The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 229

fr fi yry- SECTION Efjc iflinmi Hcralh Sunday June 22 1975 nm home (George and (Gwen McCrae flDii I he record charts the VfW 1 I Family ij 4 4 A I rt V-t ri I I 'W I Vl An i r-1 I By JERRY SCHWARTZ Herald Stall Writer Strung out along the walls of a room barely larger than a walk-in closet the gold and platinum records look out of place The tiny neat house in a modest neighborhood west of Delray Beach look like the home of two recording stars It looks like the home of an upwardly mobile blue-collar woik-er and his working wife Until a year ago exactly what -George pnd Gwen McCrae were i George was able to support his wife and two daughters as a labofer window cleaner and construction woiker Gwen was trying to make it as a singer playing grimy little clubs around South Florida where the regulars paid more attention to their gm than to her Every night George drove his wife to work and at 3 a he picked her up At 6 am he went to ins own job George felt stifled He own dreams of becoming a singer had tried to make it with a group had cut two records that failed and currently was having trouble holding any sort of job 1 THAT WAS before Jan 17 1974 when George walked into TK studio in Hialeah He heard a couple of studio musicians Casey and Richard Cinch playing around with a song they had wiitten knew right away that tiack was for Geoige said It took three minutes and 14 seconds to cut Your less than a year later they engraved the record in platinum It had sold more than 2 million copies Suddenly George McCrae" was a very hot item He plajed to stand-i -room-only audiences everywhere he toured Europe and his album of Vour became a gold recoid (a million-seller) But not all As Your finally started slipping down the charts Gwen recorded a song called "Rockin' A week ago it hit No I on the soul charts and a fast climber on the pop chaits as well For George and Gwen the dajs aie over when they made $3 a day Turn to page 10M -JERRY SCHWARTZ In 9 Cratch Connection IP ankenUeimer Connects iHl 0 ipts I I 1 'f tl -i 'e'- A i If 3 i Wvi- Wl By JOHN HUDDY Herald Entertainment Editor Once the enfant terrible of television later a Hollywood director certain to infuriate highbrow critics with his unpredictability John Frankenheimer today is a distinguished-looking 44-year-old gentleman who still packs a flamethrower but who also approaches his craft with the cool of a riverboat gambler And "French Connection Is a gamble Lurching onto the summer movie scene this Friday the sequel to the William Friedkin film about a dedicated abrasive New York cop who struggles to track down a suave well-connected French drug dealer returns Frankenheimer to the head of the Hollywood class after a prolonged slump "French Connection is ruthless raunchy profane and powerful some important ways superior to the original It get that way because its maker approached the project with caution THE DIRECTOR of Days in "The Bird Man of Manchurian "AH Fall and "The Iceman took a series of calculated risks At its most crucial junction "French Connection surprises the viewer by becoming less a briskly edited cops-and robbers yarn and more a tough lean sometimes vile tale of survival Far more vivid in its drug scenes than any picture in years and overall the most powerful antidrug movie since Al Pacino stumbled through "Panic in Needle five years ago "French Connection lets us glimpse horrors as vice cop Popeye Doyle (Gene Hackman) is abducted by the narcotics kingpin (Fernando Rey) then is pumped with heroin for three weeks and dumped outside police headquarters in Marseilles France where he attempts to withdraw In pacing Frankenheimer thiows out any semblance of order for a hot -and-cold careening tempo But as is true in the good Frankenheimer films "French Con- Turn to page 9M vr '-Y xi A Robert Allman A II I the netv movie by Rob -eit Altman is being a i by critics the country but Rex Reed isn't buying it He offers his vieus on page 9)1 Till: COCOMJT Grove Playhouse appears final I to be emerging from the financial deficit that has plagued it for three years Can-dice Russell talks nith the producer about the current season and the plans for next season Page 2)1 WMjJ (j oj TMMMatfU -BOB EAST Miami Harald staff 6L plan it that nay but it did come out as a very strong anti-drug film didn't really show how lough it is when you try lo withdraw.