Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 29

DETROIT FREE PRESS Wednesday, l-eb. 6, '74 5-C Detroit ifvecrcoo Entertainment Clinches Super-Stardom A1P As 'Serpico', an Honest-to-Gosh Honest Cop life's -'X to get someone to act on the widespread New York corruption, Paoino is visually behind before he. starts looking up at big, fair-skinned Irishmen. Pacino combines a non-nonsense personal style with a deep-down turbulence as Serpico. As a result, the story becomes a very good and down-to-earth motion picture.

In-stead of a vehicle for an emerging screen hero, "Serpico" is reality on screen. WITH HIS undercover man's long hair and beard, and deep-set dark eyes, Pacino looks very much like a Perugian fresco of an 1 saint. The story begun by Waldo Salt, finished up by Norman Wexler who wrote "Joe" resists turning him into a religious figure. Serpico is not too saintly, for example, to resist a leggy ballet student (the knockout Cornelia Sharpe) or a long live-in affair with an affable nurse. Barbara Eda-Young's nurse, a sensitive, compassionate girl with both literal and figurative broad shoulders, is one of the best things about "Serpico." She is an at-home counterpoint of humanity to the brutalizing Homicide Seen in Hidden Body Case BY BILLY BOWLES Fr Prs StH Writer BERRIEN CENTER -When Doug Johnson didn't show up work, Joyce Johnson told one of his co-workers that Doug had gone away for a while.

When her A 1 a asked about that form undsr the bed in the spare room, she said it was a dummy. That was some of what friends and relatives of Carroll Douglas Johnson remembered Tuesday as they tried to recover from the shock of learning that Johnson, dead about 10 days, had been found hidden under a bed in his rural southwest Michigan home. "It's a homicide," said Detective Jon Nichols of the Berrien County Sheriff's Department. But, he added, "there are many things that can't be released yet." Only in fiction could residents of this tiny community i Michigan's southwestern-most county recall a case to match the horror hidden in the two-story, gray asbestos-covered farm house where a pile of blankets and rugs concealed the decomposing body of a husband and father under a bed in a closed-off room. THE DEAD MAN'S wife Joyce, 33, pregnant with an eighth child, remained secluded in Lee Memorial Hospital in Dowagiac, where she has been confined since the body was discovered by chance after a family birthday party last weekend.

Nichols refused to be drawn out about the grisly case but hinted that he was waiting for a opportunity to question Mrs. Johnson, a woman whom townsfolk described as "a typ-i a 1, overworked housewife with seven small kids," in apparent run-down health. cop, who won't take the take. He shoulders his way through, from precinct to pre-cinct, more disillusioned at every change for the worse. He is dismayed to discover that the corruptions starts far above what he calls "the flunky policeman." Like an earnest Quixote with a heavy .45, Pacino's Serpico starts fighting city hall.

To accentuate Pacino-Serpi-cos' little-man-against-the-ma-chine struggle, Lumet surrounded him with taller actors as his superiors. It's very clever. In his continuing fight futility of Serpico's one-man crusade among the cops. Serpico likes girls; he also talks the way cops talk. The film has an rating, and it must be due to the language, which is the ultimate in casual obscenity to date on screen.

Lumet's movie avoids the slightly cheap, sensationalist prose of the Maas book, though. The story is filmed with facts and action, not visual adjectives. A viewer gets the feel of an honest man becoming a pariah. "Let's face it," snaps a detective with deadlv roeue accuracy, "who OPENS TUESDAY, FEB. 12 IIVRIWU R0I5IRI BliUiliDDHS LWSIM VII an Kiimrs i imsi hm; I OLCI HiS For information Call 873-4400 Cathy Rigby US OLYMPIC GYMNAST as Peter Pan Lop(('9''t 14-- f'bt 1 IfUrl rT ALL NEW MUSICAL ON KJt' I' i 3 i.ofti can trust a cop who don't take money?" Lumet's casting of the picture is unalloyed inspiration.

Each of the badly dressed, underpaid Brooklyn detectives, for instance, looks like the real thing. Besides Pacino, perhaps only Tony Roberts as a detec-tive ally and veteran John Randolph as a captain will be recognized. So there are no marquee names to wait around for, no familiar faces to divert attention from Pacino's fascinating work as the driven cop. LAST 4 DAYS TONIGHT THRU SAT 8 30 PM. MAT.

WED. and SAT. 2 P.M. Slicllcy Mjmi licnium I lines THE COMEDY SMASH Ntil SiiiMMi for Information Coll 873-4400 PRICES: $6, $5, $4 VSSS0 Vl PRICE 3 00 7:30 m. SUN.

2 00 nrl 6 30 MMi'-- I'-jryguuii if lC i FAMILY CLASSIC 1 jnd I h. Mflip III lof Children. LOndan, fcngl.n, A M7awirjMiii i v. HE AND HIS 18 PIECE BAND BOB WILLIAMS acino Pacino, the undercover something of him after "The Godfather." They were waiting for his breakthrough. and "Serpico," unarguably, is it.

The film about the actual New York policeman Frank Serpico came out with Academy Award embossed all over it. It has the presold appeal of the book by Peter Maas plus some assiduous selling and promotion by Paramount Pictures. It surfaced amid a cinema climate in this country that is kind to cop pictures in general. And perhaps i 1 m-goers are by now ready to go all out for one of the bunch that is more thoughtful and genuine-seeming than the latest supercop bloodbath with Clint Eastwood and car chases that obliterate several late-model American automobiles. Director Sidney Lumet's version of the Serpico story is an encouraging morality tale about a modern cop who is too honest.

for his own good. Through the film's time span of 11 years, everywhere Serpico turns, some cop is on CLIFFORD Underground 8, DANNY HOLLEY at the organ WED. and THURS, iitjTii ti utin FBI- Jind SAT. till 2 a.m Nnvu "1950 MALT SHOP," 1501 Washington 961-8383. i PORTER STREET STATION DANCING Fri 8.

Sat. to "TAKE FOUR." Open Sat. aim lor Dinner. 1400 Porter, E. of Trum-; bell, S.

ot Tiger Stadium. 259 1480. RAVEN GALLERY Now appearing: Th svnr.ivmlllar CHUCK MITCHELL. 29101 Greenfield at 12 Mile Rd. 557-2622.

ROMAN GATE In Caesar's Cellar Appearing Tuesday thru Saturday MIKE DARIAN and "ALIVE WELL" 4414 Woodward lust S. of 14 Mile Road S49-414I O'HALLORAN'S TIPPERARY PUB-Novv appearing ARNIE and JIM PERKINS. 8267 Southfleld, 271-5870. THE VOYAGER Now appearing town HALL Tues. througn sal.

uanung. Lunches, Dinners, Cocktails. 6500 Highland Rd. In the Oakland County Airport Terminal Bldg. 673-7011 or 673-5207.

APARTMENT LOUNGE-Now appearing THE LARRY SANTOS SHOW with Misty. Tues. through 18322 W. McNichols, West of Southfield X-way. 531-8877.

RAILROAD CROSSING Now appearing Thurs. thru Sun. DEAN RUTLEDGE. The exciting, senssational JILL PHILIPS Mon. thru Wed.

6640 E. 8 Mile Rd. (1 Blk W. of Mound). 366-2023.

'lArniics BR FL IS ALIVE AND WELL Thnn thru Sun. Mercv College, 8700 W. Outer Drive. RES. 531-6131.

Special No dinner performances, $6-50. Admission: LOVERS' NIGHT Wed. 213. Doors Open: 7:45. And BREL AT MIDNIGHT 223 (2nd Show).

Doors open: Midnight, 3 Weeks left le the LARRY SANTOS 1st rata fSluS AT VLADIMIR'S 8 MILE GRAND RIVER 12 MIDNIGHT LIVE? FANTASY si STAGE! rfp FREE ADMISSION iopencash bar. Sponsored by HAMMELL MUSIC INC. 1 5630 Middlebelt, Livonia 427-0040 oi, (jnnncll PRESENTS STEINWAY ARTISTS CONCERT SERIES WEDNESDAYS 9-10 P.M. SERKIN RUBENSTEIN attheSteinwoy FEB. 6 ot the Steinway FEB.

20 VAN CLIBURN HOROWITZ ot the Steinway FEB. 1 3 ot the Steinway FEB. 27 Award Due Daniel A. Laven, a Detroit industrialist and Jewish community leader will receive the Jewish Theological Seminary's 1974 National Community Service award on Feb. 27 at the seminary's annual convocation in Miami Beach, Fia.

Slate GOP In Trouble On Funds BY REMER TYSON Free Pratt Politics Writer Michigan Republicans are testing the effect of Watergate on fund raising for the first time and things don't look good. Republicans had hoped to raise $750,000 by selling tickets to a series of appearances that Vice-President Gerald R. Ford of Grand Rapids will make across the state Saturday. REPUBLICAN State Chairman William McLaughlin said Tuesday that appears that ticket sales will raise only about half that amount "between $300,000 and "I'm not one to go around blaming everything on Watergate," said, "but there is an atmosphere' in the air this year." Ford is scheduled to appear at receptions on Saturday in Kalamazoo, Saginaw and Detroit. Tickets to the receptions are being sold for $1,000 a person.

The vice-president will wind up the swing through Michigan with a $100 per person dinner Saturday night i Detroit's Cobo Hall. McLaughlin said that the $1,000 tickets to the receptions are selling at the rate expected. He expects between $200,000 and $300,000 will be raised at the receptions. Kut the $100 dinner tickets have fallen far below expected sales, McLaughin said. "Maybe I was over optimistic to start with," McLaughlin said, referring the the GOP's goal of raising $750,000.

"They (tickets) are not going as fast as I thought they would. People use excuses from Watergate to 'I don't want to get ripped off in Detroit' to 'I don't want to go out on a Saturday Michigan Republicans plan to use the money to pay off a party debt of about $550,000. McLaughlin said that the GOP will file a report with the Secretary of State's Office listing the ticket buyers for Saturday's events. The GOP chairman and other Republican leaders said a series of fund, raisers for Gov. Milliken to be held in March may give the party a better reading on the effect of Watergate.

Milliken is running for reelection to a second four-yen term. Entertainment Starting Wednesday Thru Saturday Come see and hear the Fabulous LORI JACOBS celebrated singer, songwriter of unique talent charm and warmth TONIGHT BUSINESSMEN'S LUNCHEONS AND COCKTAILS A complete dinner menu for your dining pleasure a joyous journev CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER CATHY RIGBY an absolute delight CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER a delight in dance and music ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH SERPICO Madison, Neighborhood Theaters Serolco Al Pacino Sidney Green John Randolnn Tom Keough Jack Kehoe McClain BlffMcGuire Laurie Barbara Eda-Younq Leslie Cornelia Sharpe Bob Blair Tony Roberts Berman Lewis J. Stadlen A Paramount Pictures release of a Dlno DeLaurentlls film, produced bv Martin Breaman, and directed by Sidney 1 1 with screenplay bv Waldo Salt and Norman Wexler, based on the book bv Peter Maas, music by Mikis Theodorakis, photography bv Arthur J. Ornitz and edited by Dede Allen.

In Panavioion and 'Technicolor. Rated: R. BY LAWRENCE DeVINE Free Prsss Entertainment Editor In the infrequent way that movies have of approximating both art and life, "Serpico" is a film whoe time has come. It is Al Pacino's movie, this diligent tale of an honest cop among thieves, and in "Serpico," Pacino's time has come to be admired as a great American movie actor. Pacino's hit in "Serpico" inevitably suggests the rush to success of Dustin Hoffman in "The Graduate." Pacino resembles Hoffman physically, and more than somewhat.

Both men were theater professionals before they approached movie stardom. Both know how to get through a picture without bumping inro fellow actors or trees, and they are low-key and serious men who are convincing on the basis of applied skills, and not gorgeously capped teeth. HOFFMAN, however, made his break in one film. Pacino's celebrity began more carefully, in his second (after "Panic in Needle and more widely publicized role as the heir-apparent in "The Godfather." his role as Michael Corleone was a signal flare that said Pacino is on his way. Filmgocrs were expecting MASONIC AUDITORIUM Feb.

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TflNITF thru FFB 17 CALL 895-7000 Wteknighls 7 30 SAT. 10 30, 105.1 FM STEREO RADIO 1515 WOODWARD 39 BRANCHES Nichols emphasized that no charges hav e-been filed in the case and said it probably would be a week or more before a decision is made on whether to bring charges. JOHNSON, 34, a millwright who had worked 4'2 years at Auto Specialties Manufacturing Co. in St. Joseph, had taken off work for a few days Jan.

21. He told his fellow workers his wife had "some blood problem" and that he had to take her to Detroit for medical attention. Charles Leath of Niles, Johnson's brother-in-law, who is caring for the Johnson children, described the discovery of the body. He said a number of rela tives had been at the Johnson home Saturday celebrating a birthday party for one of them. After most of the family left, one, identified only as Maxie, went into the closed-off bedroom to lie down.

"It was cold," Leath said. "And he (Maxie) reached over to plug in the heater and saw feet sticking out (from under the bed). He called Carol (the oldest Johnson child) and she turned a light on." It was then the grisly find was made. Leath said that Johnson's son Alan, 15, had seen the body rolled in'blankets under the bed several days before the party. "He thought it was his father," Leath said, "but Joyce (Mrs.

Johnson,) told him it was a dummy. He (Alan) didn't ask any more about it. He said he didn't think she had any reason to lie." Dr. Richard E. Lininger of St.

Joseph, the medical examiner who performed an autopsy, said Johnson died of a bullet wound behind the left ear. He said there was at least one and possibly two other grazing bullet wounds of the head. I FXCUJSIVr DOWNTOWN SHOWING' I COMPII'I BUSINESSMEN IUNCM THRU Fill I 14 Put ydDmr hemrt imt cs Mmpptg Vmleutine Greeting Give that someone special a Valentine straight from the heart. mwm Call 222-6800 Mailorder UFreePre, ONLY S2.00 i Happy Ad, Box 100 20 WORDS I 321 W. Lafayette I Detroit Mi 48231 I I'lease publish my Valentine Greeting as aHappy Ad Thursday, February 14.

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