Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 27

LJ WL-J DETROIT FREE PRESSFRIDAY, MAY 15, 1981 3C mbs down on Ifs thu i iiv iiuiiu THE HAND Area Theaters Jon Lansdaie Michael Caine Anne Lansdaie Andrea Marcovicci Slella Roche Annie McEnroe Brian Ferguson Bruce McGill Produced bv Edward Pressman; written and directed by Oliver Stone; photography by King Baggol; music by James Horner; distributed by Warner Bros. PARENTS' GUIDE: Rated nudity, profanity, graphic violence. 'A I Ml By JACK MATHEWS Free Press Movie Critic I couldn't begin to recall how many times I have looked down at my hands in disgust and accused them of betraying me. Of intentionally mishitting a key on my typewriter, for instance, or of touching something they should have had the sense to know was too hot. But despite this strained anatomical relationship (my feet have failed me a few times, too, and the legs aren't always that dependable), I've never found anything very compelling about horror movies starring crazy, killer hands.

Stray hands crawling around like chubby tarantulas are on the order of singing denture's. SO, HERE IT is 1981, 35 years after bly at this ludicrous band of digits creepy-crawling across the screen. Stone could have used a belt, a ring, a cummerbund anything would have been better than that silly hand. halfway through this thing, you'll find there's more fun in making up jokes than following the story. (When Caine moved from Vermont to California to take a job as a college teacher, his lost hand soon appeared, too, prompting the person sitting next to me to whisper, What did it do, The cast deserves special credit for straight-faced service in support of the more than 30 mechanical hands designed for various functions in the title role.

It can't be easy to produce a serious emotion with a prosthesis dangling from your neck. Caine, in fact, gives an outstanding performance as a man gone gradually mad, Of the others, Annie McEnroe stands out as a coed who seduces Caine, then runs afoul of his hand. Andrea Marcovicci is also good as his wife who decides to sever their marriage at about the same time he severs his limb. "The Hand" is not so much a horror movie as it is a study in madness. Like Jack Nicholson in last year's "The Shining," we're never quite surewhether the horrifying events occur outside or inside Caine's mind.

We see his moldy, decomposing hand come to life in the field where it lands (. after his accident. We see it scooting out of doors and windows and Under couches like some injured cockroach. We see it', sneak up and choke the life out of people with whom Caine is angry. But is it really a hand wreaking all this gruesome havoc, or is it Caine's perCep- -tion of his own actions? FIRST-TIME DIRECTOR Oliver Stone has obviously attempted to make a movie far above the level of "Beast with Five Fingers." And on most levels, he has succeeded.

Visually and sfylistj-; cally, "The Hand" is a first-rate psycho-drama, as craftily set and written as any Brian De Palma film, except But just when the tension should be at its peak, we are left to grin uncontrolla-' the last excusable horror hand movie, "The Beast with Five Fingers," and Orion Pictures is asking us to try it again with let's keep it simple "The Hand." Michael Caine, still' a little bent from his tour as a transvestite psychopath in "Dressed to Kill," stars as a cartoonist who loses his drawing hand in a freak auto accident, then spends the rest of the movie losing his mind. In "The Hand," Michael Caine stars as a cartoonist who loses his drawing hand in an auto accident, only to have it follow him around. cr Free Press Photos by RICHARD LEE Mike Green, left, of American Cinema Productions says the film "tough Dreams" was born when Art Dore, right, and his Toughman Contests became the subject of news accounts. Some heavy contests make 'Tough Dreams' By W. KIM HERON Free.

Press Staff Writer Art Dore and his "intellectual property," the Toughman Contests, haven't always enjoyed the best image. The amateurs-only slugf ests regularly pack halls as large as Cobo and the Silverdome with fans who want to see, as the official program puts it, "the home-1 town boys, the real amateurs, the seasoned street fighters with little or no boxing skill, but tons of guts." But Dore and his imitators have been accused of exploiting the desperation of the unemployed and staging unsafe, even dangerous competitions. NOW DORE HAS his chance to get his side across like never before: A film comedy in which Warren Oates will play a character loosely based on Dore. Dore not only approves of "Tough Dreams," a $6 million movie now in production, he's also staging a special competition May 30 in Cobo Arena at one-fourth the usual ticket prices just to help the film, which he says will be the best public relations he's ever had. "It's actually based on the Toughman contest, and it's as authentic as possible.

I gave them a lot of input," Dore told the Free Press. Says Mike Green, the senior vice-president for production for American Cinema Productions, "It's not a critical film, but it's an authentic one. The heart of the film is the Toughman Contest itself. It has all the beautiful kind of things. The little guy who roots for his daddy.

The wonderful things that creafe an ambience Our attitude toward this film is that it is a comedy." According to Green, the film was born when Dore and his contests came to the attention of American Cinema Productions through news accounts: "We thought, 'My God, this is true, it's real, popular, broad based, really putting yourself on the line these guys really put themselves on the And in the wake of Vietnam and Iran, "people are looking for movies that are about winners," Green said. BUT THE FILM unit was divided on filming the finale in Detroit until Gov. Milliken made his Hollywood tour of a few weeks ago, assuring the film industry that the state would do everything possible to attract their business. That tipped the scales in favor of Michigan and away from those who wanted Madison Square Garden for the finale shooting, Green said. He said he does not know what por tion of the movie's $6 million budget will be spent in Detroit, but he said some other locales in addition to Cobo will be used.

At the May 30 event, Green said, exten-, sive audience footage will be shot along with some shots of the competitors in the regional contest which will be called a world championship in the movie. And he said he was sure the 1 2,000 seats at Cobo will amount to "the largest extra call in Michigan history." Not everything in the film follows Dore's life. In fact, both Dore and Green are quick to say that the promoter in the film engages in practices that Dore does not. But the film stays true to the sport's essential facts, both maintain. "I'm a very broad-minded person," Dore said of his impression of the script.

"This is a movie based on fact. It doesn't bother me." The film, which has begun shooting in Ft. Worth, is directed by Rick Fleischer, whose earlier credits include "The Jazz Singer" and "Tora, Tora, Tora." The new film's stars are Dennis Quaid and Oates. Quaid has the lead role as a still-young, but already-failed, country-western singer who takes to the ring. Oates plays the Dore character; others in the film include Pam Grier, recently of "Fort Apache the Bronx," Stan Shaw, who played Toomer in "The Great San-tini," and Bruce McGill of "Animal House." THE CONTESTS have come under considerable criticism.

Several boxers have died, one in an official Dore Toughman match, from injuries sustained in the ring. Others have been seriously injured. Some critics have said the fights are popular in the Midwest because promoters like Dore take advantage of high unemployment. jDore, however, insists his matches are safer than professional and amateur boxing, where he said there have been eight deaths In the last year, He is highly critical of imitators of his contests who don't follow the precautions he does (having on hand two doctors, ambulances, oxygen tanks and using 16-ounce gloves) and sometimes don't even hold to the rules of boxing. Dore, for his part, said he will get" no money, no points in the film and with the top ticket price for the Cobo event set at $5, he's not even sure he'll break even.

He said he only wants publicity and credibility for the sport. ii in, i i milium. JKSK 7 "i i 5, IIS I IB Sill! Ifllli HI III 'I I' (Mil SWUM II UN II Jill IS Mill III IS II 1 I IllHS. Ill II! II Ill III IB If II If ASSOCIATE HIS 11 111 III 1 IIS PUIPI IhilMI CXM (Rl III If III DinosEisiiiiNiiiiiiieiniipiiii Copynght MCfcjlXXXI by Piamounl Pictuiee Coiporalion All Righls Reserved RESTRICTED ITIUIAN COWJtOY STARTS TODAY Ring in the old! Free Press Classifieds. IMS wimssssmw imbp i jtjM- ii Mirfiifcuii) ii mm? UVE IN PERSON RON LEVINE Direct from JOHN TRAVOLTA'S URBAN COWBOY MOVIE.

FIDDLING HIS 1980 GRAMMY AWARD WINNING "ORANGE BLOSSOM TONITE, SAT. SUN. Doors Open 7:30 P.M. FORD HIX, WETLAND PH. 326-3500 Jewelry, 1 mM IfWI No.

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