The Ithaca Journal from Ithaca, New York • Page 28

4 ITHACA JOURNAL December 20-December 26, 1969 Mo le Editor Praises 'Bob and Carol The Effects Are Fun r----- 1 i i i 1 i II49' 14 Nit' li ,4 1 rt. i Alice, who are, more or less, the nervous types and resigned to their bourgeoisity. Natalie Wood is giving the best performance of her career as Carol, the twitchy free soul who tries so hard not to be a nice girl. Dyan Cannon is superb as the even twitchier Alice who is driven to the analyst's couch by all of her newly found emancipation. Robert Culp is perfect as Bob, who cannot be getting old if he wears love beads and high black boots, can he? And Elliott Gould is, perhaps, funniest of all as Ted, the lawyer who was perfectly happy being middle class until he learned it was a low class thing to be.

My favorite line in the film is his nervous "first we'll have an orgy, then we'll go see Tony Bennett." Opening the festival with an american comedy was revolutionary enough and a wise and important step but happily, it doesn't stop there. "Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice" causes its own revolution in Hollywood filmaking. It will be playing everywhere all winter and only the foolish and humorless will miss it. Sal Mineo, papa and Fig lio, a pair of balloonists, and John Leyton is the diver who went to Oxford, and J. D.

Cannon, the ringleader of 40 brutal convicts who are kept in the hold until the sixth reel and then Then there are three pretty Japanese girl divers and I kept expecting them to burst into "three little girls from sChool are we," but alas, they never did. Need I tell you what happens, who lives, who dies, who gets the buried treasure, and who gets buried in Davy Jones' locker and who gets to kitchy koo off in the sunset west of Krakatoa East of Java? Still, the pyrotechnics of the volcanic eruption and the ensuing holocausts are large, loud, and kind of fun, and the tidal waves are big and wet. Schell and Keith are good actors and though they do nothing Gable and Beery didn't many times ago, they acquit themselves ably enough. The other performances range from comic opera to comic strip, which of course, "Krakatoa East of Java" really is in cineramic screen, schizophrenic sound, and all kinds of living colors. "Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice" is scheduled to open Thursday at the Temple Theater.

it is rated restricted, persons under II not admitted unless accompanied by parent or adult guardi an. By BERNARD DREW Gannett News Service NEW YORK For the first time ever an American comedy opened the New York Film Festival. The name of it is "Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice," and it happens to be one of the wisest, wittiest, wickedest comedies ever to have come out of Hollywood. This is a new era for movies so new that we call them "films" now. In the last few years, they have broken out and away from old forms, old restrictions and old concepts, being part and parcel of the revolution which is occurring throughout the world, affecting not only politics, but religion, the arts, everything.

You can say almost anything now, in the film form, and anything goes, and there has been some pretty good going the last couple of years. "Take the Money and Run" and "Putney Swope," to mention two comedies available at the present moment, hit peaks of high hilarity. Neither film could or would have been made three years ago, or at least distributed under respectable auspices. But nothing made in America, around now or ever, it seems to me, approaches the cool sophistication, the sly satire, and trenchant unmasking of the manners, morals and good natured, complacent hypocrisy of our lives as has "Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice." Paul Mazursky has directed and Mazursky and Larry Tucker both fugitives from the second city have written a picture "Krakatoa East of Java" is scheduled to open Wednesday at the Strmd Theater. It Is rated for general By BERNARD DREW Gannett News Service NEW YORK I don't know for whom "Krakatoa East of Java" intendedperhaps PHDS with vertigo but the kids should love it.

The second half of this movie consists of nothing more than a monstrous volcanic eruption with its ensuing tidal waves which make little bubbles of our memories of "San Francisco," "The Last Days of Pompeii" and "The Rains Came." We had our fun, let the kids have theirs." But the first hours of setting up the characters "Grand Hotel" style for the trip aboard the Batavia Queen bound for Krakatoa East of Java; the trip which will end in every cataclysm nature and the special effects wizards can evolve, is a bit simple-minded, to be charitable about it. Maximilian Schell is the captain, who is seeking the lost treasure hidden somewhere on a ship that went down some time ship which belonged to Diane Baker's husband, a no-good who would not divorce her so that she might marry Max, and who placed their child in a catholic orpahanage. Then there are Brian Keith, the diver with lung trouble who keeps secretly swallowing laudunum, and his girl friend, Barbara Werle, the Gladys George of the picture the exotic singer, tired blonde and good natured. (Was there ever a bad natured blonde in a film of this sort?) Then there are the breezy borgheses, Rosanno Brazzi and WVBR Sets Music Review Judy Signs For 'Dames' Laugh-In's Judy Came has been signed by producer Zev Bufman for a six-week tour of Florida in "Dames at Sea." This is a musical which spoofs all those old Ruby Keeler-Dick Powell films and Judy loves the idea since she says she is really Roby Keller returned from retirement. Dyan Cannon is featured in 'Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice'.

which casts a searchlight to our times. They are taking a look at the freud-oriented generation, the aging suburbanites who had all the answers, who are having their cake and eating it and putting it away in the safe deposit box and leaving it to their children all at the same time. They are getting on, but they are young in heart, spirit and mind they like to think. Raised in all of the bourgeois standards of morality with all the songs that mother taught, particularly the eleventh commandment "if thou art loved by everone, thou can forget the first ten" they have broken away from it all. They are free, emancipated spirits.

Haven't they been analyzed? Though pushing 40, don't they wear leather jackets and knee length boots and love beads and don't they smoke pot, even if they choke a little? After all, one must be "in," "now," "with it" at all costs, or one is left behind. One must keep up. One must say "man" and "beautiful," one must do one's thing, even if it isn't one's thing, or one doesn't know what one's thing is. And that little paradox is about what Mazursky and Tucker have made their gaspingly hilarious "Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice." Bob and Carol are a nice couple. But who notices nice couples, are nice couples really that nice underneath? He is a documentary filmaker and is doing research on one of those hilltop paradises where it's group therapy all the time and everyone loves on another and expresses oneself constantly.

He and Carol attend a marathon session one day, and their doors to perception are opened up beautiful, man! So they return to Beverly Hills and share their happiness with their closest friends, Ted and Ispill5Al25i3teglaMIAVIi3MM30472filloliPAIOSAISAMIrgiNiMMAilaiMilegIVAA3MM3ViYgiVSZAIKUttit Open Mon. thru Friday 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday to 5:30 p.m. TIDE i3080P Your TV and APPLIANCE OUTER 518 W.

State St. Phone 272-2575 I II "The Sounds of the Sixties" will be presented on WVBR-FM starting Thursday at 6 a.m. The roundup of the best music of the 1960s will conclude Thursday, Jan. 1. The schedule: Thursday, Dec.

25: A year-byyear sampling of the music of the 60's. Friday, Dec. 26: The day of the groups. Saturday, Dec. 27: The folk and folk-derived music of the 60's.

Sunday, Dec. 28: Requests by postcard. Requests by phone, however, will be taken throughout the special program series. Monday, Dec. 29: The British Empire-with every other hour featuring The Beatles.

Tuesday, Dec. 30: The All-Americans: Significant American recording groups such as The Beach Bots, Jefferson Airplane, Four Seasons, Supremes and Shire lies. Wednesday, Dec. 31: Request by postcard. Thursday, Jan.

1: The top songs of each year (from 1960- 1969 as compiled by Billboard magaiine and WVBR. I I VISIT GIFTS FOR MODERN LIVING Santa has the whole family in mind when he comes up with modern work-saving kitchen appliances as well as exciting home entertainment units. Stop here for family gifts for home. IT OUR HEW DISCOUNT USEWARES DEPARTMENT! me from these Famous Brand Names: SUNBEAM I HOOVER GE CORNING vi kMILTON BEACH DOMINION I SALTON WARING EMINGTON PRESTO DURAL Fa A nif Aim flflIPr wr me. seism qrmBego lama.

wasp a Ank mmAlb mm Santa has the whole family in mind when he comes up with modern work-saving kitchen appliances as well as exciting home entertainment units. Stop here for family gifts for home. OUR NEW DISCOUNT HOUSEWARES DEPARTMENT! from these Famous Brand Names: OSTER SUNBEAM HOOVER GE CORNING HAMILTON BEACH DOMINION I SALTON WARING REMINGTON PRESTO. DURAL OUR About the Cover Choose i1 It will be Boston vs. Phoenix when ABC-TV begins its sixth 1 season of NBA colorcasts Thursday at p.m.

1 ABC says the 1969-70 schedule will be the most flexible in the network's history, enabling the day's key game to be covered. ABC will colorcast the New York Milwaukee game Friday, Jan. 2 at 8:30 p.m. and the league All-Star game Tuesday, Jan. 1 20 at 8:30 p.m.

The first of 15 consecutive Sunday afternoon games will be televised Jan. 18. This week's Showtime has Los Angeles' Jerry West taking a 1i shot against New York. The Knicks are Dave DeBusschere 1 (22) Walt Frazier (10) and Willis Reed. 0 COMPARE PRICES, WE BELIEVE THEY ARE THE LOWEST IN ITHACA! linsismasganommaximutomminagasayeamitisszazgutagammtmossplaymearmixamealeavo I.