The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • 85

I I Vv I 1 IT l'nS ill piiiiili I' i.n iMmirW 1 i aA. ai I Xr ysy 1 I SECTION Cfje Atlanta 2oumal THE ATLANTA CONSTITUTION FRIDAY, November 25, 1983 MOVIES Thanksgiving weekend is a good time to take yourself, your kids, your whole family to the movies. The big opening this week is the wonderful comedy drama "forms of Endearment," starring Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger and Jack Nicholson. The two actresses play mother and daughter and the film follows their relationship from womb to tomb. Nicholson has one of his movie-stealing supporting roles as a hell-raising astronaut who lives next door.

The rest of the supporting cast includes John Lithgow, who portrayed Roberta Muldoon in "The World According to Garp," and newcomer Jeff Daniels, who used to be a member of the Circle Repertory Company in New York. A few family favorites have returned to local screens. "Annie," starring Aileen Quinn as the curly-mopped orphan who steals the heart of Daddy Warbucks, will have matinee showings this weekend at Lenox, Northlake and Akers Mill. I) "The Black Stallion," the best boy-meets-horse movie of all time, stars Kelly Reno as a boy who is shipwrecked with a beautiful horse called the Black. When the two are rescued, Kelly wants to turn the Black into a racehorse.

The film will have matinee showings Sunday and Monday at the Excelsior Cinema Piih HnnhlA-hillAfl with 'TIRU3 OF ENDIARMEMT: Debra Winger and Shirley MacLaine portray daughter and mother in an evolving relationship. Debra Winger an actress with plenty of presence Shirley Jonet "The Black Stallion Stars in 'Oklahoma. Retumi." The Columbia is showing "Oklahoma," the lilting Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, which stars Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones as the sweethearts. Charlotte Greenwood gets to do her high-kick specialty as Aunt Eller and Gloria Grahame is charming as Ado Annie, the girl who "can't say no." Other best bets for weekend movie viewing include "The Big Chill," which boasts a strong ensemble cast in this clever comedy about college pals reunited a decade later following the death of one of their friends. The film is playing a several theaters.

And Peter O'Toole turns in an outstanding performance (he was nominated for a best-actor Oscar) as an aging movie swashbuckler in "My Favorite Year," showing at the North 85. her widowed and watched her little girl Emma grow up into Debra Winger. Emma subsequently marries a boyish English professor named Flap Horton (Jeff Daniels), a match Aurora feels was not made in heaven. "You're not special enough to overcome a bad marriage," she says, managing to insult her daughter and her new son-in-law in one fell swoop. After a honeymoon consummated to the tune of "Officer Krupke" from "West Side Story," the Hortons move to Des Moines where he has affairs and she has children.

Meanwhile, back home in Houston, Mom pats prospective suitors on the head and admonishes them, ''Please don't worship me until I've earned it" But love is just a yard away. Next door lives Garrett Breedlove (Jack Nicholson), a self-described "astronaut and swimmer." Garrett is as good as his name. A slightly silly man with an insecure need for Corvettes and curvaceous young things, he also embodies what George Bernard Shaw called The Life Force. He and Aurora launch a hilariously mismatched affair. "You bring out the devil in me," he leers.

What she really does is bring out the humanity and vise versa. There's a good deal more to the plot the movie runs almost IVi hours but in the interest of space and By Scott Cain Staff Writer BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. Debra Winger has the most unmistakable female voice since Tallulab Bankhead. The register is basso-profundo. Hers words crackle, as if from permanent hoarseness.

She's loud, too, like a mighty church organ. When she speaks, you think glasses in the room are sure to crack. Yet she is not noisy in a boisterous way. She is lightly effervescent, not overwhelming. She is gentle, friendly and eager to please.

Rich, true-to-life Terms' among year's best films A REVIEW By Eleanor Ringel Staff Writer The magnificent new movie "Terms of Endearment" demands to be taken on its own terms. And those terms change as it goes along. This is a smart, funny, emotionally devastating picture that refuses to pander to an audience by giving it merely the expected. 'Terms of Endearment" begins Lie the funniest "Mary Tyler Moore" episode you could imagine, which makes sense since writerdirector James Brooks wrote some of the funniest "Mary Tyler Moore" episodes. Then it gets richer and more real until the screen overflows with the sweet sad fullness of life.

In no uncertain terms, "Terms of Endearment" is one of the best films of the year. The picture sweeps us off our feet with a dazzling, dive-right-in beginning. By the time the credits are over, we've met Aurora Greenway (Shirley MacLaine), seen COKCERT5CLUDS The Atlanta Symphony Pope is giving jazz fans something to be thankful for this weekend by offering keyboardist Ramsey Lewis tonight and vocalist Nancy Wilson Saturday night at the Fox Theatre (8:30 p.m., 881-1977 or and 892-2414). 3P See TERMS The 28-year-old actress now has the movie colony at her feet. Her new picture, "Terms of Endearment," has the makings of a blockbuster.

Miss Winger plays Emma Horton, a young woman who has a loving but stormy relationship with her quirky mother, Aurora, Clayed by Shirley Mac-aine. Both are being mentioned for best-actress Oscars. ''''j For the rock fans, the weekend's best offerings include Gregg Allman tonight at the Strand Cinema Pub in Marietta (7:30 p.m., 18, 422-9612) and a farewell-Atlanta show by the Athens band Pylon tonight at the Agora Concert Hall (8:30 p.m., $6, 874-7500 or 872-4672). Give a listen to the Out A Hand band tnnioht nr Qotnrilsu Gregg Allman hopes for joy Singer hits comeback trail after rocky years will By Rust DeVault Staff Writer 1 he tragedy of my life is the death of my brother." Those are the barely audible words Gregg night at Baker Street Performs Soturday at Fox. (5830 RosweU Road( nQ cover, 256-3973) or to the XL's tonight or Saturday night at the Moonshadow Saloon (1880 Johnson Road, $2, 881-6666).

If you'd rather laugh off the Thanksgiving food, Pat Paulsen will be dealing with his political aspirations and other weighty matters at the Punch Line through Sunday night (280 Hildebrand Drive, $7, 252-5233), and Atlanta's Wits End Players debut their holiday show tonight at the Hotel York's Plush Room (times vary, $8, 874-9200). Ruts Dt Vault I -A IS i I James Brooks wanted Winger "Terms of Endearment" to Sheso eer woman, be basically comic, the movie pulls out all stops, dealing with illness, infidelity and estrangement in heartbreaking terms. Said Miss Winger about her role: "When I felt I was getting too melodramatic, I'd bum the theme from 'Love I just didn't want to go that far." She did, however, lose 12 pounds so that she would appear emaciated in a hospital sequence. "It wasn't exactly my most glamorous role. I haven't had that yet," Miss Winger says with the same kind of yuck-yuck laugh she used in "Cannery Row." Miss Winger became involved with 'Terms of Endearment" much later than Miss MacLaine, who waited two years for Brooks to obtain financing.

But Miss Winger was involved in casting other roles. "At this point, I feel I have to be," she says matter-of-factly. She is credited with helping get Jack Nicholson to take a showy but secondary role as Miss MacLaine's roguish neighbor. The fact Jhat Nicholson was willing to let his paunch hang out was an "inspiration" to Miss Winger. "I couldn't imagine anyone else in the role.

He has a childlike enthusiasm for the work. It gives me faith." From the beginning, she felt they were kindred spirits. "You recognize it when someone approaches it the same way you do. I can talk to Jack." Miss Winger's says she drew on her familial experience in portraying Emma. "The basics are always the same.

Love is unconditional between a mother and daughter. You either love someone or you don't. My mother knows I love her and I know that she loves me. I'm very close to my family and it's gotten closer. You become hip to the fact that you need that in your life." Miss Winger describes herself as a "one a year" movie actress.

"I can't possibly work back to back." In March, she will be seen in "Mike's Murder," a long-in-the-editing-room drama filmed prior to "Terms of Endearment." Director Jim Bridges, who worked with Miss Winger in her breakthrough movie, "Urban Cowboy," wrote "Mike's Murder" with Miss Winger in mind. She plays "a middle-class young lady who works in a bank and gets involved with a guy in the drug world." When he is murdered, she seeks the truth. "This is a film that's close to my heart." She thinks of "Urban Cowboy" as ancient history, but obliges with a summary of events connected with the 1 tSL Allman used to break a three-minute silence and answer the question of what he'd like to change about his life. It's a question that sends Allman into a motionless reverie and brings a nervous hush into his 26th-floor hotel suite at Colony Square during an October visit to Atlanta for a benefit conceit Allman, who performs tonight at the Strand Cinema 4 Pub in Marietta, doesn't enjoy interviews because he knows such questions are inevitable and he doesn't know any way to answer them except honestly. But he's tired of the what-might-have-beens, and Earticularly tired of reliving the downhill course taken the Allman Brothers Band after Duane Allman, his guitarist brother, died in a motorcycle crash in Macon in October 1971.

Allman, 35, would much rather talk about the new music he's writing and playing. The visit to Atlanta was a welcome, unpaid break during which Allman and Danny Toler, the guitarist in his new band, got away from the new music they are introducing during a November-December tour of the East and West coasts. Allman enjoyed performing and the crowd's response to his brief, acoustic set of familiar songs at the benefit at the Colony Square Hotel. "Sure," Allman said, shaking back his long, blond hair after returning to his suite, "I still enjoy the old music and the fans still like it, but that's not enitrely where I am today." He wants it understood that there's more to Gregg Allman, personally and professionally, than the well-documented past. He'd like to talk about things other than the deaths, divorces, drinking and drugs that have clawed at his soul and career.

First, there was the death of his brother, followed a year later by the death of Berry Oakley, the Allman Brothers' bass player, also in a motorcycle wreck. Then came the failures of three marriages (including a shortlived one to singer Cher) and problems with alcohol and drugs. Even if the band, arguably the best blues-rock group the South has produced, had survived those problems, there were more. Some members, notably guitarist Dicky Betts, started pursuing solo careers and the gulf between THEATER The Alliance Theatre and its downstairs cousin, the Studio Theatre, will be bustling for the next several days. On Saturday night, the Alliance mainstage will strike up the band for preview performances of Meredith Willson's "The Music Man," the ail-American musical comedy ($5.50, prices will increase after the opening Wednesday night; 892-2414).

Tonight, the Studio Theatre will open its double bill by Atlanta's Southern Theater Conspiracy. The first show is "Tent Meeting," a black comedy that will alternate in repertory with performances of the STC's satirical "Some Things You Need to Know Before the World Ends: An Evsning with the llluminiti" (either show, 898-1137). Besides the show at the Alliance Studio Theatre, the Southern Theater Conspiracy is continuing "The Three Stooges Meet Cleopatra" at Nexus Theatre. Cleopatra is marked for assassination, but the Stooges come to her rescue in this manic comedy directed by Eddie Lee. Jack Wilkes as Curly and Don Finney as Finney Imhotep, a hysterical historical commentator, are very funny ($5, 17; 688-2500).

The Theatrical Outfit has extended performances of its successful production of the historical comedy "The Lion in Winter" through Dec. 10 ($8, $10; 872-0665). Marietta's Theatre in the Square is giving a good run to Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia tWoolf?" ($6, 17.50; 422-8369). 1 LANNA SWINOLERStaff QREQQ ALLMAN: High on music and life. the members widened even more when Allman testified against a former road manager during his trial on drug charges in the band's hometown of Macon in 1976.

There was an unsuccessful reunion of sorts two years later in 78, but Allman was going it alone again when the 1980s arrived. With the new decade came his declaration that he'd given up drinking and drugs. "I got tired of having my lord and master in a bottle," he said. He resolved to begin creating instead of recreating music. He recorded and toured in '81 and '82 without much success, but early '83 found Allman and confidante Toler writing music and planning the current tour, which they think will establish the seven-man band and reestablish Allman.

Thev're playing small clubs and halls and gradually introducing their new music. "We have eight new songs ALLMAN1 3P a See WINGER.