The Pittsburgh Press from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 4

A-4 Pittsburgh Press, Nov. 6, 1 982 'Tex' Good, If Flawed, Film On Teens If lt' vv LI jto.v 4 I quite heating. His uncompromising approach Isn't necessarily advantageous, though. Adventurously low-keyed movies tend to be embraced more by critics than by audiences. "Tex" evokes more respect than enthusiasm.

It needs the lively, thoughtful banter and pathos of "Hud" and "The Last Picture Show," films which got about as close as any to the sense of real people evolving in a small-town milieu. The big moments in "Tex" tend to play little, as if each were isolated from the others. Drama at its best bleeds with an unstoppable current Hunter seems determined not to acknowledge the importance of some moments over others. He ignores reactions and subtle moments. A style like his needs more help than it gets from Pino Donaggio's score.

For all its reserve, though, "Tex" stands tall beside most pictures pitched at young audiences. It's a good movie that happens to be flawed, not a failure with good parts. With the exception of "The Chosen," there isn't a film around that addresses more satisfactorily the condition of being young. (Rated PG for discreet talk of sex.) teen-ager naively bungling a career as a drug dealer, and Cole Collins (Ben Johnson), the disciplinarian father of Tex's best friends. The novelist and screenwriters Tim Hunter and Charlie Haas devise bumps and divets in the McCor-micks' lives: a gun injury, an ulcer, confrontations with underworld and psychotic types, threats of expulsion from school and the dissolution of a family unit.

The picture boasts a solid ensemble performance. Almost to the person, it plays as if it were the work of a European director interpreting small-town Americana for the first time. Yet "Tex" was directed by co-writer Hunter, a Harvard graduate with a subdued eye for lingering adolescence. "Tex" may be admired greatly-for Hunter's refusal to nudge it up a decibel. He neither heightens nor intensifies anything, and he reveals little that isn't on his own printed page.

The slightly underdrawn characters don't quite inhabit or influence their situations; they're creatures of their environment, but they're vaguely independent of it, like acetate overlays in a biology textbook. He lets the actors relax into the naturalistic acting of dozens of scenes that simmer without ever By ED BLANK Press Drama Editor "Tex" is the least typical movie ever released by Walt Disney Productions. It is also one of the better non-animated pictures released by the company in about a century. "Tex," on six screens, isn't condescending, and it doesn't try to be like any other recent movie about teenagers. The film is based on the fourth popular young-adult-fiction novel by S.E.

(Susan Eloise) Hinton, her first to be filmed. The relationship of the leading character to his world an Oklaho-' ma hamlet, and the particular combination of types populating it, give the picture a head start. Tex McCormick (Matt Dillon) is the 15-year-old unofficial ward of his brother, Mason (Jim Metzler), 18. Their mother is dead. Their father (Bill McKinney), an itinerant rodeo rider, checks in at the mailbox with modest monetary contributions as seldom as his lapsed conscience permits.

Mason's fraternal responsibility may keep him from accepting a college basketball scholarship. Tex's rowdiness, drinking and malicious mischief threaten to arouse the interest of social workers and disapproving neighbors. xJust Before Dawn' Should Go Into Mourning Wiretaps Link Cop, Drug Ring By EDWINA RANKIN A state trooper's testimony about taped conversations between a city police officer and an alleged drug kingpin led District Justice Lee Peg-low to order the officer held for court in connection with a narcotics operation under surveillance in Homewood last year. At yesterday's preliminary hearing, Delores J. Blunt became the seventh defendant scheduled to face trial based on testimony by state police, who identified the suspects' voices from wiretapped conversations with suspected drug ringleader Stanley R.

"Satch" Page or electronic surveillance of his former residence in the 7500 block of Susquehanna Street, Homewood. A court-authorized wiretap was placed on Page's phone from Aug. 25 to Sept. 13, 1981. Police said Page operated "a round-the-clock convenience store" for drug sales from his home during that time.

In addition to the wiretaps, state police and attorney general's investigators used stakeouts, videotape and electronic surveillance to get evidence of the distribution of heroin, cocaine and marijuana in Allegheny, Fayette and Westmoreland counties. Page remains at large. Two other suspects yesterday waived their right to a preliminary bearing. They were Joyce Cager of 1502 Arch North Side, and Ralph Castaphney of 6734 Deary East Liberty. Ms.

Blunt, 45, of 7543 Susquehana allegedly received an ounce of marijuana from Page. The state also contends she obstructed justice by not reporting Page's drug activities to her police supervisors. Ms. Blunt was suspended by Police Superintendent Robert Coll after charges against her were filed. State trooper James Caggiano testified that state police intercepted an Aug.

25, 1981, phone call to Page from a woman identified as Ms. Blunt. The woman asked, "You got an ounce?" Caggiano said Page replied, "No, I might have some in about an hour." Caggiano said that although there was a telephone conversation between Page and Ms. Blunt the next day, it wasn't until Sept. 1, 1981, that surveillance officers saw a woman in police uniform receive a package from Page.

"She is sitting beside you at the table," Caggiano said to defense attorney Arnold H. Canton when asked to identify the police officer. State trooper Anthony J. Perella testified he had checked with city police Inspector Ralph Pampena to see whether she had ever filed reports on Page's drug activities. Pampena told him there was no record of any reports, Perella said.

Charges of cocaine and marijuana possession against Ruth DiStazio, 44, a former school crossing guard who lives at 1443 Morningside Momingside, are to be heard 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. Her hearing had been scheduled for yesterday. MATT DILLON Motherless, but not brotherless. Already something fresh: a protagonist whose older brother is a level-headed teen.

Other featured characters Include Mrs. Johnson (Frances Lee McCain), a sympathetic school principal who indulges Tex his misbehavior, Lem (Phil Brock), a George Kennedy does what amounts to a day's work, appearing only briefly in two scenes with any of the five teen-agers. Playing a loner, he introduces us to his horse Agatha and favorite plant Lucille while spouting nonsense about "the delicate balance of nature." By and by he rescues a few Curtain BEN CROSS "It's a Wonderful Ufa," 9:30. (Tomorrow: Dark.) BUHl SCIENCE CENTER "Capturing Time," 11:15 a.m.. 1, 7 p.m.( "Rock loierium, 8 ond 9:13 p.m.) "Cryitol Odyssey," 3:30 p.m.

(Tomorrow: "Capturing Time," 2, 5, 7 p.m., "Rock It," 8, 9:15 p.m.) "Crystal Odyssey," 3:30 and 8 p.m.) CALIFORNIA STATE COLLEGE "Cinderella," 8. (Tomorrow: Dark.) CARNEGIE MUSIC HALL Grover Washington 8. (Tomorrow: Dark.) CENTER STAGE "Man of la Moncha." 8. (Tomorrow: "Mon of la Moncha," 3.) CENTRAL CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL Pittsburgh Savoyards' "The Sorcerer," 8:30. (Tomorrow: 3.) CIVIC ARENA Rmgling Bros, ond Barnum Bailey Circus, 1 1 a.m., 3 ond 8 p.m.

(Tomorrow: and 5:30 p.m.) DANCE GALLERY Jon Gillespie Present Company, 8. (Tomorrow: 2:30 for children.) FINE UNI THEATER Allegheny Repertory Theatre's "Jitney." 8 (Tomorrow: 2:30 and 8.) HAZLETT THEATER Pittsburgh Public Theater's "A Streetcar Named Desire," 2, 8. (Tomorrow: 2, 7.) HEINZ HALL Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, 8. (Tomorrow: 2:30.) EVERCKEEN HOTEL HAYWIRE By JIM DAVIDSON Aha, you say. With a knife in the ads and a title like "Just Before Dawn," it's probably just another crummy "Halloween rip-off.

Probably nothing more than hysterical teen-agers dodging the creep-of-the-month as he skewers them, one by one, like so much shish kebab. If you think "Just Before Dawn" is nothing more than that well, reach over and pat yourself on the back. How perceptive. The only suspense in this appalling 1980 movie, now playing at the Warner and four suburban theaters, lies in anticipating the who and when of the next stabbing. The where is a mountainous forest, the how a jagged 18-inch knife that would send Captain Blood yelling for reinforcements.

Why it all happens is anyone's guess. The story is a worst-possible-scenario camping trip, five foolhardy youngsters forging through the trees in their block-long GMC camper to stake out the land listed on their deed. George Kennedy, playing a forest ranger, warns them away. So does a drunken deer hunter (Mike Kellin, a hardy character actor) whose buddy is stabbed to death in the opening scene. They keep going until they meet the creep, in the form of a boulder-sized mountain man.

He wheezes, he Eants, but he can't talk. He and his rother are mutants, the products of inbreeding by the mountain people and of crude stereotyping by screenwriters Mark L. Arywitz and Gregg Irving. kids and unceremoniously disappears five minutes before the end of the movie, his paycheck cleverly hidden in his pocket. Director Jeff Lieberman uses forest locations and a full set of dark filters that disguise the cheapness of the production.

His actors look like refugees from department store Times JOHNNY LOUNDER'S "Murder at the Howard Johnson's," 8:30. (Tomorrow: Dark.) LITTLE LAKE "Night Must Fall," 8:40. (Tomorrow: 7:40.) MARRIOTT "Violence, Profonity Nudity," 9 ond 11. (Tomorrow: Dork.) CITY THEATER "Working," 8. OLD ALLEGHENY "Great Americon Backstage Musical," 9:15.

(Tomorrow: Dark.) PF.NN JUNIOR HIGH Pern Hills Players' "Whose life It f) Anyway?" 8. (Tomorrow: Dork.) PITTSBURGH PLAYHOUSE "Whose life It Anyway?" 2 30 ond 8 p.m.: "Jock and the Beanstalk" (children's play), 1 1 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. (Tomorrow: "Whose life," 2.30 ond 8 p.m., "Jock," 2:30 p.m.) SOLDIERS AND SAILORS MEMORIAL Verkhovyntti Ukrainian Dance Ensemble, 7:30. (Tomorrow: Dork.) STANLEY Miles Davit, 8.

(Tomorrow: Dark.) STEPHEN FOSTER MEMORIAL "Lysis-trata," 8. (Tomorrow: 2.) SYNOD HALL New York Renaissance Band, 8:30. (Tomorrow: Dark.) WILKINS SCHOOL COMMUNITY CENTER Characters East's "Prisoner of Second Avenue," 8.30. (Tomorrow: Dark.) 821-9847 NOV. 12 LA ROXES catalogs.

Chris Lemmon, Ralph Seymour, Deborah Benson and Jamie Rose are dull, but not awesomely dull like Gregg Henry, as the blonde hero. Even in the tensest scenes, he looks like a man nodding off to sleep. I've seen movies with worse production values. I've certainly seen bloodier; by dawn, the body count doesn't reach double figures. But in terms of cheap titillation, "Just Before Dawn" is just about the pits.

Lieberman exploits his actresses shamelessly. Just before the climax this is the middle of the woods in the middle of the night, remember wholesome Miss Benson is suddenly wearing lipstick, thick mascara, the works for the first time in the movie. "You never know who you might run into up here," she says. Minutes later, Lieberman has a creep fall dead on top of her. Minutes after that, he uses a low-angle shot of an out-of-breath Miss Benson in short shorts, a dead creep at her feet.

Death and sex, sex and death. The link couldn't be plainer or, in this context, more distressing. "Just Before Dawn" is rated for violence. 0 FILM CANCELED A showing of the British film "Radio On," is off for Nov. 14 at Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art.

The replacement is "Priest of Love," the D.H. Lawrence biography, which now will be shown twice, at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 21 and 28 in the Lecture Hall. SOUTHERN SALOON G-FORCE ASSASSIN SOMEPLACE ELSE s.

884-8660 XXI. NUI AT IVUOtlfN MtCOCK TO TESTIFY nifer O'Neill, Actress Jen- gun-control advocate, may face a weap ons charge because the pistol with which she accidentally shot herself last month was not registered, New York authorities said today. She will be called to testify before a grand jury about the incident. 4 Arrested In Garfield Narcotics Raid A Garfield residence, which po nce say was used to market $2,500 a week in narcotics, has been closed down. City police arrested four persons yesterday, including an on-duty city employee, at 5345 Brown's Way on narcotics charges, wrapping up a three-week investigation by detectives based at the No.

3 Station in Lawrenceville. Sgt. Michael Chergi said the raid netted 800 Percodan tablets (a codeine derivative) valued at $3,200, plus 500 in cash. Arrested were Wayne P. Robinson, 25, and his mother, Nancy L.

Robinson, 50, both residents of the house; Louis R. Dowden, 35, of 5607 Howe Shadyside, identified by Klice as an employee of the city's partment of Environmental Services; and Lawrence Bonds, 29, of 230 Robinson Court, Oakland, who police said supplied the operation. The four were arraigned by a city magistrate, who set bonds ranging from a nominal amount to $5,000. Chergi said he and detectives William Joyce and Michael Sippi had staked out the house for three weeks after an informant told them of the operation. "From late morning until 4 or 5 p.m., an average of 15 buyers a day would come to the back door, make their purchases and leave through the front," he said.

Bell Entitled To Funds Lost In PUC Delay HARRISBURG (AP) Commonwealth Court says Bell of Pennsylvania is entitled to $7 million in revenues it claimed were lost because the Public Utility Commission delayed putting a rate increase into effect. Commonwealth Court Judge Theodore O. Rogers said in an 11-page decision handed down yesterday that the PUC erred in delaying implementation of a $148.3 million rate hike by three weeks. Bell maintained the delay cost the company $7 million and violated a statute requiring that new rates go into effect within nine months from the day they are requested. A spokesman for the telephone company, Bob Bridgeo, said the next step would be for Bell officials "to get together with the commission and come up with a plan for collecting those revenues." PUC Chairman Susan Shanaman declined comment, saying she had not seen a copy of the decision.

Bell filed for a $237 million rate boost July 25, 1980, and the commission approved a $148.3 million hike nine months later on April 24, 1981. On May 15, 1981, Bell filed papers with the PUC detailing how the new rates would be structured. When the PUC approved the plan in June, it said the new rates should be retroactive to May 15 not April 24, as Bell contended the law required. 5 Acquitted Of Gunrunning NEW YORK (UPI) Five men charged with conspiring to smuggle weapons to the Irish Republican Army have been acquitted. The defendants Michael Flan- nery, 80, a founder and director of the Irish Northern Aid Committee, George Harrison, 67, Patrick Mul-lin, 44, Thomas Falvey, 54, and Daniel Gormley, 33 were accused of trying to ship weapons to Northern Ireland.

They were acquitted yesterday. Authorities said they conspired to. ship a cannon, a flame thrower, machine guns and automatic rifles to the IRA from December 1980 to June 1981. The defendants denied breaking the law and claimed the CIA sanctioned weapons smuggling to the IRA. The CIA has denied the charge.

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Masterson's father said he is on a vacation. Masterson is not charged with a crime nor is he labeled a suspect in the deaths of seven Chicago-area arsons between Sept. 29 and Oct. 1. he victims swallowed deadly cyanide-dosed capsules of Extra-Stength Tylenol.

Records show Masterson, 35, lived in a house near Orlando, for about a year before he sold it during the summer of last year. The real-estate agent who helped Masterson Jocate the house said Masterson often complained about an (8,000 settlement his estranged wife, Joann, received from Jewel Food Stores. Masterson blamed the dispute for "destroying him, destroying her and their relationship," the agent said. "He seemed to keep by himself," a former neighbor said, "He lived alone but he had friends, young men friends who came by every so often." The grudge against Jewel apparently arose after Masterson's former wife filed suit against the chain, claiming she was mistreated by security guards. A settlement was reached, out he was dissatisfied and vowed revenge, the newspaper said.

Other friends quoted Masterson as saying "now is the time to even the score," but he never specified what he planned to do. When authorities asked for a Search warrant for Masterson's residence in suburban Lombard, they referred to the alleged grudge. The Chicago Tribune reported the affidavit quoted Masterson as telling a psychiatrist that "many people will suffer because of what was done to my wife by Jewel." THE 1 130 BANKS VILLI 531-S900 Contomporory Muilc By PDQ DONNA TODAY ot JUSTBEfOREDAWN ra ta i ia it nti 11 i.nn PM A.M. i PLENTY OF FREE PARKING 2020 WAVERLY ST. TONIGHT Formerly Swiiivole NORM tIARDINI THE TIGERS Taping for national video.

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