The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 268

CALENDAR THE WATCHER': ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL ALMOST mWw life Ziegfeld Theater (tickets were $4.50) showed a box-office return of only $40,000. In comparison, when Disney replaced "The Watcher" with "Fantasia" it netted $50,000 in the first week. Gene Shalit of NBC's "Today" show, said, 'The Watcher in the Woods' is not worth watching." And the New York Times' Vincent Canby, said, "I challenge even the most indulgent fans to give a coherent translation of what passes for an explanation at the end. The movie's metaphysics, bogus anyway, are not helped by the appearance of a creature that looks as if it had been stolen from a Chinese New Year's parade." A source said several Disney employees A MASTERPIECE "'v In fact, a "reverse prejudice" militates against good-looking older actresses. Connolly told the story of an actress-friend who has kept her looks (and figure) well into her '60s but who dons a white "old lady" wig for interviews so that youthful casting-directors will "understand" her.

"They feel comfortable when you're old," said Adams. "The bad period is when you're around 45." "That's because they can't deal with the sexuality of their own mothers," said Mac-Lachlan. Hilda Haynes said tears come into her eyes when she put on the "gunny sack" she wears to interviews "so I can be what they want me to be." Why does she subject herself to such an ordeal? "I had a dream," she said. "But you do what you have to do in order to survive." Survival, in an art which is also an industry, means power. And power is not only an art-form in itself but a full-time job: Nolan has been a politician for the past six years.

Now she is going back to work as an actress. "It's a parallel action," she remarked. "We have to figure out a way to get more employment, where by our work we can continue to support other women in this society. That's why actresses have become more visible in the labor movement and in ERA." Stars, who have the power to pick and develop their own projects, have been largely invisible in both areas. The vast majority of actresses who, according to Sumi Haru, chair of the SAG Minorities Committee, comprise the "bottom 5 of the budget," need more women at the decision-making levels of the industry before they can expect equitable employment.

Studios point proudly to the number of women they have hired in "creative vice president" positions. But many actresses, such as Haru, see them as tokens. To Connolly, the key is the producers. Technically, the TV networks are not allowed to produce, which includes the process of casting; although Connolly said, "That's a joke," i.e., the network has enormous influence over the producer's choices. "If they stood up for the right to cast their own shows (against the familiarity rating), they could make a lot of changes," said Connolly, adding, in the next breath, "But of course they won't" The producers' guild negotiations contain certain "guidelines" for the portrayal of women onscreen.

But here SAG treads on "creative freedoms" guaranteed by the First Amendment a guarantee the male enclave of the industry seems swift to invoke when threatened. In the end, public attitudes will probably make the most important difference: "The baby boom is growing up," Peters said hopefully. "The over-30s are in the majority now. The minute the networks see this as a viable audience, they will address themselves to it." Will the '80s, after all the fanfare of the sexual revolution, be as repressive a time for women as the '50s? "Not if we get shows on," said Adams, now producing stage plays with actress Ellen Geer. "If we can get those nicey-nicey parts and twist them around as actresses, if we can be subversive and play whole women I do believe there are people who can be reached out there.

It's not much when you're clamoring for a revolution, but it's Le, Roberta Haynes as an actress in the '40s. Today she's a film executive. worked in production for six years. Returning to Hollywood she got a job assisting a director and sold a 90-minute script to ABC. Nothing was produced, but her writing opened doors for her in story development, where she gradually worked her way up.

"It was very different seven years ago. People said, 'You want to be an executive, go work at the May Today, even with executive status, Haynes can't commit herself to "women's stories," even though they are her major interest. "It's hard. Women see things differently from men. We have to sell to the networks, where the decisions are made by men.

Right now it's very difficult to move a woman's project. The networks have 'The Women's Room' and that's their 'women's just like they have their their 'social conscience' story, etc." But she is confident that "things will get better" as more women get into the business end of the business and produce. "I have to be positive," she said. "The women in the industry Renee Valenti, Chris Foster at Columbia are all trying to make stories, not just about women, but about humanity. If there are enough of us, something will happen." Haynes pointed to the tremendous number of single women supporting families as an untapped TV and filmgoing audience.

But right now, she admitted there is a major reactionary trend in the studios purchasing period love stories, in which the women invariably get carried off and raped. "It's hard to find contemporary love stories," she complained. "There's so much hostility between men and women. People have very little love in their lives." "'Kramer vs. Kramer' is the closest thing to a love story we've got," according to Haynes, "and that's a love story between father and son." But "Kramer" may open the door for more stories dealing with relationships, not because it is about "humanity," but "because it's making a lot of money." BY ANDREW EPSTEIN Will Mary Poppins once again bring laughter, joy and happiness into the hearts of America? Will "Mary Poppins" the movie restore a shattered confidence on the Disney Studios lot after recent creative disasters? First, there was the sci-fi epic, "The Black Hole," which cost $20 million yet is "anticipated" to bring in $25 million in domestic rentals.

Then there was the goofy "Midnight Madness," that was torn apart by critics, went over budget during production (final cost was between $4 million and $5 million) and brought in just over $1 million in rentals. Now "The Watcher in the Woods," a $7.1 million suspense mystery starring Bette Davis was yanked off Disney's summer release schedule in order to rewrite and reshoot the ending. This was the movie that Disney executives were bubbling about. In fact, talk on the Disney lot was that it would be "the greatest Disney movie ever made." Said one source, "For months, people were going around here calling it a masterpiece." Even the original ad copy labeled it a "masterpiece of suspense." But after Disney employees saw the final print prior to its staggered release in 600 to 700 theaters, the reaction was one of desperation. They urged Ron Miller, head of production for Disney, to pull it back and tag on a new ending.

Test screenings were held and the findings were negative, initial box-office returns were dismal, first reviews vicious. Finally, after some major theater owners voiced their disappointment and surprise at the movie, Disney pulled it and replaced it with "Mary Poppins" in the theaters committed to "The Watcher." Official statements by Disney were candid, alluding to problems with "certain technical aspects of the film, particularly the ending." Miller noted, "Nine-tenths of it is a very exciting, suspenseful film that scared the bejeezus out of people. It was a very shocking movie. But the last five or six minutes were very disappointing to audiences." Said one Disney employee, Miller was urged to adjust the ending because it "showed too much of what the Watcher is. "All through the movie you wonder what the Watcher is going to be, and their interpretation the people just didn't buy.

They wouldn't buy the whole film if they didn't like the ending. Everyone inside, except Ron, said we shouldn't show anything of the Watcher. He was trying to show a visible monster kind of thing; an alien being of sorts." Miller attributed the problem of the film to the fact that "most of the film is a mysterious, suspenseful movie but ends with a sci-fi twist. We're now looking for a more clever ending." Test screenings were held on Disney's Burbank lot and confirmed the fears of skeptical employees. One Disney employee said, "People enjoyed the movie on the whole but said the ending ruined it." The picture opened in New York which was a mistake as well, said sources, and the box office confirmed that.

In two weeks of intensive promotion and advertising, the VI Promotional flyer for "Watcher." are currently submitting ideas to the producer "although they're not necessarily assigned," to do so. Producer Miller said the same team that wrote the original screenplay will work the rewrite. He expects the film to "hopefully" be in the theaters by October of this year after the ending is re-shot. After the unsuccessful two weeks in New York, Disney decided to screen the film for some exhibitors, "after we made some necessary repairs," said distribution head Ludwig. When asked what differences there were between the ending the distributors saw and wha't New York critics and moviegoers witnessed, Ludwig said, "One didn't work and the other didn't work." The exhibitors' reaction, according to Miller and Ludwig, ran concurrent with what they'd been hearing all along; the movie was good but the ending fell flat Ludwig said, "They felt like someone pulled the plug.

Nobody said they wouldn't touch it, but they got the feeling they wouldn't get good results. "But we're the type of company that will face up to the facts. It'd be more embarrassing if we went out and fell on our kees-ters. So we're going for a brand new one. "When Ron came to me and said, 'Irving, we've got to withdraw the I winced.

But I feel we can better the picture." Miller said, "Rather than take a $7 million negative (loss), we withdrew it and to deal with what is really the matter." Said Adams, "It comes to us so deeply, through our church, which says, 'Let our women be silent in church, for they are not permitted to "Men wrote the Bible," Nolan put in. Like the feature-film whiz kids, the decision-making males at the networks are often very young, which may add to the prejudice against older started work on a new ending." Calendar Movies, Page 22.