The Record from Hackensack, New Jersey • 40

1 r-1 MARCH 20 SuncfefA nv7s u7 a as, if I i 4 two-time Oscar winner, he's pleased with 'Airport 77' A Lemnaon twist Oscar for "Days of Wine and Roses," it is regarded as one of Lemmon's finest performances. "Airport '77" was a good career experience for Lemmon. He learned the art of "instant acting." "There is no time to develop characters in action films," Lemmon observes. "When they make this kind of film, they look for the actors who can move quickly. It was exciting for me." "Airport '77" was directed by Jerry Jameson, a young man on his first major feature assignment.

"It took a lot of chutzpah to put him in the director's chair," Lemmon declares. "The kid had never done a big feature. Oh, he had directed in television, some marvelous things, and I don't mean to denigrate television. But here he is on this multimillion-dollar picture and he was great." Nuts about 'em In fact, there are a lot of new, young directors in the features business these days, and Lemmon is one of their most ardent boosters. script he wants me to read.

I ask what it's about, and he tells me it's 'Airport So I hang up." Lemmon laughs as he recalls the incident, then adds that he quickly called Lang back. Assured Lang was serious, Lemmon agreed to read the script. He liked it. "You spend so much time looking for something different," Lemmon says. "You worry about the sameness of parts.

I thought this was different for me." He's realistic about its "I know it's not a critic's picture," Lemmon observes, anticipating some poor reviews. But he expects it will be a big commercial success. Large-cast, sweeping disaster films have done well at the box office. Among the stars in "Airport 77" are James Stewart, Lee Grant, and Olivia deHavilland. There is another important element for Lemmon.

"It's easier to raise money for the small, more effective films if you're coming off a smash hit," Lemmon notes. "It's an important side effect. It took us two years to get 'Save The Tiger' off the ground. No one wanted to finance it." More than a year "Days of Wine and Roses," for which Lemmon was nominated for an Oscar, took more than a year to get off the ground. "They begged me not to do it," Lemmon recalls.

"They said a picture about a couple of drunks would never make it." Although he didn't win an guys cut their teeth on pictures. Not the hard porno stuff, but things like Avildsen's 'Joe' is rated R. Editor They've learned their craft, and don't get pushed into corners. These new directors learned from the past masters, but they're not bound by them. They don't imitate, and they don't get trapped.

Sources of help "They also get help from things like the Motion Picture Academy and the American Film Institute. They get grants to make eight-minute shorts, and they know someone important is going to see it." Lemmon's own directing career is in limbo at the moment. A few years back he directed his close friend, Walter Matthau, in a nice little film titled "Kotch," and he was pleased with the result. He has no current plans to direct again, but says he would like to eventually. "Every actor should direct," Lemmon says.

"It teaches the actor to concentrate on the whole scene, and not just interpret his own role." At one point, he also was more active as a producer. It got to be too much for him. "I woke up one morning and suddenly realized I had eight projects in the works. It was too hectic. I didn't enjoy it.

Some guys like to spend their lives on the phone. I don't. Besides, I began to feel that my acting was suffering because of my other involvements." Now he produces only the films in which he stars. Jack Lemmon and Darren McGavin "I'm getting nuts about these young directors," he says. "My next picture "China Syndrome" has two young writers, one of whom will direct." However, Lemmon couldn't remem ber their names, and had to check in his pocket for a piece of paper on which their names were written Mike Gray and Tom Cook.

Gray is the writer-director. By Dan Lewis Entertainment Writer Jack Lemmon eases into a club chair, lights a cigar, and offers a drink as he sips his own. It is the middle day in a whirlwind 72-hour publicity binge in New York for his latest film, "Airport '77." The film is the third in a series of airplane disaster flicks which started with an adaptation of Arthur Hailey's novel "Airport." "If I didn't like this picture, I wouldn't have the guts to go out," Lemmon is saying. "I don't believe in pushing pictures that need help. I believe only in helping pictures I believe in." In this latest "Airport," the disaster occurs in the Bermuda Triangle.

A 747 plunges into the Caribbean Sea and sinks. The Passengers are sealed, alive, in the fuselage. This is the first action film for Lemmon, who nevertheless is the only actor ever to win Academy Awards both as Best Supporting Actor (as Ensign Pulver in "Mr. and as Best Actor(as a scheming middle-aged businessman in "Save The How did he wind up in the "Airport" series? Bit of a hangup "I got this call from Jennings Lang senior vice-president of Universal Pictures and executive producer of this film. Jennings starts out by telling me not to hang up, but he has this Don Murray shares a room with Sandy Dennis in "Same Time, Next Year" at the Brooks Atkinson Theater: The Murray world of show biz By Emory Lewis Drama Critic "Much of my book will be about my parents.

My father, Dennis Murray, was a leading song-and-dance man on Broadway. Later, he was the stage manager for many shows. I always enjoyed listening to his stories about the old days. "My beautiful mother, Ethel Cook, was glorified by Ziegfeld in his She and Dad met in one of the many productions of That musical should be revived. The period flavor might -just be right for today's nostalgia.

"Dad was from Galway. When I made the film 'Shake Hands With the I visited his My mother was Scottish, and her was typically dour and conservative. My relatives were boisterous, loud, and funny. was born in Hollywood, where my dad dance director at Fox. We moved to New when I was 9 months old.

I grew up in Rockaway on Long Island, and I still live way. parents wanted my brother and sister to grow up as normal kids. No shows MURRAY, Page B-17 Don Murray is a veritable encyclopedia of stage and screen lore. Both Random House and Macmillan have been dickering with him for his forthcoming autobiography. "Every time I work on the book, something fascinating comes up and I have to set it aside," said the 47-year-old star, who is appearing opposite Sandy Dennis in "Same Time, Next Year" at the Brooks Atkinson Theater.

inside the sunken jet in 'Airport '77' Lemmon has worked with ambitious fledglings almost exclusively in recent years. John Korte directed in "Alex And The Gypsy," and John Avildsen directed his Oscar-winning performance in "Save The Tiger." Lemmon acknowledges that "Alex" "didn't work well," but he still was impressed with Korte's work. In fact, he talks of a new wave of directors perhaps, he believes, the first real American wave since those of the 1930s and 1940s who became institutions in the industry. "Would you believe it, these young -A lli 11 fri. 1 I I iii iirfVilii irt it "1 lie.

1 birthplace. family Irish "I was York East out that "My and me See njj try" -J The man behind 'Mohammad' Illuminating Islam VV "A i years ago Akkad conceived of an epic motion picture that might bridge the gap between East and West, illuminating for both Moslems and non-Moslems the story of the prophet Mohammad and the birth of Islam. Nothing in the making of "Mo hammad, Messenger of God" was easy. Islam permits no personification of the prophet Mohammad, and that the prophet's story would be dramatized shook the Moslem world. Akkad discussed his earlier problems and their solutions as we sipped tea in his hotel room high above Central Park's greenery on March 8, the day before the film was to open.

The next day, with more than a hundred hostages in Washington, D.C., under the gun of an American Islamic leader who listed suppression of the film as one of his demands, Akkad would be halting the film in the middle of its first matinee and offering to By John Crittenden MovK Critic Twenty-four years ago a Moslem youth from Syria traveled to Southern California and found the education in film he was seeking. A theater arts degree from the University of California at Los Angeles was topped by a master's degree in cinema arts from the University of Southern California. Work for the local CBS-TV affiliate followed. Then Sam Peckinpah, an American director, made him a chief assistant on his 1962 classic western, "Ride the High Country." Soon Mous-Upha Akkad became an American citizen. Akkad generally was happy, but he was disheartened to find that his new countrymen were almost totally ignorant about his Moslem religion, which is shared by 700 million today.

So 10 '5 4 bum It if necessary to save lives. "Mohammad, Messenger of God" finally opened March 12 after negotiations involving three Arab ambassadors ended the 39-hour siege in the capital. Against blanket accusations "Always," Akkad told me, "I'm against a blanket accusation against a whole religion or people because of the actions of some individuals. There is goodness in religion, whatever the religion is. "In a way, it's immaterial whether I think the archangel Gabriel really See ISLAM, Page B-18 "Mohammad" producer-director Moustapha Akkad, right, discusses a scene with Anthony Quinn, who plays Hamza.

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