FILM

Rip It Up, Issue 51, 1 October 1981, Page 22

FILM

William Dart

5.0.8. Director: Blake Edwards

An elegant, if ultimately somewhat black comedy about the life and death of a Hollywood producer. After a first half of interlocking vignettes, the plot shifts into top gear in the last 45 minutes reaching a manic climax in the mock Norse funeral of Richard Mulligan. Fringe benefits include Julie Andrews baring her breasts, Robert Vaughan getting his kicks in ladies' underwear and Shelley Winters in a restrained lesbian situation, as well as enough scatological fun in one sequence to make Jonathan Swift clap his hands with glee. Zombies Director: George A. Romero The second part of Romero's trilogy which started with Night Of The Living Dead shows a small band of "humans" trapped in . a shopping mall populated with flesh-crazed zombies of all walks of life from nurse to Hare Krishna follower. Although the inclusion.of a motorcycle gang upsets the tone of the film a little, Zombies is a clever satire of our contemporary life-style and its values. Together with Motel Hell, one of the best specimens in this genre seen for some time in this country. Myra Breckinridge Director: Mike Same Banned for ten years etc, etc, and it's not hard to see why it was banned in 1970. Even allowing for the premise that Vidal's witty comedy of manners would be a difficult job to put on celluloid, Same's flamboyant . directorial style is a major contribution to the film's failure. Mae West is Mae West, John Huston does an

outrageously broad characterisation of Buck Loner and Racquel Welch is a very creditable Myra. An interesting failure, and all the more so for seeing it over a decade after it was filmed.Caveman Director: Carl Gottlieb ' An unspeakably feeble update of The Flintstones written around Ringo Starr, who should be an actor in search of an agent. Jack Gilford, trapped in the role of Gog, a blind man, deserves better. Seems Like Old Times Director: Jay Sandrich Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase in a standard Neil Simon sit-com. I made the mistake of seeing it just after Howard Hawks' Bringing Up Baby which makes this recent affair, seem a little on the flat side. Goldie Hawn is agreeable, but even her perennial kookiness is wearing a bit thin these days. ialll AMA f m! A fIA A