Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 18

I POST-GAZETTE: TI Oct. 1 3. 1976 FOOAr Hn Oct. I -ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR" NOUDATI f(19M) TtM-UN Can A NEWSPAPER IN THE CLASSROOM: For mora infonrnrtion, Phono 76J-13U MM Pittsburgh Post-Goutto George Anderson ''Burnt Offerings Mild Thriller at Warner I VB I 71 A COtUKBIA PHTUR8 WLAae mBPG1 TONIGHT AT 7i45 9t45 PM. WAIT DISNEY5 7 rvlJJ a fit TEOHIUOHOR BARGAIN MATINEE ALL SEATS M.00 turned screenwriter, and Marilyn and Alan Bergman, who have written the lyrics for many Legrand tunes: The film will be called "Blind Love," and it concerns an American in Paris who falls in love with a beautiful blind French girl.

The producer is Jay Weston, who scored on "Lady Sings the Blues" and missed on "W.C. Fields and Me." CABARET SCENE: Don Brockett, who will try anything once, will present his version of a saucy "disco mini-Vegas revue" at the Ben Gross restaurant. It's called "So What Else Is Nude?" and it promises or' threatens to introduce a comic female impersonator named Gene Harlowe. Carl Geruschat and Chris MacLaine are returning to town after a lengthy tour of sea duty. With the talented Elizabeth Austin, they have been performing on ships in the Mediterranean, the Baltic, Scandinavian countries, Western Europe, England and Russia.

They've put together a revue based on the songs of Lemer and Loewe, which they call "Each Evening from December to December," a line from "Camelot." They hope to find somewhere to do the show in Pittsburgh. ON STAGE: Against all odds and ill fortune, the Playhouse Jr. Children's Theater remains alive, and unsinkable director William Leech is preparing the 28th consecutive season. The Craft Avenue Theater is open again, and "Granny Applebutter and the Ding Dong Wolf," a twist on Red Riding Hood, will open Oct. 30 and run through Dec.

11. As always performances will be Saturdays at 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30. Other shows this season include "The Riddle Machine" starting March 5 and "Rapunzel and the Witch," opening April 16.

Playhouse Jr. has become a local institution, and it is good that Point Park College is keeping it going. ON SCREEN: "The old dark house" is probably second only to the unleashed monster as a standard item of movie thrillers. "Burnt Offerings," the United Artists release opening today at the Warner, offers still another variation on this formula, keeping a stylish ambiguity about the creepy goings-on. When I was a kid and used to cower in my seat during movies set in seemingly haunted houses, the films always had a perfectly logical explanation at the end.

It was Usually a scoundrel trying to frighten the pretty heiress away from the old mansion because of something valuable hidden there. "Burnt Offerings" doesn't indulge in such neat implausibilities, but instead allows the unexplainable to go unexplained. plot concerns a family that rents a once beautiful Victorian mansion for a summer vacation, and then finds itself beset by frightening, dangerous and mysterious occurrences. wife (Karen Black) spends much of her time in the attic browsing through the belongings of a sick old lady no one ever sees. --jThe husband (Oliver Reed) is seized by a compulsion to drown his young son (Lee H.

Montgomery) in the mansion's swimming '-The peppery old aunt (Bette Davis) falls a physical decline that turns her into an invalid for no special reason. Every time misfortune befalls the occupants, the house itself becomes brighter and Hewer looking. The paint and shingles repair themselves, the greenhouse bursts with blooms and even the pool turns spanking new. The house becomes a force for evil, taking-sustenance from the blood and travail of its occupants. Eventually the husband comes tc realize that everybody's survival is at slake.

It's a simple but serviceable plot, but it requires stronger treatment than this if it is to stand out from the general run of movie releases. Director Dan Curtis, known mainly for the over-rated "Dark Shadows" TV series and movies, calls on standard movie techniques from shock cuts to loud musical chords-and occasionally the film is effective. The climactic bloodshed is staged with considerable shock value, but it is a long, slow time coming. For a while, the film plays on audience expectations, making each of the' principal" characters in turn seem villainous. We don't know exactly where to place our suspicions or our sympathies.

Even minor characters like the brother and sister (Burgess Meredith and Eileen Heckart) from whom the house is rented are made to appear weirdly malevolent. But, it all adds up to a lot of sinister huffing and puffing to little effect. The actors all do their professional best, although most of them look uncomfortable. The house, which is actually the Dunsmuir House in Oakland, cleverly aged by Hollywood craftsmen, photographs best. The film is rated PG because of violence.

NAME DROPPING: When Bert Convy was at the Holiday House recently, he revealed that he will be featured in Burt Reynolds' next movie, an adaptation of Dan Jenkins' "Semi-Tough." Convy said he won't be playing a football player, however. He'll be a new character created for the film and based on the founder of the controversial therapy system known as "est." DAG of Rosslyn Farms corrects a reference in my review of "Norman, Is That You?" in which I called Wayland Flowers a ventriloquist. I knew that was the wrong word for the comedian when I wrote it, but frankly I didn't know what else to call him. His gay-bar bit may be the funniest thing in the movie at the Stanley. Michel Legrand will finally get to do a musical film for an American company when he collaborates with Bob Merrill, songwriter WILLIAM HOLDEN and the late comedian ne Judy llolliday will be seen at the Guild tonight through next Tuesday in the comedy classic "Born Yesterday." It will share the bill with "Holiday," 1938 comedy starring Cary Crant, Katharine Hepburn, Lew Ayres and Edward Everett Morton.

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WW OTHER SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN here is PART 2 more UIHEI Mi IKE At 1 00 'docs" At 7 454945 11 00 6-00 1 00 ft 10 00 IPG Dtrnn Ait ts ii SHOWN ATt of the adventures of the family that all America embraced. 2:13, 7:43, 9:43 tIMlOf. THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN DOCS At 7-45 9 30 M'Rl 7 --Mir-A. U00 400 4-00 00 1000 PM IPGI ni imm tii sttn mm 1H( OTHER SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN 4.7 00 400 6 00 1 001 1000PM PCI aiiMt tusiinsimiTpip LOGAN'S RUN Al 7,30 4.9 HIM fPGI tuiwnilisuTsti Jm More of all that is unique 4. Lit.

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0) xi nm hi sun 11 Mm 7 NOW THERE 6-30 8.9 30PM Iff) 800PM K3 '3J0 latin utmia AI2 00 5 00 4 8 00PM III MTiHff mi sun si nrm a. Hni-iil 1 SOUNDER HIGHEST RATING! A NEW APPROACH IN HOT ADULT ACTION A IOM ANIA PRODUCTION frfff "KINKORAMA" jp put jtwww K3CB30CS3CR MB BRAVOS FOR HEATHER DEELEY! Nit lMMi(illMkMtMM'l tMk)M MATH MtMiltlrT Ttrtnfti iBinr'vk A I hho ovirn 3rd SMASH WIWI "DIVERSIONS" "lit cm ii i in Vn DELIVERS 1 1 cr.SfDrt?i5j 1.0Ff CODPON liifF 4L 1 iuuvo 1 cr, 1 Ml prM.t hr tUfftri fr. mi turn. Klrtlff MM Mm COUfOfH AVAMAIU AT V9 MOST ADVIT tOOK fTOMS HI ABlAZt WITH ACTION IHAI mm 18 ind'MIVv RADNITZMATTEL PRODUCTIONS, Inc. in association with ABC ENTERTAINMENT Presents mnrruuMH 11 "PART 2 HAROLD SYLVESTER EBONY WRIGHT' TAJ MAHAL ANNAZETTE CHASE iMv iwm UMES ADNUTTIt FSII WrTNUAUISCOtT -8 nM Ul (X) and inttoducing DARRYL YOUNG as "DAVID LEE" Executive Producer ROBERT B.

RADNITZ Producer TERRY NELSON Director WILLIAM GRAHAM Music by TAJ MAHAL Written by LONNE ELDER III Based on the NEWBERY AWARD WINNING NOVEL by WILLIAM H. ARMSTRONG. Released by MMr kv UtllM, ENDS! fiy2H STARTS TODAY TORMENTED IT BURNING DESIRE! CO i At MiiaMiMMffl LIBERTY MUIIMTT1VI, DOWNTOWN S66-299 OPEN 10 A.M. DAILY BARGAIN MATINEE TODAY ALL SEATS'! UNTIL 6 PJR. fcM, MO, 1040 P.M..