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Show Tjf yy y -pp -jj yff VS l'frrBl' "tig - -" - - - - , ' - A X ' X V . v . v V - Page B6 Thursday, January 6, 1983 Park City iNews MoII WnEIM by Rick Brough Snow Park Lodge at Deer Valley A SEAFOOD BUFFET Thursday Evenings from 6:30 p.m. 649-1000 DEER VALLEY New tear-jerkers are terminal cases r A Classic Recommended Good double-feature double-feature material Time-killer For masochists only V2 HonkyTonkMan Six Weeks There's no idea so old that the movies can't revive it. This past month we were given not just one but two of those "lingering death" flicks that are calculated to have you dragging out your hankies. In "Honky Tonk Man," Clint Eastwood is tubercular country-western singer Red Stovall, who travels out of the Oklahoma Dust Bowl of the 1930s, hoping to make it to Nashville before his ravaged lungs give out on him. In the climactic sequence, Eastwood manages to rasp out an album of songs which send him to posthumous glory even as he wastes away. Using a similar plot line, the adorable little girl of "Six Weeks" (Katherine Healy) fulfills her life-long dream to dance as Clara in a production of the "Nutcracker," "Nut-cracker," and suffers her fatal attack only minutes after af-ter wiggling out of her tu-tu. In each case, there are loved ones left behind. After Eastwood dies, the nephew who drove him to Nashville (Kyle Eastwood) joins up with the girl they picked up on the road (Alexa Kanin), and the pair leaves to join their fellow Okies in California. Califor-nia. You know, of course, they will cherish Red's memory to their dying days. When Healy dies, her surrogate father (a politician played by Dudley Moore) is left to sniffle bravely and comfort her mother, played by Mary Tyler Moore. The only blemish on this tidy picture is that Dudley is already married. The script takes note of his wife's anguish, but it's a little hard to like Dudley when the picture shows that he (a) neglects her to work on his political campaign, and (b) leaves her completely to form his "other family" with Mary Tyler Moore and daughter until the girl dies. The films are remarkably alike in their failures. They exist mostly as contrived situations for the medical melodrama. These people are brought together not so much because they're attracted at-tracted to each other as people, but because one of them is dying. And their respective worlds politics and the country-music scene are superficially covered. Dudley M. plays a "people's politician" who is supposedly the darling of the electoral scene, even though he never defines his political beliefs beyond a declaration that he hates war and pities poor people. Though he's just running for the California Califor-nia assembly, his staff stages a series of lush parties par-ties (for the script to shove the characters together) that would build a sizable warchest for a presidential candidate. There's no real attraction between the male and female Moores starring in the picture. And although Dudley Moore has a few good scenes with young Healy, it's not enough to support the fluffy "montage" "mon-tage" scenes of the characters charac-ters having fun together on the beach, in the streets, at the amusement park, etc. "Honky Tonk Man" also fails at human relationships, and is even weaker at trying to be a story about country music. Eastwood is definitely not a singer he sounds like The Man With No Name wheezing out the lyrics. And it's completely unbelievable that Red draws enough attention in Nashville Nash-ville to get a recording session, when he's surrounded surround-ed by clearly superior singers like Lefty Frizzell, Shelly West, and Porter Wagoner. (In one poignantly ironic touch, the dying Red falters in the middle of a song, and the back up vocalist who takes h's place is played by the late Marty Robbins.) Eastwood has played the tight-faced, cynical hero so long that he has difficulty playing a Dreamer hero. As in "Bronco Billy" his character is missing a certain cer-tain vainglorious quality. In the beginning of the movie, Factu'noH chnnre enrne WOn- drous, welcome emotions. He's cocky, a little frightened, and most of all, exposed. But later, when the disease creeps up on him, Eastwood tightens up again. In some ways, this is his attempt to do a "Paper Moon," with his son Kyle as the youngster who is more adult than the adults. The younger Eastwood plays a character who drives a car better than the decaying Red; can think quickly in a crisis, and even contributes song lyrics. But he can't convey the proper combination com-bination of canniness and youthful naivete in the kid. Kyle E. plays the part with a dull-faced look of awe that only works for those scenes where he discovers the wonders won-ders of drugs and sex. "Six Weeks" and "Honky Tonk Man" are slow death all right. But not quite, the kind they intended. Trivia T& 7T O ran TO in Deer Valley luxury 3-bedroom condominiums from $425,000 .... a place of quiet elegance and calm serenity. .... located in the Silver Lake community atop Bald Eagle Mountain. ... view oriented toward spectacular Flagstaff Mountain. ... visit our model, open from 12-6 p.m. daily, or call your favorite Broker. ... for information telephone 649-3995 or 649-1200 Deer Valley ... a world apart. , (8 fBiliPi ::lfll FredButtrick Fred's on a streak! Fred Buttrick is on a winning streak with the paper's Trivia Corner contests and other Trivia champs are tearing their hair out in frustration ! Fred knew that the arch-enemy of Fu Manchu was Sir Nayland Smith; that the trademark of Tom Snyder's "Tomorrow" show was a teddy bear; and that Stig Strand is the latest Swedish rival for American skier Phil Mahre. His prize is a free sandwich from the Main Street Deli. (If his prize was a Deli sandwich he had to pay for, that would be awful chintzy of us!) If your own trivial knowledge is wide, answer an-swer the questions below, then contact the Park City Newspaper at 649-9014, or come to our offices of-fices at 419 Main St., before Tuesday noon. 1. Name the man who sang, "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha Ha ! " 2. Who was (a) the It Girl and (b) the Oomph Girl? 3. What color was the Park City Newspaper banner last week? Library films focus on British directors It will be a Lean month for. movies at the Salt Lake City Library David Lean, that is. The theme for the Friday films this month is "British directors," but don't let the title fool you. Three of the films are from one director, David Lean. The fourth is by filmmaker Joseph Losey. The festival starts off with "Blithe Spirit" (Jan. 7) Lean's 1945 adaptation of the Noel Coward play about a man (Rex Harrison) who finds his dead wife has returned to haunt him after his remarriage. Frumpy British comedienne Margaret Mar-garet Rutherford co-stars as Madame Arcati, the medium. The Jan. 14 film is "Brief Encounter." Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson play two unhappily married people who meet at a trainside cafe and carry on a short but passionate romance. "Oliver Twist" (Jan. 21) starred the young Alec Guinness as a scraggly long-nosed Fagin a characterization charac-terization that ' aroused charges of anti-Semitism upon the movie's release in 1948. The film cottars Robert Rob-ert Newton as Bill Sikes, John Howard Davies as Oliver, and Anthony Newley as the Artful Dodger. The film on Jan 28 is "The Servant." This Joseph Losey film is a deft psychological study of a butler (Dirk Bogarde) who gradually dominates his spineless young master (James Fox). The films play at 2 p.m. (for 25 cents admission) and 7 p.m. (50 cents). The library is located at 209 E. 500 South. For further information call 363-5733. Swan Lake tickets to go on sale Jan. 10 Tickets for Ballet West's "Swan Lake" wUI go on sale Monday, Jan. 10 for performances from Feb 9-19 in Salt Lake City. Performances will begin Wednesday, Feb. 9 at 8 p m ui the Capitol Theatre and continue nightly except Sunday, through Feb. 19. Matinee performances wUI be at 2 p.m. on Feb. ll, 12, 18 and 19. There will be performances per-formances in Ogden on Feb. 22 at 8 p.m., and Feb. 23 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tickets range from $6 to $20 for matinees, and $8 to $30 for evening performances. They are available through the Ballet West box office in the lobby of the Capitol Theatre, 50 West 200 South, or through ZC-MIDatrix ZC-MIDatrix outlets. The Ballet West box office is open from 11 a m to 5:30 p.m. beginning Jan. 10. Telephone orders will be taken with a Mastercard, Visa, or American Express Card. For more information call the Ballet West box office 533-3333 ' |