Eyes water; brains boggled

Eyes water; brains boggled

December was the movie maven�s month. A thirty-one day period during which the major studios released a slew of celluloid guaranteed to make the eyes water and the brain boggle. Movie follows movie in such rapid succession that not even the most masochistic critic could hope to keep pace. Herein, then, is an interim report on some of the first of Hollywood�s Christmas presents.

$ — I had more fun at $ than at any other film I�ve seen all year. It ain�t art, but, boy, is it ever a gas! Warren Beatty and Goldie Hawn rob a German bank, and then spend close to one half hour trying to escape from the thieves whose loot they�ve made off with. There�s a lot more — perhaps even too much — to the plot, but to go'into detail would ruin it for you. $ is filled with the same kind of slick, escapist fun that made The Thomas Crown Affair and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid such dynamite entertainment: suave bank robbers, sexy lady accomplices, and the voluptuous delights of the good life. Director Richard Brooks makes a few clumsy mistakes, but it really doesn�t matter. The picture MOVES, and we move with it. When Beatty, carrying a suitcase stuffed with half a million dollars and two champagne bottles filled with LSD, runs across a frozen lake pursued by a ruthless killer in a foreign car — well, I just couldn�t help thinking that I haven�t enjoyed a movie chase so much sinee North by Northwest.

Such Good Friends — Otto Preminger�s movies are usually flamboyant and hysterically overdone. Here, as if to make amends for past sins, he cautiously plays down everything — and the results are disastrous. The plot, revolving around a chic, insecure New York wife Who flips out when her husband becomes critically ill, has all sorts of possibilities; but the film is so bland an 4 low-keyed that the *movie dies before the patient does. Dyan Cannon, who specializes in sexy-bitch comedy, would have seemed perfect for the lead role; but it�s only towards the end that Preminger lets her strike a few sparks.

Hospital — is a wierd mixture of black comedy (mass murders in a hospital, an impotent leading man) and good gray liberalism (community action groups protesting against urban renewal, middle class characters opting for responsibility over free love). Paddy Chaefsky�s script is crazy and so is George C. Scott�s performance; sadly, Arthur Hiller is too eminently sane a man to direct these proceedings. The film soars off into blissful lunacy at its climax, but it vaccilates wildly from farce to melodrama beforehand, unsure of what tone to strike. Diana Rigg, fondly remembered as Mrs. Peel from The Avengers, is woefully miscast and terribly photographed.

Made For Each Other — Ethic Freudian comedy about a couple of losers trying to get up the courage to build a decent relationship. Much better than that description may make it sound, with moments of real pain and insight. Rene Taylor and Joseph Bologna, a husband and wife team, wrote, and star in, the film. Their flawless playing is greatly abetted by Robert Bean�s naturalistic direction, and the film is worth seeing if only for Miss Taylor�s night club act, which includes a very funny imitation of Rita Hayworth crooning a mediocre fifties movie song.

A Safe Place — This is just the movie for you if you want to discover why so many movie critics are crazy over Tuesday Weld. It�s frequently said of great actors that they would be worth seeing even if they did, nothing more than read the phone book. In A Safe Place, Tuesday Weld performs the cinematic equivalent of a phone book reading: she plays a vulnerable little basket case who can�t bare to leave the past and enter the real world. Director Henry Jaglom has edited the film �emotionally,� which means that there are almost no consecutive actions and that each scene is interrupted at least twice to flash forwards, backwards, or, for all I know, sideways. I guess it�s supposed to remind you of Last Year at Marienbad. What makes it worthwhile is Miss Weld; she�s a dazzling young woman who brings conviction and a great sense of honest pain to her role. Along with Jane Fonda, she�s one of the finest American actresses of her generation, and her next film, Play It As It Lays, should make her a star. Until then, Weld worshippers will have to make do with Jaglom�s mystifying cinematic collage, or, better yet, curl up with a nice, thick phone book.

John Kane