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D-Rated Movies

By Randolph Man |

Airport 1975 isn’t any Gone With the Wind or Wild Strawberries; but then, it doesn’t really pretend to be anything more than a basic all-star disaster picture, set on a Boeing 747. Sure it’s slick and bad-old-Hollywood-style preposterous, and the dialogue handed the aforementioned all-star cast owes more to Reader’s Digest Condensed Books than to the Bard of Avon. But all the good and famous faces do not, in the end, offensively detract from a basic tension in the story. Let’s face it, not even John Bar-rymore and all the dames of British Theatre could upstage an airplane. This one does a pretty good job; I’d rank it in the honored tradition of such movie airplane greats as the DC-3 in Lost Horizon, the Ford TriMotor in Only Angels Have Wings, the Flying Wing in Dick Tracy and the cast of biplanes in The Dawn Patrol.



Frederick Forsyth’s best-selling novel, The Odessa File, was an intelligent and entertaining political thriller in the Eric Ambler tradition, dealing with one reporter’s battle against an organization of ex-Nazi SS in contemporary Germany. In the film version, Kenneth Ross’ and George Markstein’s screenplay has carefully excluded most of the novel’s political content, leaving mostly hard-core action stuff.

I was a little more than bored by the result. In reducing the politics to a cipher, the film’s makers have admirably kept it to a reasonable length (even so, it runs about two-and-a-half hours). But that left director Ronald Neame hard pressed to create anything more than a standard espionage mellerdrammer.

FILM SERIES

Classic films presented by the Dallas Public Library. All showings are free and open to the public.

Hampton-Illinois Branch. Mondays at 7 p.m. (337-4796)

Nov. 18 Intolerance (1916-silent) D. W. Griffith made this four-part story of man’s inhumanity to man his most ambitious but least successful film. It’s an epic of pretension if not accomplishment but still remarkable when you consider that cinema was still then in the Dark Ages. With Mae Marsh, Robert Harron, Walter Long, Constance Talmadge, and the Griffith Stock Company.

Nov. 25: The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935) The most famous of Alfred Hitchcock’s British films and still a delightful comedy thriller very loosely based on John Buchan’s novel, full of nameless intrigues, mysterious foreign powers, and a Master Spy who looks very much like FDR. With Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll, Lucie Mannheim, Godfrey Tearle, and Wylie Watson as “Mr. Memory.”

Walnut Hill Branch. Saturdays at 2 p.m. (357-8434)

Nov. 23: King Kong (1933) Robert Armstrong, Fay Wray and Bruce Cabot with “The Tallest, Darkest Leading Man in Hollywood,” the Eighth Wonder of the World. This is one that hasn’t dated.

Nov. 30: The Informer (1935) John Ford’s classic version of Liam O’Flaherty’s novel about the Irish Rebellion. Victor McLaglen gives a memorable performance as a halfwitted brute who betrays his comrades in the IRA for money. With Heather Angel, Preston Foster, Margot Grahame, and Una O’Connor. Academy Awards went to Ford and to Max Steiner for his music, Dudley Nichols for his screenplay, and to McLaglen.

University of Texas at Dallas on Wednesday evenings at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $1 for adults, 50c for children. Discount tickets available. Call 690-2281 for further information.

Nov. 20: The Lion in Winter (1969) A ludicrous, posturing bit of pseudo-historical fustian about the married life of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine (alias Peter O’Toole and Katharine Hepburn). Very middlebrow and strictly for novice culture-vultures.

Nov. 27: Top Hat (1935) A first-rate RKO musical with Fred As-taire and Ginger Rogers, possibly their best. The supporting cast includes Edward Everett Horton, Helen Broderick and the ubiquitous Eric Blore, and the Irving Berlin songs include “Top Hat,” “White Tie and Tails,” “Cheek to Cheek,” and “Isn’t this a Lovely Day to be Caught in the Rain.” Very elegant.

Dec. 4: Fort Apache (1948) The first part of John Ford’s Cavalry Trilogy (before She Wore A Yellow Ribbon and Rio Grande) and a celebration of military camaraderie. With Henry Fonda, John Wayne, Victor McLaglen, Ward Bond, Pedro Armendariz, John Agar and Anna Lee, Shirley Temple.

Dallas/SMU Cinema Society

A membership organization that meets once a month in the Bob Hope Theatre. Call Linda Chad-dick at 692-3090 for information.

Nov. 26: Zazie Dans le Metro (1960-French with English subtitles). A riotous comedy from Raymond Queneau’s novel and directed by Louis Malle. With Catherine Demongeot and Philippe Noiret.

KERA-TV, Channel 13

Nov. 20: Cesar and Rosalie (1973-in French with English subtitles). With Yves Montand, Romy Schneider, and Sami Frey. Directed by Claude Sautet. At 8 p.m. Repeated Sat., Nov. 23 at 11 p.m.

Nov. 22: Winter Light (1962-in Swedish with English subtitles). With Ingrid Thurlin, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Max von Sydow. Written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. 10:30 p.m.

Nov. 27: The Two Of Us. (1968-in French with English subtitles). Michel Simon and Alain Cohen in a film by Claude Berri. At 8:30 p.m. Repeated Nov. 30 at 10:30 p.m.

Nov. 29: Brink of Life (1957-in Swedish with English subtitles). With Eva Dahlbeck, Ingrid Thulin, Bibi Andersson, Max von Sydow. Directed by Ingmar Bergman. 9:30 p.m.

Granada Theatre at 3524 Greenville. Now a repertory house, thanks to manager Faye Smith and booker Ben Cammock of United Artists’ Theatres. One of the best bargains in town with a top admission price of $2. Call 821-2563 for showtimes and confirmations.

Week of Nov. 15-21: Some Like It Hot (1959) Billy Wilder in top form with a Twenties gangland comedy featuring Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, George Raft, Pat O’Brien, Joe E. Brown, Nehe-miah Persoff and Mike Mazurki. [Second feature to be announced.]

Week of Nov. 29-Dec. 5 (tentative): Two vintage Warner Bros, film-bios with Paul Muni: The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936), directed by William Dieterle and featuring Josephine Hutchinson, Anita Louise, Donald Woods, and Fritz Leiber. The Life of Emile Zola (1937) Directed by Dieterle and featuring Gale Sondergaard, Joseph Schildkraut, Gloria Holden, and Donald Crisp.

New American Cinema. Saturday nights at 11:30 p.m. at the Festival Theater, 3104 Maple. 742-4201. $2.25.

Nov. 23: Multiple Maniacs, a “celluloid Pink Flamingoes. (Decemberschedule not available at presstime).

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