SHORT TAKES

THE OTHER and THE POSSESSION OF JOEL DELANEY are a couple of Rosemary's illegitimate babies; films about demonology and soul-possession that seem to have been made in the hopes of repeating the success of the Polanski film. The Other has a hopelessly tangled, incredible story line and a kind of soft-focus directing job (by Robert Mulligan, who should know better) that is utterly inappropriate. Joel Delaney, on the other hand, is a nice, nasty nerve twister, possibly thev summer's best thriller. The film's assets include some nifty Manhattan location work, a steady sense of building horror, and very perceptive performance by Shirley MacLaine as a bored, rich New York divorcee. This one's worth going out of your way to catch.

PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM and THE LAST OF THE RED HOT LOVERS are screen adaptations of Broadway comedies. Sam is by, and with, Woody Allen, Lovers by Neil Simon; and, since this is CREEM, it would be standard to say that the Allen film is far out and the Simon piece is middle class slop. Sorry folks, but that ain�t the case. They�re both funny movies, but, as a dramatist, Neil Simon does something that Woody Allen doesn�t: he builds character, works within a definable structure, and resolves conflicts logically, if sometimes too carefully. As a result, Lovers is a more satisfying film, one which occasionally even attacks its audience�s prejudices (as in Sally Kellerman�s lethal put-down of Alan Arkin) as well as massaging them. Sam is still ok, but Woody Allen seems to work better without any structure at all (as in Banannas.) When he imposes the limitations of Broadway sex farce on his. work, it diminishes the lunacy without fortifying the logic.

J.K.