Arts ©Entertainment
‘Godfather’ to headline at Lincoln bar
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By Jill O’Brien
Senior Reporter
Of all the Mitch Ryder tunes that
could cause you to break out in a
midnight sweat, there’s one in par
ticular guaranteed to start your foot
lapping and shoulders shaking when
you sing, “Devil with a blue dress,
blue dress, blue dress, devil with a
blue dress on. OW!”
These legendary lyrics can stick in
your mind for days just like bubble
gum sticks to your face. But that’s
OK. In fact, it’s perfect. Now you’ll
be prepared to sec Ryder: The man
who paved the way to sonic insanity,
and the man responsible for the hits,
“Little Latin Lupe Lu,” “Sock It to
Me,” “Shake a Tailfcathcr” and the
medleys, “Devil with a Blue Dress/
Good Golly Miss Molly” and “Jenny,
Jenny/C.C. Rider.”
In an interview from his suburban
Detroit home, Ryder, soft-spoken
except when he sings, talked about his
career, which has spanned global lour
ing for three decades.
Although he prefers to be billed
simply and singularly as Mitch Ryder,
promoters still have a tendency to
mention lhe Detroit Wheels because
of Ryder’s longtime, on-again, off
again association with the band.
“Currently, no one in the group is
a Detroit Wheel,” Ryder said,“except
maybe Ray Goodman on guitar. He’s
sort of re-run. He was hired as a
replacement for one of the original
members.”
Occasionally, famed drummer
Johnny “Bee” Badanjek reunites with
Ryder for a lour or two.
“We’ve been in and out of this
marriage five or six times,” Ryder
said. “Bee goes off, then comes back.
The other Detroit Wheels have
gone their own ways and rhy thm player
Joe Cougar died of cancer last year,
Ryder said.
Actually, Ryder isn’treally Ryder,
but Billy Levise Jr. who grew up in
Centerline, Mich., cut his teeth on
Detroit doo-wop, rhythm and blues
and a lot of harmonizing.
“Whatever’s in the air, you breathe
it in and it becomes a part of you,” he
said.
Ryder, who breathed in the factory
air of Detroit, also managed to inhale
enough fumes of R&B harmonizing
to be dubbed “The Godfather of Mo
tor City Rock ‘n’ Roll” in a 1989
Rolling Slone article.
This February, on Ryder’s 48th
birthday, “The Godfather” also cel
ebrates his fifth year of “not taking a
slurp.” Along with sobriety came the
realization that he needed to
downscale his life, he said.
“What I needed is just what the
president needs to do.” He laughed.
“And that’s to cut back on our
lifestyle.”
For instance, if the band is count
ing on X-aptOuni of dollars and some
one reneges on a gig, the group has to
downscale immediately, he said.
Sometimes scaling down means
taking a dingy dressing room or sleep
ing in a sour motel, but never does it
mean cutting back on the quality of
his songs.
“I want to write songs to catalogue
my feelings as a person and continue
to grow.” His latest release, “La
Gash” catalogues women, relation
ships and attitudes, he said.
Backed by a German record com
pany, Ryder’s albums arc available
only as imports, he said. Prior to “La
Gash,” Ryder’s “Never Kick a Sleep
ing Dog” in 1983, produced by John
Cougar Mcllencamp, was released in
the states.
Ryder has tried but is having a
difficult lime getting back in the
American market, he said, adding he
doesn’t let it bother him.
“I got tired of all the popularity
contests. I’m playing from my heart
now,” he said.
He plays his heart out In Europe
and the states. His gigs land him in
cities like Lincoln.
“I’ve got connections in Lincoln,”
he said. “My father was stationed
right outside of Lincoln during World
War II and my older sister was born
here.”
Sunday, Ryder appears at the
Rockin’ Robin, 1435 O St.
Rare Earth, scheduled to headline
with Ryder, canceled for unknown
reasons, but don’t let that stop you
from seeing Ryder.
“Ah-h, C.C. Rider. Sec-ee what
you have done now.... Ah-h, C.C.,
C.C. Rider....”
Camera work makes
action film worthwhile
Even with some terrific camera
work, “Sniper” (Cinema Twin, 13th
and P streets) fails to find its mark.
It isn’t just a “bang-and-thcy’re
dead” ly|»c of film: The viewer fre
quently rides the bullet from the tip of
the barrel to the back of the victim’s
head.
Tom Berenger (“At Play in the
Fields of the Lord”) plays Gunnery
Sgt. Thomas Beckett, one of the best
shooters in the military. He lakes days
to set up his “one shot-one kill” phi
losophy, after which he just melts into
the scenery.
His latest assignment throws him
together with Richard Miller(“Mem
phis Belle”), a government agent as
signed to accompany Beckett on this
mission. He is told if Beckett be
comes a liability to the mission,
Beckett should be eliminated.
However, while M i Her may do well
on the firing range, he cannot bring
himself 10 fire on a real human being
in his cross hairs.
Miller’s performance as the
siraighi-laccd pul/ is greai, and the
audience (al the beginning) doesn’t
have any sympathy for his character.
He has planned everything for this
mission from a desk and a computer
screen, not by actually being there, as
Beckett has.
Bcrcngcr is also good as Beckett, a
man close to the edge. Killing is the
only thing that is left for him; that is,
the only thing al which he is good. He
has been driven to the edge and doesn ’ t
feel anything when he pulls the trig
ger.
Unfortunately, the film meanders
on the way to the assignment. Not
enough time is spent on the actual
task, and the film begins to fall.
Even with a wandering plot line,
the suspense and camera work still
makes “Sniper” a movie worth see
ing.
— Gerry Beltz
Ross Theater
to show flicks
as part of film
studies program
The film studies program
offers the following films this
week:
“First Comes Courage” is a
Dorothy Arzner spy flick about
a wartime resistance worker who
uses her feminine wiles to gain
secrets from the Nazis, but is
then accused of being a Nazi
sympathizer. Showing 1 p.m.
T uesday and 3:15 p.m. Wednes
day at the Ross, and 7 p.m.
Tuesday at Bcsscy Hall, room
117.
“The Last Laugh” is a silent
film about a doorman who is
callously demoted. It is the first
film to employ a moving cam
era and experimental in its lack
of title cards. Showing 3:15 p.m.
Tuesday and 1 p.m. Wednesday
at the Ross.
All film studies films are free
and open to the public.
Courtesy of Entertainment Services International
Mitch Ryder comes to Lincoln this Sunday.
Rock Hudsons life, sexuality
chronicled in touching movie
“Rock Hudson’s Home Movies”
presents a humorous and ultimately
touching vision of Hudson’s life on
the silver screen.
Eric Farr gives an amateurish per
formance as Rock, but his delight
fully camp narration holds together
this collage of clips from Hudson’s
films.
Farr’s Hudson begins with his ear
liest interest in acting and ends with
his death from AIDS in 1985.
Amazed that no one figured out he
was gay before his death, he quips,
“Being gay isn’t quite as horrible as
being dead, even by the most conser
vative standards.”
Writei/direclor Mark Rappaport
intends his arrangement of film clips
to show that Rock's sexuality “was up
there on the screen all along.”
Scenes from movies co-starring
Tony Randall, Burl Ives, Kirk Dou
glas and others, arc grouped to dem
onstrate the ’50s codes for men pick
ing up men.
When Hudson floors John Wayne
in a Civil War flick, narrator Rock
claims it as a shining moment, a “tri
umph of my people over his people.”
The “feminization” of Hudson by
Hollywood writers and casting direc
tors is also addressed. Thus his role as
a sensitive man who doesn’t want to
go fishing (“fear of fishing and het
erosexual panic are closely inter
twined”) or as a straight man who
pretends to be gay to persuade Doris
Day to seduce him.
“Rock Hudson’s Home Movies” is
showing along with “Postcards,” an
other film by Rappaport, at the Mary
Riepma Ross Film Theater for one
weekend only. Showtimes are Thurs
day through Sunday at 7 & 9 p.m.
Matinees arc Saturday at I and 3 p.m.
and Sunday at 3 and 5 p.m.
— Calvin Clinchard
New Goodman flick comical
“Matinee” (The Lincoln, 12th and P streets)
is a silly period comedy set during the Cuban
Missile Crisis of 1962.
It follows Doogic Howscr look-alike Gene
Loomis (Simon Fenton), a lonely 14-ycar-old
boy whose sailor father is away in the thick of
things off the coast of Cuba.
New to Key West, Florida (“the make-out
capital of the world”), Gene struggles to make
friends off the base while he submerges himself
in the world of horror flicks.
His hero of sorts is schlock film producer
Lawrence Woolsey (John Goodman).
Woolsey’s got a penchant for foot-long stogies
and horror films about humans mutated by
nuclear power leaks. His specialty: interactive
theater, complete with Tunnel vision, Rumble
Rama and shock-inducing theater scats.
Woolsey makes an appearance in Key West
to promote his newest masterpiece, “Mant,” in
a last ditch effort to save his career. There he
and Gene meet, strike up a friendship and a
deal, and find themselves saving the day.
wiui rviaimec, urcmum uiicciui juc
Danle has created a tribute to “B” horror films
like no other — the influence of horror hero
Roger Corman is obvious throughout.
Screenwriter Charlie Haascapturcd the press
ing matters of a 14-year-old boy perfectly,
especially the preoccupation with the opposite
sex and the escapism to the Saturday afternoon
matinee.
The script falters a bit with ilsaltenlion to the
many subplots: Gene is befriended by Stan
(Omri Katz) who is desperately in lust with
Sherry (Kellie Marlin) who’s fighting off the
attention of old boyfricnd-lurned-thief and re
form-school dropout, Harvey.
The acting is solid throughout. Goodman is
always funny and al ways worth watching. Cathy
Moriarty plays Woolsey’s star, on screen and
off, to dry perfection. The young actors are
good, too.
“Matinee” is not going to appeal to every
one. But for anyone who loves the nostalgia of
the early ’60s or who loves bad horror flicks,
“Matinee” is a must-see.
— Anne Steyer
This Week’s Video Releases
It’s not a bad week for video. There’s a
little something for everyone: comedy, sus
pense and drama.
“Mo’ Money” Damon Wayans (Fox’s
“In Living Color”) wrote, produced and
starred in this raucous comedy/slight thriller.
Wayans is a petty con artist whose head
is turned by sexy Stacey Dash. He cons his
way into a job in order to meet her. His path
of least resistance gets him in a bit of trouble
when he gets sidetracked by a Gordon Gekko
wannabe.
“Unlawful Entry” From the director of
“The Accused” comes this sometimes taste
less, often bloody, thriller about a nice sub
urban couple and their friendly, obsessive
neighborhood cop.
1
Kurt Russell is the real-estate developer
trying to close a big deal. Madeleine Stowe
is his beautiful teacher wife who hates being
kept in the dark about business details. Their
communication problem is just the begin
ning.
When their home is burglarized and Stowe
is assaulted, in waltzes detective Ray Liolla.
Under the guise of being helpful, he infil
trates their home and their lives, wreaking
havoc every step of the way.
The mediocrity of the film is saved by
solid acting and there arc some truly star
tling moments. Overall, “Unlawful Entry”
is a very disturbing film.
“Where Angels Fear to Tread” The
latest adaptation of an E.M. Forster novel
boasts an all-star British cast and fine pro- -
duction values.
The story follows the life of a newly
widowed woman in England who travels to
rural Italy to find comfort from her loss.
There, she becomes involved in a whirlwind
courtship with a younger man, marries again
and has a child, much to the dismay of her
family back in England.
All releases available tomorrow.
— Anne Steyer