
Too calculated
The movie is too calculated for its own good.
During the key scenes when we suspect the
murder is taking place (we have no idea why),
every shot and action is an irritating disguise or
dropped clue.
I couldn't help recalling Alfred Hitchcock's
first axiom for good cinematic suspense: let the
audience have some idea what's happening (play
out enough rope) and let the worrying be about
whether the characters will find out. On -the
screen in Orient Express, the failure to do mis
ultimately makes Finney's marvelously acted
Poirot look rather one dimensional. Finney
makes him a logical, eccentric little frog of a
person who magically solves the mystery-we
aren't allowed to see how. All this is not to fault
Christie's novel but to point out that this type of
mystery reads better than it's viewed.
But do see it. Even if they don't make movies
like they used to, at least they're coming close.
As a quick finish, I'd like to extend special
kudos to the Ultimate Censor who, through his
handmaiden (a local TV station), managed to
protect public sensibilities by excising 33
minutes from Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy
Saturday night. The Motion Picture Association
of America should have it so good.
BUCK PITCHERS
25 DRAWS
For anyone showing
college I'D
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The Ifun place to go ...at 14th & '0'
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Recruiter on Campus Feb. 12
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C-W-
Student Union 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday February 11
LEARN ABOUT
FLYING
at University
Flying Club
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or call 489-7453 evenings for information
fTlcGowan. Lee Schoonover, j0
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Address ,. , .
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daily nebraskan
page 9
monday, february 10, 1975
