Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 8

2 Section 5 Oicago Tnbune, Monday November 26, 1984 Cliches take creeps cut of 'Nightmare' "A Nightmare on Elm Street" MINI-REVIEW: Same old screams WrttNn and (NikM by Wm Cmn; phottiyapha by Jacouaa hartfcin; muttc by Chart Bmttn; produced by Rood Shav; Htm Una Cmama rnM at Mood, ChMlnut bunion and euaying IniaMre. ftatad Ft THE CAST U. Thompson John Sawon Marga Trwmoaon Ron BtakMy Nancy Thompaon Haalhai Loonsmp Tina Gray Amanda Wyaa Rod Una that awful situation, and that's a refreshing antidote to such well-intentioned, doomsday entertainments as "The Day After." One of the girls and her boyfriend are spared because they were making out in a movie theater's projection room, protected by its steel walls. Most everyone else exposed to the comet in Southern California is reduced to orange dust. Says one of the girls about a classmate who was incinerated: "She was flunking algebra and trying to keep her parents from finding out.

This is a lucky break for her, I guess." As you can see it helps to have a slightly warped sense of humor to enjoy this script. The two young women in this film are earnest ana funny and cheerful by turns, and their characters are among the most positive images of young women on the screen this year. For starters, they're brighter than most of the guys in the picture. Catherine Mary Stewart, playing the more competent of the two girls, is particularly appealing. "Night of the Comet" takes these characters to an assortment of locations, none more pleasing than a deserted mall where the girls shop to their hearts' content.

You have got to admire a film that finds a bright side to a cosmic disaster. Rating for "Night of the 3 stars. By Gene Siskel Movie Critic ARDON THE PLEA for sympathy. but what could be more depressing than to spend Thanksgiving morning In a movie theater with five other adult males watching a teenage girl terrorized for 90 minutes by a phantom killer with a molten face and knives for fingers? That was my expedience last Thursday seeing "Nightmare on Elm Street," the latest thriller directed by the aptly named Wes Craven, who offers little of the joy here that made his last film, "Swamp Thing," such an unexpected delight. In "Nightmare on Elm Street" the tired gimmick is whether it's all a dream or whether there really exists a creepy guy trying to do in' a quartet of teenagers.

But enough sequences in "Nightmare on Elm Street" turn out to be dreams so that early on we sit back in defense of the film's terror, not wanting to be suckered into being fearful, knowing that sooner or later someone is going to wake up and rub their eyes. Another annoyance aside from the ennui generated by seeing yet another scantily clad young woman run in terror from the killer and the camera is that director Craven borrows many of his ideas from other terror films. We spot the "walls with claws" from Roman Po-lanski's "Repulsion," the convulsive girl jumping around on a bed from William Friedkin's "The Exorcist," and a creature surfacing in a bathtub between a girl's legs from a mad-slasher film, the title of which escapes me. And, of course, the film has a kicker, which has become a boring horror film cliche for years. "Night of the Comet" MUCH MORE entertaining Is Thorn Eberhardt's "Night of the Comet," a science-fiction comedy with a punk veneer, tracking three young people, including two Valley Girls, as they cope with worldwide devastation caused by a passing comet.

"Night of the Comet" basically laughs at Ronee Blakley stars in a less-than-thrilling "Nightmare on Elm Street." Pitiful cast should go undercover after 'Night Patrol' "Night Patrol" MInl-revlew: Officer, arrest that movie! Producad by Bill Onco and dlraMad by Jackla Kong from a acmanplay by Murray Langston, Bill Lavay, Oaco and Kong. A Naw World Plcluraa ralaaae at tha Unltad Artlate, Watar Tower and outlying thaatera. Ratad R. THE CAST Malvln Murray Langaton Sua Unda Blair Kant Pat Paulaan Rata Java P. Morgan Dr.

Zlaglar Jack Rilay Capt. Lawla Billy Barry Tha rapa victim Pat Mortta Edith Lorl Sutton Murray Langston, "The Unknown Comic" himself, plays the cop and the saloon comic with an irritating, smarmy manner unknown since the days of early Jerry Lewis. HIS PARTNERS in crime include the droopy-eyed Pat Paulsen as a sexually insatiable veteran of the night patrol, Jaye P. Morgan looking very hard as the comic's manager, Billy Baity as a lewd little police -captain and Linda Blair as a prim policewoman who turns out to be a bombshell by wearing a tacky outfit that shows off a rather too well-fed figure. Pat Morita, the comic who gained some acting respect by his performance as the wise Japanese instructor of "The Karate Kid," loses it all here in a brainless bit as a pipsqueak rape victim.

They all must have been desperate for a job when they signed on for this one. i The movie was directed by Jackie Kong, whose previous film was "The Being," a horror story about a creature from a toxic-waste dump that terrorizes a small town. According to her biography, "Kong's love of film and inclination toward directing were fostered at age 11 by the work of Akira Kurosawa, Satyajit Ray and Ingmar Bergman." That is funnier than anything in her movie. By Richard Christiansen Entertainment editor IGHT PATROL" appears to have been made I i I ky subnormal persons weaned on "Blazing Saddles," "Animal House" and "Police Acad-emy." Those movies, however, had at least some talent involved. This one exists only on jokes that are either bad or in bad taste or both.

Its story, put together as if the shots had been picked up at random from the floor of the editing room, concerns a bumbling rookie policeman who doubles at night as "The Unknown Comic," cracking jokes in Los Angeles comedy clubs while wearing a paper bag over his head. The great majority of his jokes, both on duty and on stage, are concerned with mammary glands, private parts, bodily functions and every kind of sexual activity. One scene in a greasy spoon restaurant is totally gross-out city. "What kind of soup do you have?" asks the policeman. "Cream of washroom," replies the hairy waiter.

THE FEW REMAINING gags that aren't vulgar are simply dumb. Example: The Unknown Comic, talking to his psychiatrist, explains that he's a lucky man because he i I 1 Linda Blair in "Night Patrol." has a great manager named Kate and is in love with a beautiful woman named Edith. The psychiatrist tells him, "Then you can have your Kate and Edith, too." He waits for the groans and ughs to subside from the audience, then looks straight out and snarls, "Ugh, yourself." The Unknown Comic also believes that beer makes a man smart, because, he says, "It made Bud wiser." These one-liners are thrown out in one quick scene after another, apparently in the hope that they'll eventually come up with at least one good joke. No such luck. Sandy Duncan conquers Broadway again By Leslie Bennetts stylish, and there was a sort of fascination in watching her poses; she had a certain panache.

I have a different energy onstage. I think I have a feisty quality; I don't play quite as much of the glamor, the aloof ice queen. I'm friskier." Whatever they feel about that interpretation, audiences are likely to be charmed by the similarities between the real-life love story of Duncan and Correia and the characters they play. "There are a lot of parallels between our lives and this show," Duncan says. "Edith is established, and she meets this guy who's striving.

Don and I met when he was a dancer on my television special. Doing this show together, with the added aspect of our being married, there is the joy of that for us. You grow up and get married-it's the American dream." New York Times News Service mous swimmer Duncan was her usual tiny, kinetic self, in dancing trim and perky as ever. "I couldn't sit around thinking, 'I'll never get into she says. "I'just nad todoit.r' 1 Keeping things all in the family, her costar is her husband, Don Correia, who took over for Tommy Tune.

NO ONE SAID it would be easy, of course. "I don't know what sleep is anymore," Duncan says. "I can remember." The 38-year-old actress, whose most recent Broadway appearance was as Peter Pan, immediately put her own stamp on the role, not to mention the dressing room, where Twiggy's mauve carpeting has been ripped out and replaced by the fire-engine red Duncan deemed more cheerful. "I'm doing it differently," she says of her role. "Twiggy is very fN Fl EW YORK Eight months I ago, Sandy Duncan was nine II months pregnant, 50 pounds overweight and thinking about retiring From the theater.

Six months ago, she underwent serious abdominal surgery and was forbidden to exercise by her doctor for the entire summer. Two months ago, she was still 20 pounds overweight, horrendously out of shape and panic-stricken at the prospect of starring on Broadway come November. Because by then, of course, she had committed herself to yet another responsibility, despite the fact that she now has two children under the age of 2. "Diapers," she says grimly, "both of them." But when Nov. 1 rolled around and it was time to take over the role vacated by Twiggy in "My One And Only" that of Edith, the fa "vjJk I iCi TOMORROW 7:30 PM (2Ty thru Sun.

-j5cvT DEC2 o'k: C.I.biatVllLlJ I Frankie Goes to Hollywood in, uh, style i By Lynn Van Matre Pop music critic nsr-J ONIGHT WE witnessed, if the sinking of the I II Bismarck, quipped Frankie Goes to Hollywood's lead singer, Holly Johnson, to a restive crowd Saturday night at the Bismarck Theater. Johnson wasn't kidding. About 45 minutes earlier, shortly after the British band had begun its set, the front portion of the theater floor had caved in when a support near the front of the stage collapsed under the weight of the surging crowd. Nobody was hurt, and the tion soon was brought under control. The crowd moved back, barricades were erected, and the show proceeded.

Jam Productions, which presented the show, promised refunds to concertgoers who didn't want to wait around; about 300 people out of 1,800 took advantage of the offer. The promoters and the band handled things as well as anyone could expect. But it goes without saying that it's hardly the best way for a band to start off a concert particularly a show on a tour they hope will help launch them in the Frankie Goes to Hollywood the name comes from a headline on a vintage magazine article about Frank Sinatra, a pop band with a thickly layered, beat-heavy sound and some vaguely suggestive song lyrics, became the hottest group in Britain last summer, thanks in large part to the fact that their first single, "Relax," was banned on the BBC due to its sexual overtones. That several band members are acknowledged gays added welcome publicity-generating notoriety. The band's followup single, the antiwar "Two Tribes, was an instant successes were the slogan-bearing "FRANKIE SAY" T-shirts, which were snapped up immediately by the extraordinarily fad-prone youthful British populace.

FRANKIE SAY, among other things, "Lust plus fear plus love plus faith times Frankie equals some kind of bang." The question is, Does America care all that much what Frankie say? Released in the U.S. earlier this year, "Relax" only made it to the middle regions of the best-selling singles chart. Now, having just made their album debut with the double-disc "Welcome to the Pleasure Dome," Frankie is making a more serious attempt to seduce American audiences. Live, the band's chief charms WORLD PREMIERE! Chicago Stadium PERFORMANCES NOV. 27 7 30PM1 Wed.NOV.

Thu. NOV. 29....10 30AMt 730PM1 Frl. NOV.30....10:30AMt. Sat DEC1 Sun.

DEC 2 130PM 530PM SAVE $2.00 On Kids Under 121 2 WAYS TO Frankie Goes to Hollywood are their powerful beat, which verges on the tribal sound, and lanky singer Paul Rutherford, whose uninhibited dancing and extremely tight trousers make him far more of a visual focal point than relatively tame lead singer Johnson. As for the "suggestive" lyrics, most of the words tend to get lost in the layers of sound, though Frankie's sexual orientation is hardly in doubt. The show was opened by a series of performances by female impersonators who lipsynched songs made famous by Tina Turner and Bette Midler, and a female impersonator who delivered a barrage of vulgar jokes featuring hostile "humor" invariably aimed at women. At the end of the show, which featured a reprise performance of "Relax," the female impersonators returned to the stage to strike suggestive poses with members of the band. In between, the band performed material from "Pleasure Dome," with the title song and a cover version of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" coming across as particularly, effective.

It's to Frankie's credit that the show built as well as it did, given the break in momentum early on. But while the band is fun, in a car-toony, Village People sort of way, one is left marveling, once again, at the British pop audience's apparently unlimited capacity to be sold "style" over substance time and time again. P.T. BARNUM SAY: Lookin' good, Frankie! NOTES: Rock group Chicago headlines Dec. 8 at the UIC Pavilion to benefit the Terry Kath Memorial Scholarship Fund at De Paul University's School of Music.

The band established the fund in 1982 in memory of Kath, an original group member who died in an accidental shooting in 1978. A number of members of Chicago attended De Paul before founding the band I known originally as the Big Thing and later the Chicago Transit Authority in 1967. The Friday Morning Quarterback, a radio programmer's tipsheet, reports Ron Wood is telling friends that the Rolling Stones will tour in 1985. John Denver has embarked on a concert tour of the Soviet Union, GET YOUR TICKETS IN PERSON: CHICAGO STADIUM BOX OFFICE All TICKETRON Outlets Including SEARS. FLIP SIDE RECORDS.

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