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Show Screwball movies to be featured in Salt Lake festival 1 he Newspaper Thursday, December 3, 1981 Page B5 "All you need to start an asylum,", said a movie v character in the '30s, "is an empty room and the right kind of people." ' Nowadays, you can do that on any weekend night in Park City, but 40 years ago, Hollywood was the expert. Their romantic Screwball comedies were full of "the right kind of people." The Utah Media Center is hosting two festivals for the month of December. A collection of screwball films will play every Saturday and Sunday night at 7:30. The second festival features the films of Ernst Lubitsch, a comedy director whose films come very close in mood to being the screwball variety. They will play on the same nights at 9:30. "Ruggles of Red Gap" -(shown on Dec. 5 and 6) is a Comic study of culture shock. Charles Laughton plays a proper English butler named Marmaduke Ruggles who is bought by an American roughneck Egbert Floud (Charlie Ruggles) and transported trans-ported out to the wild and wooly-headed West. But Ruggles finds himself liking the American spirit of equality equal-ity and romance. (Courting the fluttery actress Zasu Pitts, he tries to kiss her and then apologizes, saying, "I coarsely gave way to the brute in me.") , On the same night is Lubitsch's "Trouble in Paradise," Para-dise," which opens with a deceptively romantic touch a Venetian gondolier serenades sere-nades the city at night as he pushes his garbage scow through the canals! Back in the '30s, that typified "the Lubitsch touch." The film's story is about two jewel thieves (Herbert Marshall and Miriam Hopkins) Hop-kins) who court by picking each other's pockets. They team up to fleece a Parisian perfume company whose slogan is "It doesn't matter what you say ... it's how you smell." The double-bill on Dec. 12 and 13 is one of the best screwball comedies of all time, "My Man Godfrey." In this Depression farce, Carole Lombard plays a dizzy heiress who picks Godfrey (William Powell) out of a hobo jungle and makes him her butler with the same insouciance that she would adopt a dog from the pound. But Godfrey has enough savvy to handle her crazy family bitchy sister, grumpy, businessman father, fuzzy-headed mother, and the mother's pet socialist. This last character has two skills, (1) lying around the house moaning about the evils of money, and (2) amusing his rich patron with his gorilla imitation. The second film, "Bluebeard's "Blue-beard's Eighth Wife," casts Gary Cooper in the uncharacteristic uncharac-teristic role of an eccentric millionaire who has gone through seven wives. Clau-dette Clau-dette Colbert, as his latest bride, decides she won't be going out the door with the next Hefty Bag. She plays hard to get so well, in fact, that she drives Cooper crazy. (He plays his last love scene in the movie wrapped in a strait-jacket.) On Dec. 19 and 20, the Media Center will show "Bringing Up Baby," another an-other screwball classic. Cary Grant stars as a serious young paleontologist who gets mixed up with young heiress Katharine Hepburn and her pet leopard Baby-so Baby-so called because the big cat can only be soothed by the song "I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby." Hepburn's dog, George, runs off and buries Cary Grant's priceless dinosaur bone; Baby gets loose at the same time that a dangerous circus leopard has escaped; Grant winds up in Hepburn's nightgown night-gown ("I just went gay all of a sudden," he explains) and virtually everybody ends up in jail. The second feature on those dates is "To Be or Not To Be," a comic-serious piece with Jack Benny giving his finest screen performance. Lubitsch's film is about an acting troupe in World War II Poland. In the film's most moving moment, a bit player in the company surveys the devastation of the blitzkrieg, and responds with Shakespeare: Shakes-peare: "Are we not men ... If you prick us, do we not bleed?" The troupe responds by becoming an espionage team who foil the enemy with their acting skills. Their biggest problem is leading man Josef Tura (Benny) who has a tendency to ham it up. Benny is both a funny buffoon and a credible melodramatic melo-dramatic hero. Carole Lombard, Lom-bard, in her last film role before she died in a plane crash, is Tura's wife, who receives lovers in her dressing dress-ing room while hubby is onstage delivering Hamlet's soliloquy. (One of her boy friends is a very young Robert Stack.) The last screwball film, "Midnight," is a zany Cinderella Cin-derella story scheduled for Dec. 26 and 27. Claudette Colbert is a nightclub singer stranded in Paris who gets an interesting proposition from nobleman John Barry-more. Barry-more. He will turn her into a fake countess if she will romance the gigolo who is running with Barrymore's philandering wife (Mary Astor). Naturally, there are complications: DonAmeche, as the crazy cab driver who loves Colbert, turns up claiming to be her husband; Barrymore impersonates Colbert's "little boy" over the telephone; and she takes Ameche to divorce court on grounds of mental cruelty, ("Oh, that again, says the judge.) 'ine second feature, "Cluny Brown" deals with the oddball romance between be-tween a lady plumber (Jennifer (Jen-nifer Jones) and a refugee (Charles Boyer) in England shortly before World War II. But the film is also an acute satire on British class attitudes atti-tudes and foibles. Put all these movies together, to-gether, and you've got enough craziness to get you in the mood for New Year's Eve. There is an admission charge for each picture. Prices are $2 for adults, $1.50 for members of the Utah Cinema Council, Wasatch Film Front, and Salt Lake Art Center; and $1 for children. The Art Center is located at 20 South West Temple (enter through the southwest doors) and their telephone number is 328-4201. Library has Dickens of a time with classic films Next to Shakespeare, perhaps per-haps Charles Dickens has inspired more movies than any other author. The Salt Lake City Library is showing a Dickens festival for the month of December an appropriate time for the man who wrote'.'A' Christmas The first film, on Dec. 4, is "Great Expectations," the author's famous story about the young boy Pip, his rise from poverty to wealth (thanks to a mysterious benefactor), and his struggle with pretentious class attitudes atti-tudes of his time. In this 1947 film, director David Lean combined a number of moods he was Gothically spooky in the graveyard scene where young Pip is assaulted by an escaped convict; he showed the brooding pervasity of characters char-acters like Miss Havisham, the once-jilted bride who is a hermit in her wedding chamber, cham-ber, withxits cobwebbed wedding dress and moldy (cake; and he.cooveyed Pip'jf confused passion for Miss Havisham's ward, Estella. The cast included John Mills as the grown-up Pip, Jean Simmons as a young Estella, and Alec Guinnes as Pip's friend, Herbert Pocket. The Dec. 11 film, "Oliver" is Dickens with a musical beat. It won Best Picture for its year, 1968. Director Carol Reed preserved the tuneful, fairy-tale charm of the story, turning Victorian England into a musical stage crammed cram-med with singers and dancers. dan-cers. And he guided a cast of players who would never be so good again including Ron Moody as Fagin, Shani Wallis as Nancy, Jack Wild as the '.Artful Dodger and .MarkLeffer Qlj verTwjsl The dark side of Dickens was represented too, with slimy Oliver Reed as Bill Sykes. The Dec. 18 film is the 1936 M-G-M version of "Tale of Two Cities," dressed up in classic old-movie style. The French Revolution is brought to vivid life; Dickens' eccentric eccen-tric characters flit in and out of the action (portrayed by fine character actors who were in abundant supply in Hollywood of the '30s); and Dickens' heroine, Lucy Manette, frees her father from the Bastille, only to risk losing her aristocratic lover to the guillotine. The hero of the hour, of course, is Sidney Carton (brilliantly played by Ronald , Colman) the cynical; cyni-cal; lawyer .sacrificing himself him-self for the woman he loves while the strains of "Oh, Come All Ye Faithful" drift down from the heavens. For lovers of Hollywood sentiment, senti-ment, it was a great moment. mo-ment. Since Christmas and New Year's fall on Fridays, the program ends there. The films play on. Fridays at 2 p.m. (25 cent admission) and 7 p.m (50 cent admission). BUILDING 6EGV1CE6 I PLUMBING I HOT TUBS & SAUNAS If you would like to be listed in our Building Services just call 649-9014. Water World of Park City 1351 East Hwy. 248, 4 Park City 649-2022 We specialize in: spas, steams and saunas; complele installations and service. WE SELL FUN! Universal Spa Systems 6980 South 400 West Midvale, Ut. 5667727 MAINTENANCE Shangri La Ent. Specializing in window washing, carpet cleaning, janitorial, maintenance and repair service. Commercial or residential. Free estimates. Licensed and insured. Call Bob Grieve 6496887 SNOWPLOWING Mountain Homes Snow plowing and removal. Low, low season rates. Top notch service. Call now, ask for Mike 649-9776 Park City Snowplow & Landscape Co. P.O. 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There are a variety of Soave wines on the market with such label designations as Soave Classico and Soave Bolla. All the Soave wines originally were bottled in fifths, though several are now available as either '-i gallons or liters. The attraction of Soave wines has been their price; they afford quality drinking at very reasonably prices a fifth is priced from $2-$2.95 and a 1 z gallon at $3.50- $4. Critics of this light Italian wine claim it lacks character. Soave, they charge, is a smooth, pleasant tasting wine lacking any distinguishing features. Several people we know have sampled the wine and described its taste as thin, almost watery. This is perhaps an exaggeration, although certainly Soave does not display the body and nose of a Rhine wine. Should you switch? If you enjoy the taste and great color of the Rhine wines, probably not! The savings will be small and your satisfaction reduced, but the only way to know for certain is to try the Soave. Q: " have read of relatively new wineries winning numerous awards. How are they able to do this?" A: In the past 10 years, many new wineries have entered the extremely com petitive wine market and have been met with a degree of success, occasionally instant success. In most cases, the key to such success suc-cess has been an existing, premium vineyard. California has always harbored grape growers whose primary function was to produce quality grapes not make wine. Scores of respected vineyards have sold their produce to the larger wineries for years Mirassou being one such example. As winemaking became a prestige business (or hobby) for wealthy Americans, those with newly acquired oil and gas money sought suitable vineyards to establish wineries. Hence, a 10-year-old winery may produce its wine from vines 100 years old. In addition, this new generation of wine makers has used its money to buy the very best equipment along with well aged cooperage. They also market extremely well, publishing newsletters and frequently entering their product in regional, national and international competition. Their quality control is usually unmatched. They bring science into the process by establishing a close working relationship with such institutions in-stitutions as the University of California at Davis, and they always use the best of raw materials. All these factors have allowed a select group of wineries to take a commanding comman-ding lead in a relatively short period of time. i. " have several well-aged wines I would like to sell. How can I do this. " A: There are few outlets for the disposal of privately owned wine. Large collections (such as those acquired through an estate settlement) are normally auctined off. Frequently a large collection may also be offered of-fered to several local restaurants or clubs. If you have just a few bottles, your wine merchant mer-chant may be willing to take them on consignment, con-signment, though this is not allowed in Utah. Assuming you are trying to regain their value, you might trade them for newer wines on a 3 for 1 or 5 for 1 ratio. Your local wine store might even be amenable to such a tt &m r i ! .-- - y) k ill 'Mfflw IP rSA;3 " 1 Iff H,? k - ' 1 DON BRAD Y A S S O C I A T E S lean your jeans on us. r Interior Design, Residential and Commercial, Furniture Packages available starting at $5,000. Park Meadows Plaza Building, Park City, Utah. Box 1678 801-649-4044 1 |