Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • 74

Thursday, April 2, 1981 'Thief Fails With Poor ScriptDirection his poetry of semi-literate obscenities and twisted cliches in "Raging Bull," what we hear in much of "Thief" are the sounds reproduced by an ear of unalloyed tin. the roof of a Los Angeles skyscraper above the elevator shaft, but we never see how they get down to thejloor where the big English safe sitsf then after the door is cut open, Caan merely slumps into a chair to.pause for a great moment in smoking, letting his ajsjs- tant bag the ice. Even the film's, cli-. max a series of explosions and sfioo-touts is paced in a way that defuses it. It's perhaps unfortunate that Mann took on so many chores for his feature film debut because he obviously IfljSs some skills as a director, writerand producer.

The look of "Thief" is frequently arresting, some of the idea's of the story are promising and much of. the casting is strong especially," ftfe use of Robert Prosky as the first phojjj-ly chummy, finally coldly arrogant Leo. But this time around at least, Mann hasn't pulled it all together. "Thief" is as awkwardly patched" together as the corny and unbelieveame collage of his life Frnk carries around right next to his credit cards. Rated this film has every obscenity imaginable, and plenty of grapfiic ultraviolence as well, making it nofa very nice picture for children.

"Thief" is playing at Showcase Cinemas, East Hartford. The words drop from the mouth of James Caan as if he were trying without luck to improvise "Second City" Runyonesque dialogue. When he plays his big hopes and dreams duet with Tuesday Weld, cast beneath her caste as the previously damaged Jessie, the effect is almost painfully awkward. Caan is an actor with a strong physical presence, and his direction of himself as the searching father in "Hide in Plain Sight" showed his strengths at playing an average guy up against the system, but he isn't all that convincing as a street character; And Tuesday Weld is more suited to playing jaded debs than restaurant cashiers who have been bounced around Latin America with faithless and feckless dope smugglers. Off-key dialogue and performances aren't all that afflict Mann's tilm, however.

Even the big safe-cracking sequence is blah; we are shown Frank and his confederates cutting through this totally depraved system is Frank, the endlessly resourceful jewel thief who just wants to make up for his lost 11 years in Joliet by making enough big scores so that he can enjoy the American dream: a nice new expensively furnished house in the suburbs, big high-powered cars, high-priced duds, a beautiful, loving wife and a kid or two. At the start of the film, he is an independent operator in Chicago, stashing away a small fortune by drilling safes loaded with diamonds and laying them off with a fence at a fraction of 'their market value. But the big boys won't allow him to stay in business for himself. His ultimate destruction is set in motion early on when an agent for his fence is shoved off a rooftop. In the course of getting his payoff, he meets a syndicate chief named Leo who offers him the opportunity to use his skills on a national basis, going after much bigger heists that are all laid out for him.

At first Frank hesitates, but when he becomes emotionally involved with a woman named Jessie, he is drawn into the web, as they used to say. Working with Donald Thorin as his director of photography, Mann has made a "night film" that aims at the visual texture of Martin Scorsese's "Taxi At its best, "Thief" has moments of considerable visual resonance: the opening shot which cranes down over the black fire escapes of a dim, rain-filled alley establishes a strong sense of place and mood, and the film is full of wet, black, glistening urban streets. Thorin also adeptly uses the gleam of Frank's dark, flashy sedan to capture the fleeting reflections of the electric night. But all this vivid, seething background works to little avail. Mann's dialogue ranges from average cops-and-robbers tough stuff to terribly pretentious stylized speeches.

This, not "The Postman Always Rings Twice," is the picture that needed the ear of the young Chicago playwright David Ma-met. Mann tries to do Mamet dialogue, but although Mardik Martin and Paul Schraeder were able to approximate THf HARTFORD COURANT: Hotel Fire Hurts 16 in Las Vegas By PATRICK ARNOLD Associated Press LAS VEGAS, Nev. A fire confined lb a luxury suite, on the fifth floor of Caesars Palace hbtel-cashio injured 16 people. Wednesday and forced hundreds to flee the hotel's 12-story central tower, authorities' said. It was the third sizable hotel fire in gambling resort city in less than jive months.

Smoke poureoj from fifth-floor windows, and breaking.glass showered the Aground as people raced out to the park-jng lot behind the luxury hotel. Fleeing guests arid hotel employes jnade their way past gamblers who "continued to play blackjack, roll dice Jand pull slot machine handles in the despite a strong smell of: 'smoke, after the firfe at 10:05 a convention of burglar- Malarm and fire-alanrt companies is be-Mi(ig held at Caesars Palace this week. "V'YtJu'd never think you'd find yourself in the middle oa casino with a nightgown on," said hotel guest Helen Hiingburg of It She and her. husband, Morris, who "jwere on the sixth floor just above the oom that caught said they re- Sorted the blaze to the hotel operator, len looked into the hallway and saw Jtotel maids pounding on doors to evacuate guests. r-s "I was right across the hall when I "heard the (smoke) alarms going maid Linda Holmes said.

"When I got down by the pool, I saw all the flames coming out the windows." Guests and employes later were allowed to return to all but the fifth floor of the hotel tower. The cause of the fire that erupted in a five-room suite was not known County Fire Capt. Ralph Dinsman said1, nor was it known whether the suite was occupied at the time of the fire. The blaze was in a portion of the hotel that had no sprinklers, but Caesars" Palace is in the process of installing them in the area, he said. Fire alarms and smoke detectors lb the area worked, Dinsman said.

pio New Orleans Band Shows Vintage Quality in Concert By MALCOLM L. JOHNSON Courant Film Critic It may just be a A few seasons back, William Fried-kin shot an impressive but commercially disastrous remake of Henri Georges Clouzot's masterpiece of suspenseThe Wages of Fear," about four drivers of a nitroglycerin truck. One element in the Friedkin version that clearly improved on the original was the nerve-jangling soundtrack by the German electronic ensemble Tangerine Dream. Now the same group is back again, providing another jittery score that is far and away the best things about "Thief," a potentially intriguing but terribly misguided variation on another famous French thriller of the '50s, Jules Dassin's "Rififi." "Thief" seems an homage to "Rififi" in that it attempts to be a film noir which darkly reveals how everything goes wrong for a master criminal after his team pulls off an impossible heist. But unlike the Dassin film, and also unlike Friedkin's misnamed but gripping "Sorcerer," "Thief" never develops very much in the way of tension except that generated by our wondering when it will all be over.

Even -Tangerine Dream doesn't deliver. all that much nightmarish juice. There are many reasons why "Thief" doesn't score, but its prime failing is the overweening script by Michael Mann, who also served as director and executive producer. Mann hasn't contented himself simply with showing us the methods and problems of a professional criminal who goes after huge stakes. He wants to use this film to tell us all about corruption in America, here depicted as teeming with false business fronts, syndicate figures with vast holdings in shopping centers, cops on the take who are little more than brutal animals, sleazy judges who signal their payoff fs from the bench, prisons rotting with sexually twisted inmates and personnel, women who carry children just to sell them off to couples who cannot adopt.

Trying to get along somehow within IN HARTFORD Art Cinema Olympic Fever 2:10, 4:55. 7, 9:30. Anna Obsessed 1, 3:40. 5:55, 9:20. Athentum Loulou 7:30, 9:30.

I Cintma Cltv Finn) Conflict 7:15, Last Metro 7, 9 40 -La CagAux Folles II 7:45, Morant 7:30, 9:30. Cinestudio The Big Red One 7.30. Bad Timing 9:40. Colonial Rage of the Dragon 6:30, 9:45. The Assassin 1.15.

IN OTHER TOWNS AVON Park 1 a 2-Windwalker 7:15, Like Old Times 7:30, 9:25. Twin 1 1 2-La Cage Aux Folles II 7:15, 9:15. Airplane 7:30, 9:30. BANTAM Cinema IV-Alfered States 8. BERLIN Cine 1 2-Altered States 7:10, Jan Singer 7:05, 9:20.

i BRISTOL Center Mall Cinema The Devil and Mat Devlin 7, 9. Wind-walker 7:15, 9:15. -EAST HARTFORD Cinema One Altered States 7:45. Poor Richards Seems Like Old Times 7:30, 9:30. Showcase Cinema Thief 2, 7: 10, 9:45 Competition 1:30, 7:15, 9:50.

Texas Chain Saw Massacre 2, 7:46, 10. The Postman. Always Rings Twice 2, 7:10, 9:50 Raging Bull 1:45, 7, 9:35 -Nine to Five 1:10, 7:25, 9:55. The Devil and Max Devlin 1:20, 1, 7:30. ENFIELD Cine Enfield-Final Conflict 7:30, 7:15, 9: Pop 7, to Five 7:20, 9:20.

Cinema-Silky 2:40, 7, 9:15. Sweethearts 1:30, 6:15. KENSINGTON Cinema-Windwalker 7:15, 9:20. MANCHESTER Manchester Twin October Silk and Pel of the Month, from 11 Sex Boot and Frat House, from II. UA Theaters East-Final Conflict 7:30, 7: 15, 9: House 7:30, 9:30.

MERIDEN MeridenTwin Thief 7:05, 9:25. All Night Long 7:30, 9:20. MIDDLETOWN Moviehouse The Competition 7, 9:15 The Postman Always Rings Twice 7, 9:15. NEWINGTON Cinema 1, 2 1 3 The Fun House 7:30, 9:30 Fort Apache, the Tonight at 6. FIRST NIGHT fmmmmmt mwmtm.

mm nwewwn mm "im rt A guest evacuated from the Caesars Palace Hotel in Las Vegas holds an oxygen mask to her face. A blaze that broke out on one floor of the hotel Wednesday injured 16 persons, including one firefighter who was hurt seriously. "We have 10 civilian injuries most of these are minor and six firefighters are injured. One is quite serious," Dinsman said. Fire Capt.

Donald Warren suffered second-degree burns and was listed in satisfactory condition at the burn unit in Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital. Dinsman said he didn't know how many of the injured were hotel guests. Caesars World, in a statement from Los Angeles, claimed none of the injured were hotel guests, but declined to identify any of them. Webb, 35, won the Navy Cross, the Silver Star, two Bronze Stars and the Purple Heart while serving as a young officer in Vietnam. Webb said he is not certain he wants the job, but he has talked about it with White House officials.

One Reagan administration official, asking not to be identified, said Webb. heads' a list of nine potential candidates. "I've been said in an interview. "I'm finally at the point where I'm developing as a writer. And it's a no-win job.

But not accepting it would be like running away from a fight." Webb is critical of the way the VA has been run and says he would give far more attention to the readjustment problems of Vietnam veterans, for whom he says he feels a "spiritual commitment." He also said he wanted to find out for sure whether GIs exposed to the dangerous herbicide Agent Orange, which was used as a defoliant in Vietnam, are in danger of suffering severe health repercussions. through a $37,000 grant from the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving. It will be open on weekends from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in April.

Summer hours will begin May 1, when the carrousel will be open Tuesday through Sunday. Rides cost 25 cents and $1 for a book of five. of Beef i AP all the music sound as if it should ha been parading through the city's downtown streets instead of being contained in the civic center's lower depths." 2 Two of the musicians on stage, trombonist Frank Demond and player Allan Jaf fee, looked like "ringers" since they're both about half the age of the Humphrey brothers. Jaffee, a former systems analyst and graduate of Wharton School of Ei-nance, is the band's organizer and; has been the proprietor of its home, preservation Hall in New Orleans, sincere established it in 1961. Pudgy and round-faced, Jaffee looked like a big, happy dancing bear all wrapped up'in the brass coils of his tuba as he bom-pah-pahed the bass lines for the tiafid while swaying his torso in time to, beat.

Demond, who looks like a business executive but plays like a hot, traditional trombonist, has performed the band's many appearances in Connecticut during the last six years oro. Although the band would have sounded ttofor I nr at laact hoon nAarr? hoYtet-t in a small hall or in the great outdoors, it Was still triumphant in the cavernous, noisy Exhibition Hall withes sprawling cabaret-style setup. The Galvanized Jazz Band, a stalwart Connecticut unit, warmed up the audience as the opening act for the elder statesmen of New Orleans ml4t- 20 Postal Jobs Brin 15,000 Applicants Associated Press 'I" BALTIMORE The hope of working for the U.S. Postal Service at more than $17,000 a year drew an estiritelijjd 15,000 people to pick up applicajgis for perhaps 20 positions. By OWEN MCNALLY Courant Jazz Critic Like a good vintage wine, the New Orleans Preservation Hall Jazz Band seems to get better with age a fact that the veteran group proved convincingly once again when it appeared Tuesday night at the Hartford Civic Center Exhibition Hall.

Although most of the band's seven musicians are over 65, the New Orleans music displayed a youthful verve and sound not for the aged but for the ages. The group's superstar is Willie J. Humphrey, a remarkable 80-year-old clarinetist who played with unflagging vigor and melodic invention. Humphrey displayed warm, lyrical tones in the lower, register on tunes like "His Eye Is on the Sparrow" (a song made popular by vocalist Ethel Waters) and "Memories." On fleet-footed flights through traditional jazz tunes like "Bourbon Street Parade" and "Hindustan," Humphrey swooped into the upper registers with amazing grace and admirable intonation. His choruses on "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" the hymn played by New Orleans street bands to-and-from the cemetery at-a traditional funeral were typical' of for bright, snappy melodic phrases.

Humphrey is a real old-style performer a skilled instrumentalist, a singer and even a bit of a hoofer and a most good-natured ham who was de- termined that all: 1,600 persons in the hall would have a good time. Alongside him was his younger brother, Percy Humphrey, a mere slip of a youth who, at 76, doubled on trumpet and vocals. The band also featured virtuoso banjo playing by Narvin Kimball, 71, who also sang and was the Amen Corner for -some rather churchly sounding vocals by the band's pianist, James "Sing" Miller, 67. Frank Parker provided the jazzy martial drum work which made Veteran Who Wrote of Vietnam Considered Likely Head of VA By MIKE FEINSILBER Associated Press i WASHINGTON Jarties WeUb; a decorated ex-Marine who wrote what been called the best about -the Vietnam war, is the leading candidate to head the Veterans Administration, high officials" said Wednesday. The appointment would end a fight "that has been going on since Ronald LReagan won the presidential election, tit pits the old-line veterans organizations, like the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, which jAndorsed Reagan, against younger -groups like Vietnam Veterans of America.

-m Leaders of the Vietnam veterans the fight involves more than who heads the third-largest agency in the They say that also at -stake is whether the VA gives priority to the needs of an aging population of World War II veterans or" to the rehabilitation and health problems of Viet- nam veterans. I Webb, an Annapolis graduate, is the author of "Fields of Fire" and a new novel, "A Sense of Honor," Bronx 7:10, 7:15, 9:30. Newington The Jazi Singer 7, 9:15. SOUTHINGTON i. Queen Plaza Raging Bull 7:45.

Showcase The Jazz Singer 7:30. STORRS College-Tess 8:15. Final Conflict 7:15, 9:30. 1 SUFFIELO Village Cinema Seems Like Old Times 7. TORRINGTON Holiday Cinemas Windwalker 7, 9.

Fort Apache, The Bronx 7:10, 9:25. Thief 7, 9:15. VERNON Cine 1 A 2 Altered Stales 7:10, Jazz Singer 7:05, 920 WALLINGFORD Center Fort Apache, The Bronx 7:30. WATERBURY nil Cinema 1, 2, 3 4 The Postman Always Rings Twice 1:30, 4, 7, 9:45. Thief 1, 4, 7:15, 9:45.

'All Night Long 1:15, 3:15, 5:15, 1,4:15, 8:15. WEST.HARTFORO Elm 1 1 1 Final Conflict 7, 9:10. Fun House 7:15, 9:15. The Movies-Windwalker ,12:30, 2:40, 4:45, 7:15, Roads 12, 4:50, 3:40, 5:25, 9:30. All Night Long 12, 1:40, 3:20, i.tluO.

i i sr, Plaza-The Jazz Singer 7M5: WEST SPRINGFIELD Showcase Texas Chain Saw Massacre 2, 7:40, 9:30. Tess 2, 8 Thief 2, 7:20, 9:40. American Pop 2, 7:30,:30 The Postman Always Rings Twice 2, 7:25, 9:45. Final Conflict 2, 7:30, 9 30 -Raging Bull 9:30. Nine to Five'2, 7:30, 2,7:30.

DRIVE INS Berlin Visions of Clair 7:15. That's Porno 8:35. Sometimes Sweet Susan 9:50. Hartford (Newington) reopens Friday. Manchester reopens Friday.

Mansfield reopens Friday. Pike (Newington) reopens Friday. Plainvillereopens Friday. Southington Fun House 7:30. The Island 9:05.

Airplane 7:30. Up in Smoke 9:05. (Schedules are published as received from the theaters. The Courant is not responsible for last-minute changes or incomplete listings.) Haven. 5 1 i Refurbished Carrousel Opens Saturday nwi Forty-eight wooden ponies will begin prancing to the sound of waltzes in Busimell Park Saturday at 11 a.m.

when the 1914 merry-gb-round re opens to the public. The Carrousel was restored during the winter by Tracey Cameron I XVx I ft 1 xw3k lfspl Dining Spectaculars Fit, Sat. All Day Sunday! Your Choice Down East Prime Rib First of ten days of action on the CPTV Auction block where you can get the best merchandise in town for prices you can afford! Lobster CPTVa ikucrnoi, With "Mil JUS" -Steamers- Both Incl. Soup du Jour, Choice of Potato Our Deluxe Salad Wagon! Price of Specials increase $1.00 At 7 p.m. April 2-11 Channels 24 Hartford.

49 Bridgeport, 65 New 61 Waterbury. 53 Norwich. JdMDCTCBFI Sni" GEM JEWELRY BUYS ALL COINS 1111 Bra IriMto to. tfothrttiri Flamingo Rood Blackmail and bitter divorce trap wife, husband and lover in a deadly triangle that ends in a murderous showdown. only two are left standing! i 1 TONtTI AT TOO.

9:33 A' "TK1XF" (B) 2TONITI 7:30, 9:15 ff' "SEX 2. "nTKUSP. Yr.