Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 33

tkaney I Mil (I, t. III. 7 I if My Gory, oody Bum I I'! I PR! TV TW 01 -pr vamck Is Waller Matthau Is a El And Vnowshowing CHARLEY VARRICK Neighborhood Theaters Charley Varrlck Walter Matthau Molly Joe Don Baker Harman Sullivan Andv Robinson Sybil Fort Felicia Farr Boyle John Vernon Jewell Everett Sherree North Mr. Garfinkle Norman Fell Nadlne Jacaueline Scott A Universal Pictures release, produced and directed by Don Sieqel; executive producer, Jen-ninqs Lanq; with screenplay by Howard Rodman and Dean Rles-ner, based on the novel "The Looters" by John Reese, ohotoa-raohy bv Michael Butler, music by Lain Schllrln. Rated PG.

a YvJfwj ET'lllMLMMin III' r'h- the rest of the picture's population. It is a very perverse kind of morality, however, that tries to persuade us to like and admire a Charley Varrick just because he looks good in comparison to a pack of vermin. THE PG RATING on this kind of sadistic, morally perverse film proves once again, as it often has in the past few years, that the Motion Picture Association's rating board has been duped by the slick, corrosive thinking dominant in the action picture market. That thinking says the maverick man of action, the individualist, if you will, is one hell of a terrific fellow, no matter how violently antisocial his behavior. That thinking also says it is okay to show young people the most extreme kinds of brutal-.

ity as long as they are protected from the explicit sexual content that earns more re strictive ratings for other kinds of movies. And so, for the record, to the PG picture at hand, the first half of which details how Matthau and company robbed a bank, got away and laid low. Just when the viewer wonders if Baker's name really did appear in the credits, Baker makes his entrance, walking tall on behalf of the mob. The squeeze gets tighter as Baker zeroes in on Matthau and the money. The antagonists finally come face to face in a car versus airplane chase scene that brings the film to its mildly surprising end.

In case viewers are not able to tell when they should be nervous or how they should feel about the various characters, Lalo Schifrin has provided a gaudy score chock full of leaden musical cues. Matthau, if no one else connected with the production, should know better. Same, as of now, for those who planned to catch Matthau's latest. I Lovable Walter Matthau, as Charley Varrick, masterminds a bank robbery that leaves a half-dozen people dead. 1 though.

As the plot proceeds, we are further urged to Varrick's side because he's a lot nicer than, say, Dracula or any of the other characters we meet in the film. Take Joe Don Baker as the goon, for instance. Mat-thau's Varrick is a lot nicer than he is. And Varrick is a lot nicer than all the other sinister mob types, dumb crooks" and seedy females who fill out 1 MmUI in ml For starters, this is a fellow, who masterminds a bank robbery that leaves perhaps a half-dozen individuals dead. Unlike at least one cop and one crook, Varrick's wife doesn't actually die at the scene of the crime.

She gets shot in the side and expires some hours later, whereupon Varrick blows up his getaway car with her body in it. He kisses her good-bye first, THE LONGEST PLAYING HIT IN DETROIT! iMHAiV HAROLD and MAUDE T(kni(olor A Poiameunl Firtut (L YEAR! STUDIO NORTH "A jewel of a movie-very, very-funny, touching and lovable." -MeC ALL'S IE u3a FOR SHOWTIMES- iiiiii iiii ii ii iiiu.n ii i GREATEST PICTURE! 1973 THE ONE LOVE STORY YOU WILL NEVER FORGET! "BROTHER AND SISTER" TRULY THE MOST EXCITING FILM EVER PRODUCED' ALSO 2 OFTHE WILDEST ADULT CARTOONS YOU HAVE EVER SEEN) RJSsVGflT 51R Mssn (ii mh m. (IPIM1HM 1(1 1 AM. SUN MKII. 111 12 ALWAYS WITH 3 EXCITING FEATURES "CLINC" -ALSO- -PLUS- I G5DO 13625 MSllUtma 1 1 3 A4113A AM III I AM Ml Hfll 10 UfJ OWN 9 SUN A ART 1 CINEMA VPSIIANTI 31 WASHINGTON Phon 412-3300 DAILY 7 NOON "A FIRST PLACE FINISHER!" -UwriDCt Divim.

Fm Prill CHECK DIRECTORY Lllll.lll7ml,;.:lllllllllll i Tin 7iTi "a Sensation! A BREATHTAKING EROTIC ODYSSEY the likes of which has never been so strongly depicted on the screen." VARIETY WC0I0 (5f)nillTS0NlY PLUS THE GREAT HOW THE WEST WAS FUN WITH 2 EROTIC CARTOONS Penthouse 5M u.i3 iimn am hid SI II HH I 2 Mi Dlldni STAGE 23J1SItlOT77(1M5 WIN 9 AM la I AM. SUN IKI1 In 12 AH'. Mill on WOODWARD at McNICHOlS Phon. TO 6 0400 OPEN 12 00 95 The memoirs of CHAUVINIST mm lis, ft im United Artists PG "Jeremy arumsiowiy 'nui inort7HE AMAZ NG rvlETS Subject lm a MF'l NOW SHOWING CHECK DIRECTORY FOR SHOWTIMES SEE FOR year's most controversial film! BY SUSAN STARK I Fret Press Film Critic Admittedly, it was clever to I put good old lovable Waller Matthau in the role of foxy criminal. Admittedly, there is Interest to a plot twist that has a couple of small-time bank robbers accidentally picking up a big pile of Mafia loot that happened to be temporarily "cooling off" in the bank on the day of the heist.

Even with that kind of curiosity value, though, Don Siegel's "Charley Varrick" manages to end up as nothing more than a routine picture for the action It is sadistically brutal, based on a fault of logic or a warped moral code or both, I and, get this, it is rated PG. A word about the Motion Picture Association's notion of what constitutes suitable en-tertainment for the PG or Parental Guidance suggested" set is long overdue. IN THE FILM at hand, a brutish goon punches and chops one person to death, slowly. Before the victim's protracted death throes are completed, the camera crawls in for a good look at his writhing and bleeding. The goon also runs another man down with a car and sends still an- other man careening a k-l wards in his wheelchair.

This fellow is a clean liver, though. After setting up tern-: porary headquarters in a brothel, he declines the offer of a girl. Appar- "TOTALLY DELIGHTFUL! If your wife or husband has never seen an X-rated movie, 'Le Sex Shop' is the one to take her or him to. It is wholesome, refreshing, deliciously funny satire." Klein, WNEW-TV NOW-EXCL USI VE SHOWING! STUDIO Gfwnfitld 8 Mill LI. 8815 Q3 mmm I Uiwnfi Theatre 1 lM A nn nn NOW SHOWING! ently, he doesn't care to sleep with prostitutes; be assured, he doesn't make the point in such poiile language.

Beyond the goon's activities, there's an abundance of violent behavior from other characters. People get shot up and blown up regularly, with Sie-gel ever ready to zero in on the results. Sadism and gore aside, the morality of the picture is wide open to question. "Charley Varrick" quite" seriously asks us to wind up liking and ad-miring its title character, played by Matthau. SINGLE? 1110 MMt Yur Kind PwpH.

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