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Show Park ( il News Ihursd;i. December 9. 1982 I'.. 11 ! 1 trwwitt. f4 ii ii Ml at rami city 1 J . 'ST- r V;k 1 y J K :?; Uj J 'J t i " Si f x It ;V -v If -' , I , 1 8 1 1 TWl B M m B K flH few" i a' f. John Bayley Cowboy Bar menu features reggae and country rock The Cowboy Bar continues its policy of bringing national na-tional acts to Park City when West Indian reggae stylist John Bayley takes the stage Dec. 11 followed by a two-night stand by the Ozark Mountain Daredevils on Dec. 17 and 18. The country-rock Daredevils Dare-devils are no strangers to big-time success. Formed in Springfield, Missouri about 10 years ago, the band struck paydirt immediately with such early 1970s Top 40 staples as the raunchy and rowdy "If You Wanna Get to Heaven" and the shimmering shimmer-ing country-pop "Jackie Blue." The Daredevils have gone through some personnel changes and fallen on leaner times since, but they are reportedly still a top-notch unit at their best in the sort of intimate setting provided by the Cowboy. There will be two shows on each night, beginning at 8 and 11 p.m. Advance tickets are $10 each and available at the Cowboy Bar liquor store, Cosmic Aeroplane, Smokey's Records, all ZCMI stores and the Salt Palace. Reggae stalwart Bayley has been- gathering rave reviews with his performances perfor-mances across the country for years. Typical is this assessment from the Boulder "Daily Camera": "Bayley's reggae tunes are long and build every moment, serving as showcases show-cases for his immense energy, ener-gy, teasing the listener who waits for the ultimate crashing crash-ing moment when the songs will climb no more." Meel World by Kick ISrouh The Toy' does not make best use of Pryor, Gleason A Classic Recommended Good double feature material ' Time-killer For masochists only The Toy At first glance, "The Toy" seems like one of those surefire sure-fire brainstorms Jackie Gleason, as a rich Southern millionaire, teamed with Richard Pryor, as the starving star-ving journalist who is hired to be a playmate for the rich man's son. What an idea! A story with two great comics, from different dif-ferent eras of comedy! So what went wrong? To begin with, the story was clearly a vehicle for only one comic, and Gleason becomes a churlish-looking supporting actor for Pryor. And even though Pryor virtually vir-tually strong-arms the movie into being funny, through the sheer force of his personality, he doesn't have a clear comic style here. He tries a bit of everything dressing up in drag (a la Stan Laurel); disrupting a stuffy lawn party par-ty (Marx Brothers); and even turning into a liberal reformer, like a Capra hero. These days, Pryor is making two kinds of films the angrier concert movies and the sentimental stories where his characters are a lot softer. In "Busting Loose" he played Father Flanagan to a group of multi-ethnic orphans; "Some Kind of Hero" focused a comic message on Pryor's frustrated Vietnam vet; and "The Toy" reaches clear back to the Depression '30s for Pryor's role the common-psensical servant who straightens out the unhappy lives of a rich household. He plays Jack Browne, a journalist living in a Louisiana food-stamp neighborhood, neigh-borhood, working on a book, and suddenly faced with a horrendous mortgage. Everybody with a job in town works for the bigoted U.S. Bates (Gleason) and when Jack can't get a position on the local paper, he hires on as a maid. This sets the stage for his first confrontation with Bates, at a business lunch where executives cluster around a mile-long table loaded with food. U.S. arrives last, at the head of the table, sits down and, instead in-stead of scooting his chair under, pulls the entire table over to his belly. Pryor's instinctive in-stinctive reaction, at the other end, is to pull the table back, leaving the flabbergasted flabber-gasted Bates with empty air. The sequence is funny, not just for the neat way it bounces boun-ces the two men off each other, but tor the social implications. im-plications. We laugh with satisfaction at the rich man, accustomed to arranging the world around him, undone by the little guy who has the strength and the gall to set things right. "The Toy" lives through these isolated brushes with classic comedy technique. Another instance comes when Pryor finds himself working in Bates' department depar-tment store. (How he got here we never know, due probably to bad editing of the story. ) Young Eric Bates (Steven Schwartz) arrives with an entourage his father having promised him he can have anything in the store and becomes fascinated by Pryor's antics. The actor tumbles head-over-heels in a huge rubber contraption called Wonder Wheel. In only a few minutes, Pryor creates one of those love-hate relationships relation-ships that used to exist between bet-ween Buster Keaton and the whiz-bang devices in hi.s silent films. And it's more compelling than any relationship between Pryor and a human being in the movie. Once Pryor agrees to be a "toy," the movie subjects him to a number of humiliation gags. He arrives in a packing case, cushioned in styrofoam peanuts; has buckets of goo dropped over him, and is made to dress up in Spiderman pajamas. You can spot many of the jokes coming from miles away. (Gleason loves to set up elaborate domino displays, but Pryor keeps uh huh, you guessed it. And the gags, as directed by Richard Don-ner Don-ner aren't funny enough to build on our anticipation of them. The film develops a heart, as Pryor teaches the kid to stop being a brat, to treat people as friends instead of servants, and to find a joy in the labor well-done. (This last point he illustrates when he and the kid publish a broadsheet detailing U.S.'s sleazy background and his crude business practices.) All the "warmth" scenes are accompanied by tear-jerking tear-jerking music that is 20 years out of date. Gleason plays his role for all it's worth, but he's pretty much a background character, charac-ter, and it's surprising the role wasn't played by some less colorful character actor like Charles Durning (or Ned Beatty, who appears in the film as one of Gleason's spineless flunkies.) Young Steven Schwartz looks convincingly sullen in dramatic scenes but his acting ac-ting is only so-so as he changes from spoiled brat to regular kid. Indeed, only Richard Pryor rises above so-so in "The Toy," and his good moments aren't enough to save the picture. Don't be cauaht nnnrnnararl ufkfZ$- MIIMIUMUIVM W TTF, JUDY M. KIMBALL HANLEY Agent No. 202 Silver King Bank Bldg Park City, Utah 84060 i-jljii Bus. 649-8656, Res. 649-7607 AUTO FIRE LIFE COMMERCIAL I i ft LUNCH 11:00-2:00 APRES SKI MUSIC with Bob Snow 3:00-6:00 HAPPY HOUR 12 price drinks 5:00-6:00 Discount coupons accepted on all items including drinks. Live Entertainment This week Dec. 7-1 1 Hot Spurz Dancing Tues.-Thurs. 7:30 -12:00 Fri.-Sat. 8:30-1:00 Locals Night Wednesday, Dec. 15th 6:30 9:30 All the beer ya can drink. Plus! All the tacos ya can eat for $5.00! Local check stub, ski pass, license accepted as proof of residency. f i 1 . 4i. It i I- t 4 H J! 1 r '1 r i ,f , s tit i") i M' " ' ell i i fi f ' . ) i ti;''li X I ll at Prosnector SnnarR I . n ii4niff iif x it T , 4- . I 7 i a ' i ' Park City's largest full service steakhouse serving the best of steaks, prime rib, seafood, and the famous 35 item Salad Bar. . . . r h t) mi If nn Uv-- Thanks to your great support we will be serving SUNDAY BUFFET BRUNCH 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. every Sunday year round BREAKFAST Monday - Saturday 7:00 10:00 a.m. LUNCH Monday - Friday 1 1:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. DINN&ft Monday-Thursday 6-10:00 p.m. Friday & Saturday 6-11 p.m. Sunday 5-10 p.m. Having a Christmas Part; or Open House let us help you with all of your holiday occasions CHUB STEAK CATCHING v i 3 i I': i At Prospector Square in Park City Just off Park Avenue on Highway 248 Ample Parking, next to the State Liquor Store. On the city bus line. For Information, call 649-8060 t y y J, ', I i iSMill lit dlttkMti A i im kw, d ( ill' Uh LidLA : A I ! |
