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St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 92

Location:
St. Louis, Missouri
Issue Date:
Page:
92
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

rtlilllll.il' I' I J'llWllIlP'- TWg. jf- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH Nov. 6, 1983 Reviews True West' 1 1 "HI Grabber Debut Review mystery. Virtually everything is seen through Stewart's lens.

It is not until the end that Stewart and the villain come face to face, but by then he is in great danger, and the implication is that viewing things through a long lens may not be quite so safe and removed as it appears. "Rear Window" is one of Hitchcock's best movies, and one of the things that make it so compelling is the density of the background, with all those people in the other apartments going about their business as Hitchcock's camera pans around, inevitably, of course, Hitchcock and Stewart return their lenses to the scene of the supposed crime. Some of Hitchcock's later movies, from "The Birds" to "Frenzy," had a wave-like style of tension and release, tension and release. "Rear Window" builds in a much more linear way, slowly creating tension bit by bit until the chilling final 10 minutes. It takes a long time to get there, but there is literally never a dull moment.

(Running time: 1 hour, 53 minutes. Rating: PG. Halls Ferry, Hi-Pointe, Sunset.) coach, Craig T. Nelson, is looking for a victory in the school's big game for essentially the same reason he is a candidate for a college coaching job in California. The team loses the big game and an angry Cruise pins the blame, correctly, on the coach.

The coach kicks Cruise off the team and, after a further misunderstanding, tries to wreck his chances for a scholarship. All this leads to a lot of pain and anger and a sentimental ending that is very hard to swallow. But there is some good, very xealistic footage of the coach battering his team in practice so they will win the game, and a job for him, and the game itself has a convincingly gritty feel to it. Cruise and Lea Thompson do a competent job as high-school sweethearts going through the usual agonizing sexual dance of "nice kids." I suspect it will find a small audience among older teen-agers but, unlike "Risky Business," won't go much beyond that. (Running time: 90 minutes.

Rating: language an4 stx. At the Brentwood, Chesterfield, Jamestown, Northwest, South County, Sunset Hills.) Harper Barnes I an eye on classified for the new job you want. POSTGLOBE CLASSIFIED i liV Film 'Rear Window' By Harper Barnes Of the Post-Dispatch Staff in the late 1960s, Alfred Hitchcock took off the market five of his earlier films: "Rear Window," "The Trouble With Harry." "Vertigo," "The Man Who Knew Too Much" and "Rope." Apparently, the great director of suspense and misdirection felt that these movies, to which he personally owned the rights, had been around long enough and were beginning to compete with some of his more recent films. Hitchcock died in 1981. Now, by arrangement with his estate, the movies, virtually unseen for more than 15 years, are being released again.

The first is "Rear Window." "Rear Window," which came out in 1954, is a classic of psychological suspense. James Stewart is a photographer who covers wars and disasters around the world for a very Life-like magazine. He breaks a leg trying to photograph an auto race from the middle of the track and is laid up for seven weeks in his small Greenwich Village apartment with little to amuse him except the activities of his neighbors, as seen through binoculars and his telephoto lens, and nightly visits from Grace Kelly. For much of the film, the long lens seems to amuse him more than the gorgeous and witty Miss Kelly, a fact of which cinematic Freudians have made a great deal. It is a boiling hot summer, the windows are open and Stewart can see and hear a lot: a sexy and athletic woman who dances in scanty outfits, a middle-aged sculptress working away, a couple with a dog they lower in a basket from the third floor, a man who composes at the piano.

Slowly, however, he focuses more and more on a traveling salesman and his invalid wife. Then the wife disappears, and the salesman (Raymond Burr) is seen lugging heavy loads out of the apartment at all hours of the morning. The plot develops very slowly, as Stewart, Kelly and nurse Thelma Ritter put together the pieces of the V- i the claustrophobic kitchen. By the time Mom returns, the boys have made a terrible mess of the place and themselves. Janet Ward as Mom and James Paul as a producer in Los Angeles give solid supporting performances.

And the set, by Bill Schmiel, is a tiny masterpiece of Southern California kitsch. "SSn. i Theater By Harper Barnes Of the Post-Dispatch Staff It-will be a miracle if John Spencer and Jonathan Fuller physically survive- the two-week run of Sam Sheperd's "True West," this season's opening Studio production of the St. JJjuis Repertory Theatre. They play brother) and all their sibling jealousy and fury explode in a red-faced, choking, sweating climactic battle that ends on the apron of the tiny stage only a few feet from the audience.

It is apowerful and cathartic ending to a play that, although it has its slow rfloments and clinker lines, generally is-quite effective. The direction by Timothy Near is taut and is imbued, like the play itself, with quick and delightfully unexpected twists and quirks. And Spencer, as the hustler brother Lee, grabs you from the moment the lights come up and he slouches there in his old trenchcoat, railing like some bad dream out of Hunter Thompson. Fuller is not as convincing as the younger, straighter brother, at least not in the first half of the play, but as matters and madness proceed Fuller's performance grows looser and stronger, both physically and emotionally. He also is cursed with the bad lines on those few occasions when Shepard plunges into sententious sentimentality there is not much you can do with "There's nothing real down here, least of all me." i "True West" is set in Los Angeles.

Austin (Fuller) and Lee (Spencer) are two brothers who, after not seeing each other for some years, get together in Mom's kitchen while Mom is in Alaska, escaping the hot winds of summer. Austin is a fairly successful All the Right Moves' "All the Right Moves" is an unpretentious, rather pleasant little melodrama starring Tom Cruise, who became an overnight magazine cover-boy after the surprising and deserved success of "Risky Business." Cruise is a high-school football player in a depressed Pennsylvania steel town. He sees football and a college scholarship as his ticket out of town. His volatile Frank-Kush-style John Spencer (left) and Jonathan Fuller in "True West" at the Studio Theatre of the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis.

timns! aed Era writer with a wife andta couple of children somewhere "up North." Lee is a burglar and con man who lives in the desert. Austin is in LA to work a deal for a screenplay, but it turns out Lee's hustling ways and horse-opera mind are more important than Austin's talent and experience. So Lee ends up with Austin's contract, and the booze and wit, recriminations and character reversals begin to flow in the Creative anu 8:30 p.m., Saturday, November 12 3:00 p.m., Sunday, November 13" Powell Symphony Hall Edna W. Sternberg Guest Conductor Erich Leinsdorf Kathleen Battle, soprano Richard Stilwell, baritone Saint Louis Symphony Chorus Thomas Peck, director ALL-BRAHMS PROGRAM Naenie German Requiem 'pre-concert lecture 7:30 p.m. "pre-concert lecture 2:00 p.m.

Remaining tickets: $15.50. $12. $8. Available at area outlets, or call Ea3 ADDmONALKFORiVS with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra Monday, Novemuei u. Special Command Performance To Benefit the Liberace foundation 534-1700 to charge on MasterCard or Visa.

25 discount for groups of 20 or more. Call 533-2500, ext. 293, for group reservations. Studentsenior citizen rush tickets: $5, when available, before performance for (O I I I rerJorminy 8:30 p.m., Friday, November 18 Powell Symphony Hall (pension tund concert) Erich Leinsdorf, guest conductor Erie Mills, Ellen Shade, sopranos Delia Wallace, mezzo-soprano J. STRAUSS "Die Fledermaus" Overture Emperor Waltz Artists' Quadrille R.

STRAUSS "Der Rosenkavalier" excerpts LIBERACE 83 ALL NEW SHOW NOW THROUGH MONDAY NOV. 7. 'day at 3 pm and 7:30 pm; Monday at 8 pm. 1 i4 THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS THE FIFTH DIMENSION Is I NOVEMBER 8-13 1 Tues-Cri at 8pm; Sat at If 5pm 9pm; Sun at 3pm 7pm ii I -On Tickets: $24, $22, $19, $15.50, $12, $8 Available at area outlets, or call 534-1700 to charge on MasterCard or Visa. 25 discount for groups of 20 or more.

Call 533-2500, ext. 293 for group reservations. Studentsenior citizen rush tickets: $5, when available, '2-hour before performance (ID required, 2 tickets per ID) Leonard Slatkin, Music Director and Conductor (ID required, 2 tickets per ID). 1 ff im rMsy OPENS FRI. DEC.

9TH Subscriber Tickets will be mailed by the week of Nov. 14th. OPENS TUES. NOV. 22nd One Week Only PUN ENTERTAINMENT ATX.

a brassy, satirical command. You are if ROY CLARK January 3-8 r- -Tues-Fri at 8pm; Sat at 5pm 9pm; A at 3pm 7pm py 4 TONY BENNETT I 3 io COUNT BASIE and His Orchestra VA i ROSEMARY CL00NEY Vi JANUARY 24-29 ji Tues-Frl at 8pm; Sat at 5pm 9pm; Sun at 3pm OAK RIDGE teCZ boys mmm FEBRUARY 14-19 1 i Tues-Thurs at 8pm; Frl at 7pm 10pm; I 1 ifrt Sat at 5pm 9pm; Sun at 3pm 7pm I Ji The MITZI GAYNOR Show NOVEMBER 29-DECEMBER 4 Tues-Fri at 8pm; Sat at 5pm 9pm; Sun at 3pm 7pm r.ioe a fabulous Gift Holiday Season. Supstar Series or can NOW! opm mull IIIIU DUI IUUIH Ulllll Opm Upper Balcony $6.50 told of outlets. Attractions subject to change wlth- The International Musical Hit musical with a genuine star in bound to have a good time. T4LC0VE DAILY NEWS Also Starring FOR MAIL ORDERS: Send payment (if M.C.

or Visa, includes number expiration date) with stamped self-addressed envelope to: The Forest Park St. Louis, MO 63112 at 8 P.M. Fri. Sat. 8 P.M Sat.

Sun. Mats. 2 P.M Fri. Sat. 8 P.M $21.90, $18,90, $13.90 Wed.

Thurs. 8 P.M., Sun. 5 PM. $17.90, $12.90 Wed. Sat.

Mats 2 P.M.: $19.90, $16.90, $11.90 No Seating In The Theatre until 7:15 M. The curtain rises promptly. After curiam, one will be admitted until an appropriate time that does not disturb the play. No Seating In The Theatre until 7:15 P.M. The Curtain rises promptly.

After curtain. no one will be adTnttod until an appropriate time that does not disturb the play. Sun. 7 P.M.. $14.90, 9.90 $15.90, $10.90 $16.90, $13.90, 8.90 16 BOX OFFICES NOW! THE MUNY D.O.

in FOREST PARK Mori. -Sat. 9-5 THE FOX Mon. 10-6, 10-8, Sun. Noon-? AMERICAN THEATRE ALL FAMOUS BARR STORES Mon.

thru SAT. 10-9 our new gift shop Vow op5" CALL 534-1111 Dunuc i iucc nncu. emuil.niUili rimm. uiiilj vrt.ii. juiiuuy iiwii Inn mull V.

Orchestra. Grand Circle. Mezzanine, and Balcony sis so 1 4 Mid Bolcony 11.50 f. Tickets available at all Famou-larr stores. Team Togt Tickets at Chestertleld Moll and Northwest 1 Plaza.

Regal Sports, 3131 Olive. The Fox Theatre ticket otllce. 527 Grand Blvd Rn Theatre Bon Office hours: 10 om-6pm Mon-Sat Noon-6 pm Sun Discounts available tor groups at 20 or more on I --ome performances. Call 534-1678 Senior citizens and students SAVE 20 off slnole ticket orlce A 1'J nominal service charge II odded lo each ticket uui uvula, mi ivivnia. 1.

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Pages Available:
4,205,181
Years Available:
1849-2024