SHORT TAKES

SHORT TAKES

11 HARROWHOUSE (Twentitieth Century Fox):: This is one more lovable thieves, “perfect robbery” movie, a genre you might have thought Watergate eradicated forever. Wheezy as the central idea is (a billion dollar diamond heist), 11 Harrowhouse works thanks to its sheer preposterousness: the robbery is performed with the help of a giant vacuum cleaner and some hand-painted cockroaches. The main pleasure is Charles Grodin doing an affable variation of his Heartbreak Kid number; his off-screen narration is unfailingly witty.

James Mason, John Geilgud, and Trevor Howard are also on hand to add some tony, stiff-upper-lipisms to the proceedings. And then there’s always Candice Bergen. She’s still just about the most beautiful woman in movies, and every so often she comes up with an inflection or a pause that indicates she might take up acting for a living some day.

John Kane

TRUCK STOP WOMEN (Mark Lester Pictures/L.T. Films Inc.):: Given the unique and colorful subculture of the trucker, the area is ripe for an exploitation film; about 10 years ago, there were beauts in the genre like Six Days on the Road and Death in Small Doses that now turn up on late night TV occasionally. So I had high hopes for this one, but it turned out to be so bad it’s not even so bad it’s good. The story line is a muddled variation on the old crime-doesn’t-pay western theme. Dialog is piss poor, and director Lester didn’t even seek out any good-looking trucks for the film — just your standard one-color cab with silver trailer. In trying to make something that is both an exploitation film and a commentary on exploitation films, Lester has committed the genre’s cardinal sin: that of not playing it straight. Claudia Jennings (she plays a truck stop owner’s daughter who defects to a Mafia-styled gang of rival hijackers) deserves a whole lot better, as do truckers and the audience.

John Morthland

PHASE IV (Paramount):: Kindly scientist Nigel Davenport bites off more than he can chew in Phase IVs big experiment and, as a result, winds up the chewEE rather than the chewER. The ANTiclimactic denouement finds Davenport with ants in his pants (head, torso, feet and other areas), falling prey to Phase IVs villains.. .common ants. Well, not THAT common, in that these ants plan to take over the earth by force (as opposed to using dishonest, sneaky means currently in vogue with many Republicans). The audience is never quite sure why the ants have gone buggy, although a few nondescript characters in the production hint that outer-space nasties may be the cause. A few horses, sheep and old people are devoured by the mini-munchers but by the time the armies of ANTagonists are ready to confront the ANTiquated defenses of earthly science, it’s time to cry “uncle.” Either that or vote for the anteater of your choice.

naha

AMAZING GRACE (United Artists):: Moms Mabley selling her toothless grin for the good of Baltimore politics, and only being funny when she’s mumbling to herself over a collander of green beans and you can’t understand her. Stepin’ Fetchit plays her cous’ waving bye at the station, and Slappy White plays her daddy - taught - me - how - to - dance sidekick. Moms is religious, Stepin’ ’s polite, and Slappy’s silly. When the mayor-elect makes his first speech, he calls for a “viable” police force. When the mayor-elect’s wife speaks one of her three lines, she calls the white politicians “rotten poison.” This is the movie that’ll send you running to your television for those refreshing black stereotypes.

Georgia Christgau

THE INTERNECINE PROJECT (Allied Artists)::Harvard garbage ranking with classics like The Legend of Lylah Clare and The Group. The plot concerns a professor named Elliot (James Coburn) who, in order to become head of the President’s economic advisory committee must “bury a few skeletons” — i.e. kill off his four business associates. Mixed in are such original elements as power-hungry oil executives, the obligatory Revived Love Affair, and a shower murder. What will they think of next? Hopefully a better role for Lee Grant, who’s too good for this.

Mary Beth Hamilton

THE APPRENTICESHIP OF DUDDY KRAVITZ:: You can’t go home anymore, especially if you’re a young Jewish boy on the make, your father doesn’t want to love you, your mother’s dead, your older brother’s a med school flunkie abortionist, and you have a nervous habit of scratching the skin off your chest. Sure you can. Find out how. Emotional, candid performances by Jack Warden, Michele Lactot, Randy Quaid, Joe Silver, and Richard Dreyfuss.

Effie Perrine