The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 37

THE BOSTON GLOBE FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1988 37 The 'Mistress of the Dark' comes up with a light comedy ie's closing musical number. Stylistically, the film's mos polished sequences are the one that parody horror movies dream sequence in the old house a showdown in a cemetery), sig naling that this is the direction fu ture Elvira movies there snouk be more, despite this shaky start -should take. Let's hope next timi Elvira gets a project she can realh sink her fangs into. ELVRA. MISTRESS OF THE DARK Directed by James Stg-norelli; written by Sam Egan, John Paragon and Cassandra Peterson.

Starring Elvira (Cassandra Peterson). Edle McClurg. Daniel Greene. W. Morgan Shep-pard.

Rated PG-13. At the Cinema 57, Allston Cinema, suburbs. By Betsy Sherman Special to the Globe To those of us who Idolize Elvira, whose Valley Ghoul commentary enlivened a series of ex Morgan Sheppard); Elvira finds out that the book is really full of spells and that she is descended from witches (one of the great sight gags here is a flashback of Elvira as a baby, sans cleavage but with her trademark make-up). In a scene worthy of a Mel Brooks spoof, the townspeople, shouting "Two, four, six, eight, who do we incinerate? Elvira! attempt to burn her at the stake. Peterson, who spent time as a member of The Groundlings comedy troupe, is undoubtedly charismatic.

She spent her late teen years as a Las Vegas showgirl, and displays maybe a few too many of those talents in the mov acter, but not shocking enough to forfeit a precious PG-13 rating. Elvira (played by Cassandra Peterson, who co-wrote the screenplay) starts out the movie in her familiar guise as TV horror hostess. She needs $50,000 to finance the Las Vegas act she's worked up, and when a telegram arrives that her great aunt in Falwell, has named her in her will, Elvira hops in her Macabremobile (a '58 T-bird) and heads east. From then on, a la Mae West, it's Elvira against the small-town denizens of morality. There's even a Morality Club (headed by the wonderful Edie McClurg.

who specializes in playing suburban crackpots) which has a picnic with delicacies like Tic-Tac pie. Elvira inherits her aunt's decrepit house, a poodle (which she dyes pink and black) and a book of recipes. The book is coveted by her wicked great uncle Vincent (W. i 1 The obvious inspiration here is Mae West; West and Elvira share a capacity to laugh at themselves as well as at society. field in "Easy Money," or what Tim Burton did for cult figure Pee-Wee Herman in "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure." There's a slapdash, tentative quality to "Elvira, Mistress of the Dark," that robs it of momentum.

The chief source of comedy is Elvira's body, and the mystery of how she stays inside her cut-past-the-cleavage dress. The obvious inspiration here is Mae West; West and Elvira share a capacity to laugh at themselves as well as at society. Elvira's one-liners, which account for the majority of the movie's laughs, have to tread a precarious path: Dirty enough to suit her irreverent char SAME DAY ADVANCE TICKET SALES AVAILABLE AT COPLEY PLACE, THE NICKELODEON, HARVARD SB, ASSEMBLY SQUARE, NATICK, AND CINEMA CITY DANVERS EXTRA LATE SHOWS TONIGHT TOMORROW AT COPLEY PLACE, THE NICKELODEON, HARVARD SQ, SOMERVILIi, NATICK, CINEMA CITY DANVERS BARGAIN MATINEE FIRST SHOW ONLY AT STARRED FEATURES PASSPORT TICKETS NOT ACCEPTED AT COPLEY PLACE, NICKELODEON, HARVARD SO. OR THE JANUS Coppola named head of '89 Cannes jury PARIS Film director Francis Ford Coppola will be president of the jury for the 1989 International Film Festival to be held in Cannes from May 11 to 23, festival offi-i cials said this week. 7 WE PLACE 266 1300A SmCWS SLVr.S -Ll GIRLS SK 7:30 45 PRINCE OF PENSYLVANIA BOYFRIENDS (GIRLFRIENDS COMING TO AMERICA in Ess-ar cheri 4g.g-.ar RUNNING ON EMPTY n-in PASSES CROSSING DELANCEY ire NO PASSES burning issue Breaking away from the '60s rnH FV AVE NO 10 AM HEARTBREAK HOTU-ftu SOME 12:30 2.4S WHO FRAMES ROGER RABBIT ire KANSAS 240 BULL DURHAM BIG IK NICKELODEON M2 tSZZSJ PARIS jgsgssa COMM iVE "0 KtUUOHl so ISCC BIG TIME LAST TEMPTATION Of CHRIST DEAD RINGERS in NO l0.3:15-5:30.7:45-9:55.12K0 BEACON HILL 3 BETRAYED A FISH CALLED WANDA DIEHARD in EIGHT MEN OUT ira THE THIN BLUE UNE 1 :1 MARRIED TO THE MOB fi PATTY 2:00 4:00 1 HARVARD iQ.Xa 10 CHUWCM 5T CAMBWUGt RUNNING ON EMPTY n-in 1:30 fZZ2NEEDHAMZl EST CHARLES Mm, HEARST 6:00 8:00 10:00 SWEETHEARTS DANCE GORILLAS IN THE MIST ik-id NO PASSES 70MM DOLBY STEPSO TO AMERICA 7:30 9:45 MOON OVER PARAD0R iwiai EIGHT MEN OUT ina 1 COMING MARRIED TO THE MOB ID) MIDNIGHT RUN TUCKER IPS A FISH CALLED WANDA 1M A WORLD APART iki ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW iR) ar Lexington a fr CINEMA 57X3 ttXiWGTON 862 3260 ELVIRA, MISTRESS or TwDARKin-d OF DESIRE 7:10 9:30 NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4 TUCKER review I'l jQontinued from Page 33 underground, the father, Ijie (Judd Hirsch), doesn't seem to lViave noticed that his son has grown up.

Part of his myopia is selfishness, but there's a '-Iiiess in his overbearingly patriar- role-playing, and it's threat- ened by the fact that his son is no longer a baby. In fact, the boy (River Phoenix) is a talented pia- Wst. As the long arm of coinci-" donee would have it, he lands in a high school whose music teacher I knows how to guide him into 'liard. Artie resists, throws a tantrum, calls chamber music "decadent white-skin privilege crap," and retreats in a sulk to rock. But his kid, Danny, keeps growing up all the same, sliding into the breakaway mode even faster after he falls in love with the music teacher's daughter, smart, prick-v ly, endearing Lorna (Martha Plimpton).

Lumet and his scriptwriter, Naomi Foner, don't use the pas- sage of time to ridicule the ideal-ists of the '60s and early '70s, although they do unprofitably intro-' duce the character of an overdrawn Weatherman crazy (L.M. Kit Carson) turned bank robber. But if their manipulative view of the '60s isn't especially penetrat-' 4fg. they interestingly recast the consequences of the period in Dia- gpora terms. The preserved-in-am-? ber '60s world to which Artie clings is presented as the Old Country.

The life of a music stu-' tlent at Juilliard is presented as the assimilationist New World. If the grown boy's parents let him go, they've either got to give them-; selves up, or reconcile themselves to never seeing him again. Only in i a secondary way is "Running on Empty" about politics: ultimately, it's a leaving-the-nest story with 1794 MASS. Vf. WINGS 4:45 jf ST Hd MAfl4(lf SG it! GORILUSINTHEMISTikis NOPAIIIi NATICK ZZZ1 CROSSING DELANCEY iki CROSSING "Hair," "Putney Swope" and "Alice's Restaurant" bring their own kind of knowledge to.

the theme of breaking away from the '60s, filling their work with downy urgency. i onion EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENT COPLEY PLACE FriSat Mid. USA CINEMAS CHARLES I t' DELANCEY iki DOLBY STEREO ELVIRA, MISTRESS of twDARKik-ii: HEARTBREAK HOTEL ircm DEAD RINGERS ELVIRA, MISTRESS Of the DARKiwij DANVERS ASStMBl SO "JOU Tf 128 IXIT 24 777 2555593-2100 RUNNING ON EMPTY mi HEARTBREAK HOTEL miii WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT in 5:30 8:00 10:20 12:20 EIGHT MEN OUT ra MEN OUT ire 4:55 7:00 9: 1 5-1 1 :20 A FISH CALLED WANDA MARRIED TO THE MOB 2:15 ISSyDAWERSXSi KANSAS ELVIRA, MISTRESS of tw OARKik-13 7:55 10: 1 5-1 2:1 5 STKHEO EIGHT MEN OUT iki EIGHT 1 2:45 2:50 MARRIED TO THE MOB SWEETHEARTS DANCE 1 DEAD RINGERS A FISH CALLED WANDA cruciating horror movies on the syn 4 dicated "Movie Macabre," her big screen debut is a fun chance to see our heroine in action, even though the cheesy comedy of "Elvira, Mistress of the Dark" is often disappointingly cute. Director James Signorelli (who for years has made the TV-commercial parodies on "Saturday Night hasn't done for Elvira what he did for Rodney Danger- heavy doses of parental sacrifice and assimilationist overtones. "Running on Empty" does warmly make contact with radical rapture at a family birthday party when Lorna is wowed by the way the family does the twist and includes her.

If Hirsch doesn't bring to his assignment the shadings that the other actors bring to theirs, it may be because he's playing a character whose considerable fears encase him in rigidity. As the one-time debutante mother, honorably and lovingly soldiering her way through her lot, Christine Lahti is wonderful. Her big scene comes when she sets up a clandestine meeting with her estranged father (Steven King), and her eyes swell with tears when he finally gets his own back, saying, "I wonder if you'll ever know what it's like not to see your child for 14 years." But I found her more moving when, faced with a chance to run out on the whole situation, she sighs with a wistful weight of irretrievable years, "I wish I could." Still, there's no '80s hatred of the '60s in "Running on Empty." Its essential generosity is its most laudable aspect: its sympathy for the idealism of antiwar radicals seems like the real But while it holds out consolations to aging '60s types, the film, like the story, nevertheless belongs to the younger generation, even if they are determined to stand "The Jazz Singer" on its head by reaching out to the classics while their parents cling to funk. Phoenix and Plimpton were the best things in "The Mosquito Coast," and they're even better here. Phoenix child of missionaries, with siblings named Leaf.

Rainbow, Liberty and Summer and Plimpton -daughter of Keith Carradine and Shelly Plimpton, who appeared in ISLAND VISUAL ARTS "11155! BETRAYED in GORILLAS IN THE MIST ire-is THE MOB 7:30 9:40 1 1 :40 par BROCKTON JE3 1 2:35 3:05 DOLBY DEAD RINGERS in MARRIED 12:30 2:50 KANSAS A FISH 1 EIGHT MEN OUT (ki WHO FRAMED 5:25 TO 5:00 CALLED 1 WANDA KANSAS 0: 1 0-1 2: 10 ROGER RABBIT ire BETRAYED The first time I saw the film I thought it was a knockout; on second viewing it seemed a classic." -J HeMflhut HUAtLlOKE There are angels on the streets of Berlin. PG-llj ItM linen PictuNB Corp lEXINCTON C00LIDGE CORNER WEST NfWTON A' WAV 4 A New Comedy From The Creators Of "Down And Out In Beverly general Cinema BURLINGTON MALI sou't eiit 272-4410 PtMr- DE -TS MARTIN SCORSESE SHOWCASE CINEMAS CIRCLE CLEVELAND C.BCH 566-4040 AT USA PARIS 'in JXfW JX DIEHARD RATING. AN EXTRAORDINARY ACCOMPLISHMENT. The Crucifixion is the i A FISH CALLED WANDA in mm EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENT US.m-Ctncmat NICKELODEON 'SOLM (xpj ljujiJ3 strongest such scene jt uii uuu iiiujr be the movie scene of the year." Mike Clark. USA TODAY A MARTIN SCORSESE PICTURE ft DIEHARD in Uli-IUCCT ATI ONE OF THE YEAR'S MOST ORIGINAL AND RIVETING MOVIES." Jay Carr, THE BOSTON GLOBE Late Shows FriSat 12:00 Mid.

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