The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • 96

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1973 She Atlanta gourrml and CONSTITUTION 1 1-F Burns, Matthau Shine in 'Sunshine Boys' In a world hooked on hate, love can be a deadly habit. first time. Even in the movies he made with Gracie, he had the name George Burns. His last film. "Honolulu," was made for MGM 36 years ago.

Rated PG, "The Sunshine Boys" is playing at Loews Tara. and this may be his grumpiest role yet. On the television show, they do "The Doctor Will See You Now," an authentic vaudeville comedy sketch. At 79, Burns is acting the part of a character with a name other than his for the unexcelled sense of comic timing. His old sureness is still evident in "The Sunshine Boys," and he is likely to be nominated for an Academy Award.

Matthau is doing well with his career as a comic grump, Thcvte Sta'J tlx call hct If ttx body hot-. call bo: 2:30 4:50 9:15 'SITS TOO MM WOMM fM INT 0W ifci; lai color W2 MM 1 By FARNUM GRAY Connitution Enlwiainmaflt Writer George Burns and Walter Matthau, playing two testy, absent-minded old men, make "The Sunshine Boys" the best film yet of a Neil Simon play. In 43 years as a vaudeville comedy team, the two characters developed great professional respect for each other. They also developed a mutual irritation that grew to intolerable proportions. They have not spoken to each other since Al Lewis, played by Burns, retired 12 years before.

Walter Matthau, aged 20 years by makeup, plays 72-year-old Willy Clark, who still tries to get work as an actor, although he Infuriates directors. His nephew Ben (Richard Benjamin), has the misfortune of being an agent for performers. Thus, he feels obliged to keep seeking work for his uncle. Ben lands Willy a job on a television special about the history of comedy. The catch mm irwfflffl I is that he must work with his old partner.

Ben tries to get the Irrascl-ble Willy and the wary Al together for the show, which will pay them $10,000. The jokes are based on this rather limited situation, which can become tiresome. However, there are lots of laughs. Burns, of course, really was part of an old comedy-duo. His partner was his wife, the late Gracie Allen.

Burns liked to give the im- Siression that Gracie got the aughs. But despite his lack of ostentation, he was one of the great comedians, with an Ifcver Here! '1 ft 4aMm a avaa! VV 1 IK'vn idMiiy a I 'X ft racket of all! I ft She's a the i fascinatin' i assassinatin' hiah-livin', Wy fun-lovin chick! I s' tfrlllllMI uijiiu.v Brier tKpHd I m. i ift in I mr mm mmmr mmmmr ms I jr. jr 'Wm Self-Belief Makes 'Distance9 Likeable By RICHARD EDER NEW YORK (NYT) Sometimes "Distance" is awkward and sometimes it is misconceived, but it had a central virtue lacking in a number of more elaborate and to use a horrible word cinematic films around. It wants to be made.

It believes in itself, in its story, in its characters; and that belief pulls viewers into it. Sometimes they are pulled too hard, or in a certain embarrassment because the sequence is obvious or excessive or telegraphed in advance. But self-belief is an arousing quality, especially at a time when an extreme of baroque weariness gives movies such as "Three Days of the Condor" or Sam Peckinpaw's "Killer Elite" the hopeless feeling that they are meant for an empty theater. "Distance" is set in a Georgia Army post in the mid-1950s. Its protagonist is Sergeant Home, a black man whose natural force, and ability have gone into building himself a shelter against the humiliations of being a Southern black of his time.

The Army gives Home a place where his energy and intelligence can be channeled and protected. Not fulfilled, though; here the haven becomes the prison. He is too good for his job, too much a perfectionist, and he is held to the company of men to whom he knows he is superior. The rigidity that is Home's protection makes him a first-rate master sergeant, but it has made a torment of his private life. He has brought over a German wife, 4 played gracefully and touchingly by Eija Pokkinen.

He loves her or has loved her the failure of the film quite to define their relationship is a weakness but he has gradually closed himself to her. Her blond beauty, her gentleness and devotion are a lure and a goad. He needs to hurt her and be hurt by her. He burns like Othello, his fixation on his wife encompassing everything except the ability to see her as she is. In fact, the tragic main plot is too pat and stagy, but it does have a use.

It provides a gravely moving current that allows the film's real jewels its fresh-' ness, its lovely characterizations, its splendid acting to be set in something other than their own self-consciousness This is the first full-length feature by Anthony Lover and George Coe. Their initial effort was a short, "The Dove," a charming and terribly funny takeoff on Ingmar Bergman. COLUMBIA PICTURES mm. AARON LOVES ANGELA-, MOSES GUNN -KEVIN HOOKS-ERNESTINE JACKSON IRENE CARA ROBERT HOOKS, a ROBERT J. ANDERSONGORDON PARKS.

ffi.UOYO S. GILMOUR, JR. firm ROGER KRUNO. EDWARD R. DOWNE, JR.

GERALD SANFORD FEUQANO-JANNA MERLYN FEUCIANO FELIQANO m. R03ERT J. ANDERSON GORDON PARKS, JR fin' iiHiiturSl iKalso co-starring iXT sffcvL( Godfrey Cambridge Thalmus Rasulala Ted Lange EartnaKrtt 'MTIiijlTyt STARTS TODAY 2.30 4:15 6 00 7:45 9:30 STARTING TODAY 1:30,4:10,6:10 Il 1 I OO, 4i 1:00, 1 11, FORGOTTEN WILDERNESS HUMAN FACTOR okKO) and IPG) RIDING TALL RETURN OF THE DRAGON 1 DIAMONDS ON NAKED FLESH ndKI DOUBLE IMITATION LET'S DO IT AGAIN McQ Why is THE VIOLGMCE AMD GUCPHNG2 LG AVE YOU MAtlGUIG OH T112 EDGES 07 YOUH GOAT. George Segal's bird? (3 Hi J. i ilJ'V" A i 5r WNO OC UURENTIIS PRESENTS ROBERT REDFORDFAYE DUJIAVAY CLIFF ROBERTSONMAX VON SYDOV IN A STANLEY SCHNEIDER PROOUCTION A SYDNEY POLLACK FILM RI II IT I I Because he's Sam Spade, Jt and his falcon's worth a fortune! "Vet 0 (Tf-vfi Artists trtertanmen Ccjrnpiex.

inc RrcxJxIon JOHN HOUSEMAN ink rOAMD ORUSINwm JAMESGMOY Klwi.lOnEN20SEMPLE,JR.wOAIORYF1EL Also Starring mn. STANLEY SCHNEIDER cweno at SYONEY POLLACK PANAMSION RlRESTRiCTEOftS-l technicolor a paramount reiuh cow SEIOViHG Ptoduced by MARTIN LHGMAN and MARTIN ELFAND DieOHt frSONEV LlMT- Fifrn Ed Kg TfQftmCR 'frcmVWJRBR0SOAWARNtR C0(fCAIOCC0MW STARTS STARTS TCDLBAY 3861 Peachtree 237-6517 I2M2S. Cobb Drive 435-8749 CaUMBI A PICTURES Presents a RASTAR PICTURES Production GEORGE SEGAL in THE BLACK BIRD co-starring STEPHANE AUDRAN LIONEL STANDER and LEE PATRICK Screenplay by DAVID GILER Story by DON M. MANKIEWICZ and GORDON COTLER Music by JERRY FIELDING Executive Producer GEORGE SEGAL Producers; MICHAEL LEVEE And LOU LOMBARDO Directed by DAVID GILER 3:005:15 7:30 9:45 3:00 5:15 7:30 9:45 mm? jaaniOi 300 5:25 7:50 10 1 5' 2 30 4:50 7.25 9.45 3 00 52575010:15 14j9 Oxford Kd. J3-8b66 1:30 3:305:30 7:309:40 2 41111 St 1- I 2 30 4 50 7:25 945 4914 Lower Roswell Rd.

916133 3131 CampbHiton Road 3448870 2 3 0 4 50 7.25 9.45 T.xi.tiM MliilS 7.30, 11:36 3:35 5:45 )M 0.0O 4:45 7:00 ,1.