The Daily Telegraph from London, Greater London, England • 11

FILMS Making light of Joe's black list By ERIC SHORTER AS A deferred act of vengeance on the McCarthy, inquisition, Martin Front (Columbia, TUnA AA," from Thursday next) may sound both bitter and late. After all, the Hollywood black-listings are now faded for most people who were not actually listed. Even for people old enough to remember the search for confessions of Communist sympathy, there is something musty in the theme and in retrospect ridiculous about the fear of a massive Leftwing plot. In fact, the is neither dated nor sour. sharp and films funny; and considering that most of the people who helped to make it were Incene on the dreaded black list themselves the upshot is surprisingly free from indignation and any sense of their getting their own back.

And yet, of course, the search for scapegoats goes on, in one form or another, all the time, so that for all the larkish absurdity of this story about an illread cashier who markets under his own name (theirs being mud) television scripts of three black writers, it has a of satirical truth Powerfuecore not standing up to other people. far' from solemnly truttated, and with elfish, Yorker who Woody fellesh playing the owlish, springs to fame as television's newly discovered genius, the fun is nothing if not light. Light and yet somehow rather sad. Mr Allen is less exuberant than usual. His talk is so fast.

There are fewer asides. He had no hand in the script himself (which is by Walter Bernstein), -still less the direction; and so itself avoids that themenmedy which sometimes makes a Woody Allen film seem laboured. This is a Martin Ritt film. Mr Allen is merely a conspicuous figure in it. There is also at least one other equally funny actor.

Zero Mostel plays a popular co comedian on whom the inquisition's icy hand clamps down. film has any pathos, it comes from him. They say the best clowns should have it, and Mr Mostel's massive, rubbery frame and face, easily and richly express that mixture of brash assurance inner panic from which amen comedy takes it melancholic tone. Not for long, though. The ironies are too brisk to let weep.

And there are many strokes of intermittent satire at the expense of the sponsors of commercial television, at the snobbish New York of a at the moralising zeal of political idealists, at the hustling practicality of an innocent mediocrity of the played here by Mr Allen his quick grasp of the profit-motive my family taught me never to buy retail and the embarrassed baskings in fame as he presents in their envelopes the scripts which have been furtively passed to him at street corners and from passing taxis. elementher the a fun, faofetched is based (says the director) on fact. There were who took their cuts and praise for work by whom no one dared to mention. That they were all quite as blinkingly uncashier may doubted but as lettered as Mr. Allen's he is hauled off finally to jail for his mockery of the inquisitors he makes a satisfactorily ironical hero the little man enmeshed at last.

in politics. In studying threat, on the make, in tight corners or at cultural sea the comedy gives steady pleasure. Not finally, then, so much an act of vengeance on McCarthyites as a warning that there, but for the grace of God Hence perhaps the film's lack of any sustained pretence at a social period. What it says, and often wittilv. is worth the attention of all eras.

Entebbe revisited WHAT Irvin Kershner's Raid on Entebbe (Dominion, 66 says is that are undesirable and ought to be discouraged but that if anyone tries a a hi-jacking on the Israelis he had better watch out. Most of us are bound to say: Bravo! To the Harrods to Tomorrow 9am-5pm. 7pm. Continues Saturdays Wednesdays Reduction Amana 183 Amana SDI-25 individually butter. Examples: with Door cu.ft.

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Appliances. only. Personal Knightsbridge, London, SWIX 7XL LORIS TJEKNAVORIAN TCHAIKOVSKY SYMPHONY NO. 6 (PATHETIQUE) LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA is matched impressive concentration" the honesty of Tjeknavorian's reading, GRAMOPHONE LRL1 5129 RCA Concerts Purcell Room Park Lane Group By PETER STADLEN SCHOENBERG is coming of age to. judge by Renee Reznek's performance of the Piano Suite Op.

25 which opened the fourth concert in the Park Lane Group's Young Artists Twentieth Century Music series last night. One indication that a work has become established is its aptness to receive differing interpretations. Miss Reznek's was a masterful reading pianistically and intellectually, but it did, up to a point, ignore the music's links with the classical tradition. Ever so faintly one sensed a lack of earthiness in the Minuet, of contrary comicality in the Trio, of Romantic enthusing in the Intermezzo Schoenberg viewed from the age of Messiaen and Boulez. A charmingly playful, lithe account by Philippa Davis and Julian Dawson of Messiaen's Merle Noir for flute and piano followed.

The same team proceeded to conquer Boulez's Sonatina, a fearfully demanding score and still refusing to carry its heart on its sleeve. In Robert Saxton's Two Pieces for Piano, a first London performance, the young composer's statement that he had treated the same materials in different ways was borne out in audition, almost to my amazement since the reference turned out to be largely to harmonic aspects. In Anthony Gilbert's Incredible Flute Music" the flautist must sing and pianist must whistle while they play. I didn't think much of it. Wigmore Hall Geoffrey Saba THE DISCREET two-movement Sonata No.

32 in minor of Haydn, with its extended contrapuntal flights, was played with cool detachment by the Australian pianist Geoffrey Saba at the outset of his recital last night. Schumann's "Symphonic Studies 99 showed the more romantically involved side of his interpretative personality, and there was a well gauged combination of clarity and freedom of phrase in some of the movements, although the powerfully cumulative finale found him suddenly lacking in incisiveness. and the clarity and of structural direction waned. The brilliantly effective Agosti arrangement of movements from Stravinsky's The Firebird also elicited fine playing, especially in quiet atmospheric sections, and was marred only by of concentration in the "Danse Infernale." Mr Saba's best playing, however, was reserved for Scriabin's Fourth Sonata, which was characterised with considerable nervous intensity, and for the Bartok Sonata where the barbaric dance rhythms and Sostenuto monolithic central were vitally conceived. A.

E. P. Puppetry Battersea Puppet Centre Dolphin Puppeteers A group, the Dolphin Puppeteers, have taken the Venice in Peril cause to their hearts and their production in aid of the Fund, The Happy Prince," which has been touring in the regions, was shown last night in London. It is a refreshing amalgam of media puppetry, animated film and rolling scenery and uses a clever triple visual effect of two small stages and a matching cinema screen. The setting of the story, Oscar Wilde's popular but rather miserable morality about the of a statue and a swallow, has for the present purpose been defined as Venice.

The well-designed blackcloths are Venetian perspectives. Venetian music forms a large part of the accompaniment. Puppet action, in what is primarily a talk and vision show recorded narrator is John Julius Norwich) was necessarily limited. the evidence of Errol le Cain's delicious cartoon interpretation of the Swallow and the Reed, greater use, in fact, could be made of animated film to enliven the tale. Dramatically, however, there were two highlights: the effect of bleakness when the Prince's sapphire eyes were extinguished and of joy when showers of gold leaf fell like rain on the beggar children.

W. BRISTOL SEEN AS OVERSPILL AIRPORT London's overspill air traffic could be diverted to Bristol, the most suitable airport in the south-west for this purpose, said a South-West Economic Planning Council report, published yesterdav. report, being sent to the Department of Trade, did not see Bristol becoming a major international airport but said it could play an important part in relieving the congestion of Heathrow and Gatwick by catering for domestic and charter services and a limited network of foreign flights. It could be extended to cope with up to four million passengers a year. The council pointed out that Bristol, home of B'A and Concorde, had a.

pool of skilled aircraft workers available for maintenance and test flights. THEATRE POST By Our Theatre Correspondent Clare Venables, 33, actress and director, has been appointed director of productions for the Theatre Workshop company at Stratford, East London. The Daily Telegraph, 11 Friday, January 7, 1977. Wayne Sleep saves slick-sheened tale By JOHN BARBER THE amiable slop of the Mermaid's holiday play, "The Point;" is transfigured by the electrifying dancing of Wayne Sleep in the principal Otherwise the production bears all the stigmata of a show originally devised as an animated film for, Ameri- can television by a successful composer (Harry Nilsson) of sweet and smoochy chart-toppers. It endows a puerile story with a slick Broadway sheen, but its setting, said to be a long way from here, is never far from synthetic fabrications of the Land of Oz.

Mr. Sleep, an engaging personality, a fine actor (see his Petrouchka) and a Royal Ballet star of amazing technique, has no character here to get his into, and limited opportunities to dance. But every often this diminutive artist turns into. a spinning-top and makes the air sizzle with his crackling virtuosity. plays a roundhead in the Land of Point where everyoneelse has conical skull and the main activity is said to be making points, though in fact it is making puns.

Banished to the Pointless Forest, he meets the usual run of fantasy of the Tin Man, the the rescinstead Leafman). However, he delighted me, before reaching the Cockpit Theatre Festival of Mime Mime point of no return, by coming to the place where Harry Hyams rules, okay? This Alim-flam is extremely well directed by Ron Pember, co-author of the adaptation with Bernard. Miles, who plays the lovable fuddy-duddy. (over eight- or so) should revel in it all, and particularly the pretty lighting effects, the projected images the many visual gimmicks. Mr.

Nilsson is a tunesmith who knows his business, but he must be the most simplistic lyricist outside Disneyland. Oscar James's singing of "Thursday" is the best in the show, but it was only Mr Sleep who really kept me awake. £25,694 SILVER SALE A sale of English and foreign plate at Sotheby's totalled £25,694. Among higher prices was £1,400 given by a Hampshire dealer George IV 'four-piece tea and coffee set. oz 1 dwt all in, by Solomon Royes.

Oak sideboard At Phillips West in a general sale totalling £13,006, Godson paid £1,250 for an oak sideboard. Phillips sold items including costume. lace, and embroideries £8,487. By FERNAU HALL NOLA, RAE, who. began solo season at this Marylebone theatre last night as part of the Festival of Mime, is an artist of the rarest quality.

That is, one who has, learned much from her predecessors but has perfected a style all her own, combining poetry, humour, fantasy, ruthlessness and a superb technique. Her programmed included mainly items familiar from past seasons but polished in hundreds of ways. Her eyes in particular were vividly expressive, giving great variety to her characterisation. When she showed the fable of the Mouse the Lion, she characterised the two animals with extraordinary precision, making every detail of the movements of her body and arms telling and she gave a ruthless twist to the ending. A new item, Puppets, showed her developing ways and displayed very clearly two aspects of her talent.

She played alternately a marionette, moving awkwardly outside the puppet. booth, and a strong Punch-type puppet. inside the booth. The puppet figure cut the strings of the marionette, leaving it to collapse, and then came an ending which was both disturbing and touching: the imaginary puppeteer caused the Punch type puppet to lose all its vitality just as the marionette had done. This new item bound to develop in various ways as Nola Rae performs it in front of audiences but already it has a fascinating quality unlike anything she has done before.

Woody Allen in The Front." idea. rather than this film of how the Israelis descended by aircraft on an African airport and whisked away hostages being held by Palestinians against the release from prison of compatriots. Precisely the same tale had been told for the cinema the previous week by Marvin Chomsky wilich Victory at Entebbe my colleague Patrick Gibbs patiently unravelled with disappointment, regretting the neglect planning and operation of the rescue the only point in rehearsing the generally well-known and surprisingly recent events on all our television screens. And there are several more versions on the way. In favour of Mr Kershner's it can be said that we are given an inkling of the urgency which kept the rescuers rather than rescued on tenterhooks.

If film fails to keep us on tenterhooks as well we must remember that we already the outcome; and knock films are usually to exploit a recent interlude, not to examine or explore it-still less, to draw moral, political or philosophical conclusions. This time Charles Bronson is in military, charge, with Peter the flinching Prime Minister of Israel, and Horst Bucholz also flinching at his dubious duties in heading the hi-jack operation between Athens and Paris. Yaphet Kotto's President Amin, in whose country the hostages are deposited, gives a chillingly ambiguous idea of the helplessness of almost everyone on such occasions; but except for the final sight of the terrorists' corpses, and some of the acting, it is not film of much artistic interest and its documentary value seems to be nil. IN MUCH the same meaning. less and murky spirit Jack Smight's Battle of Midway (Empire, bursts upon us in something known acoustically as Sensurround (shaky images, booming amplification; quieter than your average pop singer at the Palladium) as a reminder of another victorythis time in the Pacific 1942 when Adml Henry Fonda, with the advice, support and general goodwill of other seadogs such as Charlton Heston, Glenn Ford and Robert Mitchum, at length licked the Japanese fleet in what looks here to have been a Pyrrhic triumph.

Maps and sub-titles are strewn over the screen by Donald S. Sanford's script to keep us all in the explosively like nepotism and insubordinastrategic picture; a and issues tion, not to mention sex, go unshirked, especially when Mr Heston's son acquires a Jap girl friend. All the naval, tactics were apparently inspired by underlings affecting to offer advice; and we should all try, to remember Adml Fonda's final words to the effect that, after so much blood and thunderespecially Sensurround thunder -the Japs may been any worse as men, "than the Americans, even though the Americans won. Pop New Victoria Theatre Gladys Knight ADULATION, that addictive liberally dispensed commodity, clearly works a special magic with the irrepressible Gladys Knight and her impeccable Pips. When she shimmered on to the stage last night, for the first five appearances in three days of homage from London, she blast, of applause and let forth caught the first, whiff, more a an I love it" something she wants to reiterate many times in the evening.

Miss Knight, now without the 99 extra package she was carrying on her last visit, has since become both mother and actress. So sad the song," beautiful ballad taken from the sound track of her first film, almost stopped the show. Knight repertoire so long, so varied and so avidly familiarised here, that the mere announcement of first-ever song, Every beat of recorded, was greeted with even greater rapture, as indeed was 66 Georgia on my mind." A word too for the young Indian conductor, Biddu. his pleasant orchestra barring one stridently flat note from the piano he combined selfmockery, proven talent as a producer and refreshing brevity, to make an unexpectedly enjoyable debut. J.

C. Television Unacceptable face of colonialism By SYLVIA CLAYTON THERE are some televison documentaries that leave an after-taste of indig. nation, and sorrow. They highlight cases where natural justice has not been done, where there are wrongs that ought to be redressed. The sad cautionary tale of the Banaban people from Ocean Island, in the Pacific, unfolded by Jenny Barraclough last night in her vivid documentary Go Tell It To The Judge (BB C-1), had this kind of urgency.

The Banabans, who lived in contented isolation until 1900 on their tiny dot of an island, were sitting on a goldmine, for the ground was immensely rich in phosphate. Decades of mining have now reduced the once fertile land to a moonscape of rubble, and the inhabitants, exiled to another island 1,600 miles away, feel that others have enjoyed the profits. Last year, Banabans took the British Government to court, and in one of the costliest civil actions in legal history complained about the years of exploitation. The judge was scathingly critical of Government but they lost their case. The programme, written and narrated James Cameron showed they unacceptable face of colonialism, a cruel disregard for the hopes and feelings of a people, who, to judge by their leaders, have an innocent dignity of bearing that attracts one to their cause.

They came to Britain believing it be the fountainhead of justice and are now deeply baffled, by the delays. law's complicaThere was no comment by the Government in this lucid film report, about which I have one reservation. Inevitably, some to reconstructed, although this was not made clear. sequences, notably those involving Sir Arthur Grimble, were reconstructed in sepia and historical thus given a deceptive. air of authenticity.

On another Pacific island, Midway, the story told in the first edition of new series, Wildlife On One (B (BBC 1), was a far happier one. Ideally it needed a James Thurber to chronicle the life and hard times of the US Navy in its unsuccessful struggle against the Gooney Bird, or Laysan Albatross. But the film, shot and produced by Maurice Tibbles had both beauty and humour. Gooneys are impressive in size, with a six-foot wingspan, friendly and unflappable. If they feel like sitting down in the middle of the road, they do so, regardless of the traffic.

Their courtship dance is like a gangling military two-step and their bills rattle like castanets. The United States Navy, which once tried to burn and bazooka the birds off the base. has now settled for a policy of peaceful co-existence with half a million Gooneys. One Navy wife. described a posting to Midway like living in a giant bird cage where the sandpaper never gets changed." For other birds with strangesounding names, Noddys, Sooty Terns and Fairy Terns, also thrive on Midway and now have their own welfare service--an official Navy game warden.

We tend to think of the Albatross as a bird of ill-omen for mariners, ancient or modern, but this delightful film, narrated by David Attenborough, showed the species in a different light. CHURCH LOSES CROSS IN SEA Inshore fishermen. were asked yesterday to watch for a goldplated cross cast into the sea as part of a traditional Greek Epiphany service in Great Yarmouth. During the service five swimmers competed for the honour retrieving the cross but it drifted away on the tide. and sank.

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