St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 48

ife Still Covers A Lot Of Ground 2 Dee. zo, i9 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH Myles Standish The New Films Buffoon Turned Hero IN "THE SECRET OF SANTA V1TTORIA," at the ESQUIRE THEATER, director-producer Stanley Kramer has eschewed his usual social significance and gone in for entertaining and pleasantly schmaltzy character comedy. This is based on Robert Crichton's best-selling novel about a northern Italian village when the German army was retreating northward in World War II. Kramer has given it 8 pretty production, filming most of it in the picturesque Italian mountain village of Anticoli Cor-rado, and has extracted excellent performances from a first-rate cast.

A Stay -Put Scarf Tip By Heloise Cruse DEAR HELOISE: I have found a great method for keeping the all-popular scarf in place and still have it look very casual. I use a piece of plastic tape and fold it over in a small roll with the sticky part on the outside. I place this under the scarf and stick it to the garment Just where I want the scarf to stay put. This works better than the tape you can buy that is sticky on both sides since this seems to give it bulk and hence a more casual look. KATHRYN SISGRUNK DEAR HELOISE: When I buy a new box of facial tissue, I always take out about half of the tissues and cut them in half.

These half sizes seem to be just right for little noses. I've been doing this for years and never yet have I seen it done by anyone else. By the way, as you may have guessed, I have a bit of the Highlands in me. ELLINA ZIEGLER DEAR HELOISE: I have discovered a way to get back the shine on uniform buttons. I'm talking about the white uniform shell buttons that have accidentally been run through the laundry and lost their shine.

Sand them with either fine sandpaper or emery cloth, then brush free, or wash the dust off, and cover with a coat of clear nail polish. Many timet I've made the i a of not removing the buttons before laundering and, as you know, some of the large buttons are expensive. MRS. R.J.S. DEAR HELOISE: Please remind new mothers that some fluffy cotton flannel receiving blankets should be washed and dried in a dryer, at least twice, to remove excess lint which can As Bombolini, the village buffoon, who has the office of mayor shoved on him when a German army contingent takes over the town, Anthony Quinn gives one of the juiciest and most colorful performances of his illustrious career.

With Anna Magnanl as his virago wife, Quinn storms, cajoles, fumes, is wily, truculent, drunk and bombastic in turn. It is essentially an Italian Jiggs and Maggie act, but one with a lot of heart and quite amusing. In a sleepy village, where the saying is, "Brave men and good wine, they don't last long," the clownish Bombolini becomes a hero when he leads the villagers in hiding 1,000,000 bottles of wine in the old Roman caves and resists all the threats of the German contingent sent there to seize them. Hardy Kruger gives a fine performance as the German captain in charge, making him quite human and not the usual stereotyped Nazi martinet. Sergio Fran-chi as a deserter from the Italian Army, and Virna Lis! as a countess turned nurse have romantic complications in a sub-plot William Rose's and Ben Maddow's screenplay has some amusing lines and Giuseppe Rotuno's color photography is striking.

Funny Farce THE SCREEN adaptation of Abe Burrows's stage success, "CACTUS FLOWER," at the GRANDVIEW, CREVE COEUR and SOUTH COUNTY, is one of the funniest light comedies of the year. ss I'M 'zlt I FROM PAGE ONE the food at schools and institutions, and at the Stadium Club here and a similar club that will be part df the new major league stadium under construction in Pittsburgh. The same firm operates Land and Seas, where Marion's role is strictly public relations. Marty does not have a piece of the Pittsburgh action, either. He plans to do P.R.

work there about once a month. Marion and his longtime business partner, Milton Fisch-mann, have many investments, including a farm near Beards-town, 111. "That farm, with cattle and crops, brings in a couple hundred thousand each year," Fischmann said. "Marty is the farm expert. We're gentlemen farmers." The handshaking jobs are hobbies for ever -smiling Marion.

In the baseball season he is at the Stadium Club between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. and then from 6 to 11 p.m. "I'm at the club for every baseball game the ones on Sunday," he said. "After all, I have to have ONE day off.

In the football season I'm around from 11 In the morning till 3." NOVEMBER belongs to Marion. That is duck-hunting time at the Beardstown farm with Fischmann and other friends. "They can wake me up at 3 In the morning at the farm so long as we're going hunting," he said. At the Stadium Club and Land and Seas, Marion handles most complaints about the food or the service. "The restaurant business is one of the roughest, toughest businesses, but I enjoy the chal-1 especially when you're starting something new, like Land and Seas," he said.

"We didn't advertise the place for the first three weeks because we wanted to get the kinks out. If the food or service isn't up to standard, customers should complain. We like to make the customers feel that they own the place." Marion talked about a recent complaint about food from a Land and Seas customer. On a i the complaint, Marty grabbed a telephone receiver as fast as he used to scoop up those hot grounders. He invited the disgruntled diner to come back with his family.

A deluxe dinner would be on the house. "But this man said that, after all the thrills I had given him on the baseball field, he wouldn't think of coming back for a free dinner, but would definitely be back anyway," Marion said. MARION said he didn't mind the many approaches by customers who bring their children or friends to meet Mr. Short- Jean Bonner, Stadium Club receptionist. (Post-Dispatch Photo This originally was a French farce by Bir-illet and Gredy, which Burrows adapted Into the American idiom and changed to a Manhattan setting.

It's about a Lothario bachelor dentist who has managed to stave off the demands for matrimony of a kooky, pixyish Greenwich Village girl he is having an affair with by inventing a wife, who won't give him a divorce, by Louis Phillips) for my business (the Missouri Printing Fischmann related. "I had checked with Butch, and he told me that I couldn't go wrong with Marty because he was a great person." Fischmann hired Marion as a contact man "even though he was a novice, was nervous and didn't know a thing about selling. "Right off the bat Marty was bringing in armfuls of orders," Fischmann said. "We had to hire a girl just to take care of all his orders. Right away he was making more money from our company than he was in baseball.

"It'll soon be 25 years that we've been in business together. And what a wonderful association it's been. He's become a very sharp and astute businessman. And we've never had a cross word." public restaurants and quarters for the Washington University Alumni Club, 1100 strong. Marion, now perfectly at ease with customers, wasn't always that way.

He had been shy, retiring and nervous in public in his early years as a ballplayer. MARTY'S big break came In 1945. He had no business connections at the time. That was the era before players got into the business investments in full force or jumped into restaurant franchises. Fischmann was so much Impressed with Marion when he accepted the Most Valuable Player trophy early in the 1945 season that he decided to check into Marty's qualifications.

"He looked like a great family man, so I sent a message to him through Butch Yatkeman (the Cardinals' veteran equipment manager) asking him if he'd be interested in working Berger, head chef at the Stadium Club and Land and Seas, and Jean Bonner, receptionist at the Club since it was opened. Jean has such tough tasks as making sure that the prized window seats in the a i Club aren't hogged by the same members. The Land and Seas has cut into Marion's leisure, especially because he and wife Mary enjoy so much the time they spend with their four grandchildren all boys. Mary and Marty had an a 1 1 -g i 1 family: Martinna, Ginger, Linda and Nancy, the only unmarried daughter but only 17 years old. "We have a six-bedroom home, and we need all the space because our kids and the children seem to be always at the house," Marty said.

The Land and Seas, which is near Locust Street and faces the Third Street highway, has two and three children. When he decides to placate the girl by having his "wife" finally agree to the divorce, he persuades his prim and starchy spinster nurse to impersonate the wife, then has a television actor friend impersonate the wife's boy friend. The fabric of lies gets more and more complicated until the Don Juan is hopelessly entangled. I.A. Diamond, coauthor of many of the Billy Wilder comedies, has adapted the screenplay closely to follow Burrows's play, retaining all the witty lines and zany situations.

A particularly funny scene is a wild night in a discotheque. Walter Matrhau is amusing indeed as the smooth and scheming dentist with his blandishments. Ingrid Bergman, in one of her rare comedy appearances, plays it straight as the dentist's prickly nurse-receptionist, whom he compares to the flowering cactus she keeps on her desk. Goldie Hawn, of television's "Laugh-In" is perfect as the blond Greenwich Village pixy. Rick Lenz is a persuasive as a neighboring would-be novelist rejoicing in the name of Igor Sullivan, who falls in love with her and that always reliable comedian and character actor, Jack Weston, is quite as the rascaHy actor.

cause babies to cough and choke. My own 2-week-old baby almost strangled on a tiny bit of fuzz that got Into her throat. A MOTHER DEAR HELOISE: I screwed a cuphook to the edge of my closet shelf so I can hang garments to button and zip before placing them back on the clothes rod. MRS. ROBERT CROSS Nostalgia, Sentiment and Humor DISTANCE LENDS enchantment, and "THE REIVERS, at the FOX, SUNSET, CINEMA and the NORTHLAND and NORTHWEST PLAZA CINEMAS, is warmly nostalgic and affectionately amusing about life in a small Mississippi town and In Memphis in 1905.

"The Reivers" was the last novel of William Faulkner, and he was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize for it. It is explained in the dialogue that the title is slang for "thieves," but in the light of the strangely assorted trio involved, the roles are played more as rogues World Of Animals or rascals. Steve McQueen, in a nicely raffish performance, plays the ir- responsible and hot-tempered Boon, who falls in love with a beau- tiful new black and yellow Winton Flyer automobile which Boss Marty Marion chats with Mrs. stop. He laughs about the kids who know nothing about his accomplishments as one of the top-fielding shortstops in the game, one who received the National League's Most Valuable Player award in 1944.

Marty said he enjoys being greeted by customers who say, "I remember watching you when I was a kid." The same customers are embarrassed when their children, on meeting Marion, say, "I don't remember him. Marty who?" "When the parents say, 'Surely you know about the greatest shortstop who ever the kids will answer, but I get a kick out of it all," Marion said. He helps keep Stadium Club fans informed about the play on the field. "I've become a second-gues-ser, too," he said, "but I realize it's a lot easier managing from up in the Stadium Club than it is on the field. I try to visit as many customers as I can and explain why this or that was done on the field.

"I really don't have any regular hours. I don't have a boss." For a 52-year-old man who can clip coupons if he wants, Marion shows considerable concern for the customers. HE LEANS heavily on Frank irg animal to sleep. M.M. YOU'RE NOT ABOUT to get my help in "putting down" an aging dog you don't want to bother with any more.

To begin with, a 10-year-old poodle isn't necessarily so ancient anyway. Many, if allowed to, can have several good years toward the second decade. As far as falling hair is concerned, it's a good thing this isn't criterion for disposal of members of the human species. And twinges of rheumatism another reason for euthanasia? Tell that to a few million of your fellow humans they'll love you for it. If people were put to sleep because they had some type of incurable medical problem, few would reach the golden years.

And yet, most are quite willing to put up with an occasional twinge or two as the price for staying on the scene a while longer. If you're concerned about being kind to your dog, why not have him checked over healthy as possible for as long as possible? You can only rely on the doctor's judgment to determine when your dog is no longer capable of enjoying life. At that time, and only then, are you justified in resorting to euthanasia. HAS CARPETS FOR DINING ROOMS South 6945 CHIPPEWA North 9420 W. M0RI88ANT I Toll aril, laiitL Cilt COMMIT Jj Complete line of MEN'S BIG AND TALL Sizes to 60 Robert Hall Clothes J08J1 MANCHESTER ROAD 1934 RIVERVIEW BLVD.

20 McCaslin (Will Geer) has purchased. Boon, Mitch Vogel as Boss's 11-year-old grandson, and a rascally Negro friend (Rupert Crosse), "borrow" the car when Boss is away and joyride to Memphis. After some hilarious adventures on the muddy roads of the day, they wind up in a plush domicile known in those days as a "sporting house," presided over by a Miss Reba (Ruth White) and with lots of pretty girl "boarders." Lovely Sharon Farrell as that favorite fictional heroine, the harlot with the heart of gold, falls in love with Boon, reforms to please him, and joins them in harum-scarum adventures, including a battle with a vicious sheriff and the acquisition of a dubious racehorse for which the boy is converted into a jockey. Even though a lot of it takes place in an atmosphere of sin, the film has a curious innocence and an affectionate glow, with even the more realistic and sordid tilings softened and an aura of sentimentality which makes the ending rather touching. Under Mark Rydell's direction and with a good screen play by producer Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank it is a refreshing, likable and rib-tickling film.

McQueen has grown in stature as an actor and Crosse, a television actor, is a comic find. miiia l. r-l If luer" DEAR DR. MILLER: Tweety won't talk. He's now 2 years old and he was a week-old parakeet when I got him.

For all this time, I have tried to teach him. I've used a soft voice, a loud voice, from close and far away, but he just sits and stares at me. I've used two i "guaranteed" talking records which he ignores, too. I've repeated "Pretty Boy" until I feel like a record myself. This bird HAS a voice, because he mutters to himself plenty.

I've finally giving up trying, I'm tired. I'm i 1 1 though in case you know of any injection or i I which could be used as a last resort. G.S. RESORTING TO medicine to teach Tweety to talk would be futile, too. This parakeet's palaver is for the birds and it's going to stay that way.

A new teacher just might bring aoout acommunication break- through, but not likely. Past academic achievements offer little hope, and besides, chances are Tweety's too old to become a conversationalist. DEAR DR. MILLER: wife is carrying on a bit My be- cause it's time to put our old poodle to sleep. He is almost 10 and has had a bad skin condi tion for several years.

It can onlv be controlled with medi cine. If we stop taking care of it, the hair starts falling out within a few weeks. For another thing, he sometimes gets what the doctor has said is a twinge of arthritis. We can't cure this either but can only help it by! using aspirin once in a while. 1 WOUI would appreciate it if you would Xplam nPW mV wjfe can read it) wife can read it) how much kinder it is to put an old suffer SAVE grMfLUgy REGULAR xyJ STOCK Satire on Modem Marital Mores "BOB CAROL TED ALICE," at the SHADY OAK and STADIUM CINEMA, is essentially the old marital mix-up farce disguised as a satire on the sexual revolution.

It details the married life of two couples who are fast friends and it is shrewd and genuinely funny in such sequences as the one in which Bob and Carol insist on telling the ab-stfiute truth to each other and to their friends or the one where an amorous Ted is frustrated by a peevish Alice. This look at marital mores, such things as fashionable psychology, The Pill, casual adultery, by husbands on business trips, and an at i i i nni viwjif tempt at wife-swapping, would be better and sharper satire if it were more honest. It becomes somewhat unpleasant at the end then, after looking at Immorality as a comic subject supposedly In an innocuous comedy, it cops out and reverts to old-fashioned decency that in this framework seems as false as the old film coda stricture that villainy or sin must always be punished at the end. Paul Mazursky's direction has squeezed all the laughs possible nut fif the. mmic situations anil rln Mnli MlWt C.IA ri.

ICLUAU IU lamicaa unu numvn, box office leaders of the year, bad taste. Bill Vaughan Says I snoes included in saie. jy5c ft jyv A FACTORY OUTLET CI0W MP family shoe stores ''tvT 601 Delmor, DOWNTOWN If 732S Manchester, MAPLEW00D mmTlf 1 6327 Easton, WELLSTON IN ILLINOIS Orchards Shopping Center Bellemore Villagt Shopping Center Wilshire Shopping Center Collinsville Granite City East Alton mb pw (SLLtMKIuKj ttm film ir avnortlu nlnwxl llllS LUUUitUiy Will fjC One Vi U1C but to some it will also leave a birth make the man at the next draft, but he is saved by the year, reported from the moon. Maybe include a rock-and-roll group to WE SUPPOSE there is some kind of distinction in being the first person on the block to steal an outdoor Christmas tree light. ITS PROBABLY true that you can't get something for nothing, but major league baseball trades are made on the theory that there must be exceptions.

IF THE JET PLANES get any bigger they'U be landing in towns where the passengers have the population outnumbered. DRIVE IN DISCOUNT Open Saturday 'til 5:00 P.M. MO THE DAY and month of his desk eminently eligible for the STRANGE reverberations are the next Apollo mission should really test the vibrations. 9308 MANCHESTER WO, 1-9102-.