d:i!y ncbredcsn
thursday, epril 14, 1977
Moo: madness
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shown in Union
A festival of Marx Brothers madness presented by the
Union Program Council in cooperation with the East
Union Program Council will conclude tonight.
A Night at the Opera and Duck Soup will be screened
at the Nebraska East Union and A Day at the Races and
Monkey Business will be shown at the Nebraska Union
tonight.
All four films are from the 1930s, when the brothers
were at their peak. In Monkey Business (1931), they stow
away on a luxury liner, while in A Night at the Opera they
create havoc in Sig Human's opera house.
A Day at the Races (1937) finds Groucho as Dr.
Hackcnbush treating a hypochondriac played by Margaret
Dumont.
Duck Soup (1933) is the brothers' "most audacious
film," according to critic Andrew Bergman.
Set in the mythical land of Freedonia, Duck Soup
provides a scathing satire on politics with Groucho
portraying the leader of the country, Rufus T. Firefly.
Critic Andrew Sarris calls the scenes of Harpo's
madness with the passports and the puppets in Monkey
Business, and confrontation in the magical mirror between
Harpo and Groucho in Duck Soup and the stateroom
scene in A Night at the Opera "as funny as anything the
sound film has produced."
The double feature programs begin at 7 p.m.
Admission is $2.
ilms screened
The Films on the Arts Series will present two films this
week at the Sheldon Film Theatre.
Odeon Cavalcade and Jim Stirling's Architecture
will be screened today at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m.
The films are part of a continuing series of films on
different types of art and artists sponsored by the Sheldon
Film Theatre.
Hie program runs 85 minutes and admission is $ I .
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I Photo courtesy of Tht Museum of Modtrn ArtFilm Stills Archives.
Sig Ruman, Margaret Dumont and Groucho in a scene from A Night at the Opera.
od' fits countrv-western imaae
At first, country and western singer Pop Wagner looks
like a typical sidekick in an old Western. His light brown
beard, 10-gallon hat and matching denim jeans and jacket
make one think he should be sitting around a campfirc
eating beans.
Wagner's singing does even more to reinforce the
image. He sings old and new country songs about achin'
hearts, leaving women and women leaving him.
Wagner, 27, played at the Zoo Bar Monday through
Wednesday. He said he likes playing at The Zoo, but many
times there is too much noise from the crowd he
described as "honky tonky" because of their occasional
rowdiness. ' , .
Wagner said his music is an outgrowth of the country
nmen
songs he listened to as a child and the folk music revival of
the middle 1960s led by Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.
Asa part of a wave of young artists who lean heavily
on the Hank Williams influence, Wagner has traveled
throughout the country singing in coffee houses and bars.
If he was somewhere without a singing job, he said, he
would do street singing.
Two of Wagner's songs have been recorded by other
artists in Germany, where there is a large following for
American country-western music, he said. He also said one
of his songs has been recorded in Belgium.
Wagner played at Expo 74 in Spokane, Wash., with
Bob Bovee, a friend and fellow song writer. Wagner said
he played at bars and coffee houses in the Northwest,
Midwest and East, as well as some street singing in
Germany.
Wagner travels in his Volkswagen bus with his wife
Dixie. He tours about half of the year away from his
home in Minnesota.
With no lofty ambitions of becoming a great recording
star, Wagner said he would like to record himself some
day but "I'll take it as it comes." "
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U UUUL
''Eagle'js a tribute to cast, 'Airport' not worth time
Review by Will Huffman
Tha Eagle Has Landed (currently at
the Plaza 4) revolves around an attempt by
German paratroopers to kidnap Winston
Churchill during the waning'days of World
War II. . .
'Since we know from our history lessons
that Churchill never was kidnapped,
it is a tribute to the cast and director that
the film manages to come off so well.'
We end up getting so involved that it is
hard not to wonder if the historians didn't
make a mistake somewhere.
Basedon the hest-selling novel by Jack
Higgins, The Eagle Has Landed is handled
in old-pro style by director John Sturges,
a veteran of action suspense movies (Bad
Day at Black Rock). The story is basically
a good old fashioned adventure tale totally
lacking in fancy pretensions, and Sturges
doesn't make any attempts to jazz it up
with flashy technique, lie relies on solid
and simple screen storytelling.
Michael Caine plays a renegade German
offficer given one last chance to redeem
himself and his men by leading the seem
ingly impossible mission to kidnap Sir
Winston. Robert Duvall, one of the most
solid actors around, is the one-eyed genera
who masterminds the scheme while trying
to keep his slightly psychotic superior
Heinrich Himmler (Donald Heasance)
happy.
Donald Sutherland plays a cocky Irish
revolutionary who joins the effort just be
cause he wants to see Britain defeated; he
serves as the undercover advance man for
the Germans.
Edit pace
Director Sturges keeps the action perk
ing along at a brisk pace and there's usually
an unexpected turn in the road just as the
proceedings threaten to become predic
table. The story is laced with some strange
ironies which elevate the movie above the
usual simple comic book level. Our loyal
ties axe effectively divided between the
Germans, whom we come to admire .and
respect (one of them saves a little English
gill from drowning at the cost of his own
life), and our inbred desire to root for the
"good guys" (the Americans and the Brk
tish).
- But even the Americans come off rather
badly. They are led by an over-zealous but
horribly inept colonel (Larry flagman)
who sees his fervent hope for combat ex
perience more than fulfilled as he finds
himself smack in the middle of the action
as the German paratroopers take an entire
English village hostage and fortify them
selves in the local church ;
A couple of well-handled subplots really
don't get in the way- Sutherland falls
in love with a local village girl (Jenny
Aguttcr)', while a trusted resident of the
village (Jean Marsh) turns out to be a
German spy. Fortunately, these side
tracks c'on't slow the film down because
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Donsli Sutherland, plays aa Iriii revo!
Abutter in The Eagle Has Landed
coumiy of NsttorvDl Screm Service CorporrtMHi.
ullonary who falls in love with Jenny
everything is integrated into the main
flow of the act km
The action flows so smoothly that our
disbelief is suspended for two hours
as we watch the Germans' close in on
Churchill. And any film that can suspend
our disbelief is-wcll worth the time for the
adventurer escapist crowd, or anyone long
ing for a good old-fashioned movie.
Alas, the latest in the seemingly unend
ing line of disaster flicks Airport 77 is not
worth the time.
Lost its punch
We've all been over this same territory
many times before; the story has lost its
punch through repetition. As usual, we
have the old Grand Hotel set in the sky:
the courageous pilot (Jack Lcmmon) and
his courageous girlfriend (Brcnda" Vac
caro); the two aging lovers reunited after
forty years (Olivia Dc Havilland and Joseph
Cottcn); the wealthy but humane business
man (Chrisophcr Lee, minus his fangs)
and his bitchy but basically insecure wife
(Lee. Grant, who seems to be making a
career cut of these roles).
Meanwhile, down on the ground, Jim
my Stewart looks worried a. lot, which is
understandable considering some of the
lines he's given to read.
This time around (and we can only hope
they start to run out of plotlines soon)
the above described planeload is on its way
to millionaire Stewart's new art gallery
grand opening. Enroute the plane is hijack
ed, hits an offshore oil derrick and ends up
submerged in the Bermuda Triangle (bet
it took them a long time to think up
that one).
. There are the usual heroics and short
comings, with much of the film's running
time occupied by the complicated rescue
operation. Unfortunately most of the
considerable talent on board the plane
stays submerged for the entire duration.
The film's advertising slogan gives it s!l
away. JBigger, more exciting than Airport
1975!" it proclaims, which is like saying
Scrnumctte is bigger and more exciting
than trie test pattern.