Daily News from New York, New York • 251

CHnt Shows Talent Behind vlie Camera THURSDAY, FRIDAY AND SATURDAY By JERRY OSTER 5 3 eeKicATIONAL VALUE! aciN- 72 3 Even Clint Eastwood makes fun of Clint Eastwood's pitifully narrow range as an actor. "High Plains Drifter" should put an end to" those jokes not because Eastwood the actor does more than narrow his eyes and clench his teeth, but because Eastwood the director gives notice of a solid and exciting talent. This strange story of a man who transforms mining town into a kind of hell in order to avenge a murder is the second movie Eastwood has directed Misty for Me" -was the first), yet there are already traces of a distinctive Eastwood style. It is a style that is sometimes annoying because it is often pretentious and glib. It borrows great gobs of inspiration from 0 Automatic color and au-Vomatic ine tuning control Slide level color and Sntrol-Teng UHE and loop VHF antenna.

90-day carry-jn service: 1-yr parts war ranty.2-yr.picturetube warranty. UMTED QUANTTy.fCUS!omer 14 'A in a aa) fleg. 269.99 the likes of John Ford and How- "High Plains Drifter," a Universal Pictures release in, Pana vision and Technicolor. Produced by Robert Daley and directed by Clint Eastwood from a screenplay by Ernest Tidyman. Presented at Loews State 2 and Loews Orpheum Theaters.

Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes. MPAA rating; (Restricted under 17 not admitted without accompanying parent or adult guardian). THE CAST: The Strainer Clint Eastwood Sarah Betting Vema Bloom Callie raven Mariana Mill Dm Drake. Ryan lack Ging Morvan Alien- Mayor Jason Ho6artStef an. Gierasch Lewis BeMing Ted Hartley Mardecai BiHy Curtis ard Hawks- and George Stevens, but misses by a long way being their kind of epic.

BUT EASTWOOD HAS gotten some fine performances out of his cast; he knows where to put his camera and how to compose a shot; he is especially good at getting the maximum dramatic effect out of a static shot by creating motion within the frame. He got himself some talented JL 1 'Scorpio9 Mean Spy Tale Below Org. Wholesale! a Tumbler Wheel Tuning mm EKaaai clcsh badio MP Clint Eastwood helpers and knew how to use them. He is indebted to Ernest Tidyman for a script that some times sinks under the weight of its symbolism but that is a cut and then some above the usual western; to cinema to grapher Bruce Surtees for his ability to depict dark rooms (a favorite Eastwood setting) and expansive landscapes with equal grace; to art directors Alexander. Golitzen and Henry Bumstead for a spectacular location; and to Dee Bar ton for a simple, sinister score that contributes in a way movie music rarely does.

"HIGH PLAINS which is at the Loew's State II and Orpheum theaters, is much more subtle than most Eastwood shoot-em-ups and the impassive manner of Eastwood the actor isnt much help in figuring out the enigmatic drifter, who some times seems to be his own twin brother and sometimes his own ghost. But the performance is redeemed by Eastwood's work on the other side of the camera and one hopes he will stay there more in the future, for "High 1J rater is certainly a movie to build a future on. wonder he to catch up with his prey. HE DOES in part because Burt Lancaster, a CIA agent who has been too long in the cold for the liking of his superiors, takes as much time out from running to reminisce about the good old days when spies used their eyes and minds instead of computers." Neither man, nor Paul Scofield as a Russian agent nor John Colicos as the CIA chief, can justify his essentially petty life and their talk doesn't redeem their shabbiness. Even as he lies gut-shot, Lancaster delivers a death aria: "It's not winning or losing that mat ters; it that you keep on playing." He might have said "talk ing" and "Scorpio," at the Rivoli, Eastside, Trans-Lux 85th St.

and Red Carpet Theaters, might have talked less- Jerry Oster Two Films Due National General Pictures will release two films next month. The first "Extreme Close-up," dealing with the invasion of personal privacy, opens May 2 at Flagship Theaters. The second, "Fists of Fury," a Kung-Fu adventure film starring Bruce Lee, opens May 9 at the same theaters as well as the National. All-Family Movie "1776," the musical dramatization of the drafting and singing of the Declaration of Independence, has been chosen as the film "most outstanding in merit for all-family viewing" by the Motion Picture Committee of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution meeting in Washington, D. C.

"Scorpio" is a spy movie that tries to transcend the dutifully ordinary twists of its plot and tell a tale of a squalid world in which nothing not friendship nor love nor life has any value. It is so relentless in rendering meanness that it leaves a bitter aftertaste. Director Michael Winner did a nice anatomy of a professional assassin in his 1972 film, "The Mechanic." And he did it simply by showing the man at work, with very little talking. BUT LX "SCORPIO," the script of David Rintels and Gerald Wilson is en obstacle course of exposition over which the characters pick their way with a carefulness that down the pace so essential to this genre of picture: As the hired gun, Alain Delon must spend so much time playing with cats, arranging flowers and analyzing himself that it is a a United Artists release in Color. Produced by Walter Mirisch and directed by Michael Winner from a screenplay by David W.

Rintels and Gerald Wilson based on a story by Rintels. Presented at the' Rivoli. Eastside Cinema, Trans-Lux 85th St. and Red Carpet Theaters. Running time: 1 hour, 54 minutes.

MPAA rating: PG (All admitted parental guidance suggested). THE CAST: Cross Laurier Zhariuw AAcLeod Susan Fitchoc Sarah Pick Burt Lancaster Alain Delon Paul Scofietd Jotm Colicos Gayle Hunnicutt D. Cannon Joanne Linville Melvin Stewart mm FncoaQfiFn (2)0) Component leek wHh giant front styKno. Deluxe 4-epeed BSR automatic changer, 2-speaker judto ayetem, 3 eKde controls. 45 rpm adaptor.

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