watchable. Glasgow: Grosvenor.
O Billlg (15) (Roger Young, UK,
1984) David Keith, Malcolm
McDowell, David Suchet. 119 mins.
An American Olympic runner in
Moscow agrees to smuggle
documents to the West and winds up
deported to a forced labour camp for his generosity.
Standard P.O.W. drama with the Gulag adequately substituting for Colditz and all the tired cliches of the genre intact. Glasgow: ABC Sauchiehall Street.
0 The Holcrolt Covenant (15) (John Frankenheimer, UK, 1985) Michael Caine, Victoria Tennant, Anthony Andrews. 112 mins. Caine plays New York architect Noel Holcroft, who is summoned to Geneva and informed that his father, a Nazi general, had entered into a suicide pact at the war’s close , leaving a substantial amount of money to make amends for the lingering horrors of the Third Reich.
Frankenheimer flounders in a morass of location-hopping exposition, compounded by a shortage of action. Caine retains
' dignity, but how many dud films can
his reputation withstand?
Glasgow: ABC (Sauchiehall St)
0 The Honorary Coan (18) (John
MacKenzie, UK, 1983) Michael
Caine, Richard Gere, Bob Hoskins.
104 mins. Unworthy screen
translation of one of Graham
Greene’s finest works. In Northern
Argentina Gere is the doctor
incapable of love or commitment,
Caine is the booze-sodden British
Consul. Their paths cross with fatal
consequences when Caine is
mistakenly kidnapped by rebels who require Gere’s medical aid.
Lifeless exploration of the bare bones of Greeneland’s burnt-out cases flawlessly acted by Caine in an award-winning performance. Edinburgh: Playhouse.
0 lley Largo (PG) (John Huston, US,
1948) Humphrey Bogart, Lauren
Bacall, Edward G. Robinson. 101
mins. A group of disparate
individuals are trapped by a once powerful gangster in an isolated hotel on a Florida Key. First-rate melodrama, tautly directed by
Huston and made memorable by a
gallery of skillfully etched characters
— Claire Trevor’s alcoholic moll ,
capable of any degredation for the
promise of a drink, Robinson’s brutal big shot and Bogart’s disillusioned war veteran who can only be pushed so far. A classic.
Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
O Ute Force (18) (Tobe Hooper, UK, 1985) Steve Railsback, Peter Firth, Frank Finlay. 101 mins. Set in 1986, the arrival of Halley’s Comet is the prelude to an endearineg daffy yarn about vampires from outer space drawing the very lifeforce from our humble planet. Suave scientist Finlay, butch SAS colonel Firth, and telepathic astronaut Railsback are our intrepid heroes
One American wag has already dubbed this wild farrago Plan Ten From Outer Space. Unashamed codswallop it is too, but ridiculously enjoyable all the same. Cult potential considerable.
CHUCK JONES — MASTER ANIMATOB
On Monday 11 November the Edinburgh Filmhouse will play host to a Guardian Lecture by veteran Hollywood animator Chuck Jones.
Jones spent quarter of a century at the animation department at Warner Brothers enjoying a unique lack oi front-office interference as he consistently directed some of the best Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Road Runner cartoons. His ‘masterpieces in mlnature’ were acknowledged with 14 Academy Award nominations and 3 wins in the short subjects category. He now admits, ‘These cartoons were never made for children. Nor were they made for adults. They were made for me.’
The stringent restrictions of time and energy were compensated for by a boundless invention and creativity evident in every mirth-inducing frame. Pace and timing are essential in a five-minute cartoon and as Jones refines his art to its purest ionn of a chase or a conflict between hunter and
hunted moments of inspired lunacy invariably arose. There are no limitations on the possiblities for characters created in a fertile mind and in animation Ioglcality need never prevail. The uninhibited glee and zest in a film like Kitty Komered or Duck Amuck and the wicked humour of To Beep or Not to Beep are irresistible. The surreal world of Air. Jones clearly influenced a whole breed oi filmmakers. What was Gremlins if not a feature-length Loony Tune?
As a complement to Jones' appearance, Filmhouse are screening selections of his work throughout November, including some rare British premieres of three cartoons based on the stories of Rudyard Kipling (2 Nov, 2pm) and a Cricket trilogy (9 Nov, 2pm). On November 11 Jones will illustrate his work and answer questions from the audience. it should be a memorable evening. (Allan Hunter)
Glasgow: Rio. Lothian: Regal. Strathclyde: ABC (Greenock), Kelburne, Odeon (Hamilton)
0 Light Physical Injuries (18) (Gyorgy Szomjas, Hungary, 1983) Karoly Eperjes, Mariann Erdos, Peter Andorai. 91 mins. Released from incarceration Csaba discovers his wife happily ensconsed with another man in their flat. A divorce follows but an acute housing shortage means
that the trio must continue to abide under the one roof.
Sounds more like the plot of a standard British tv sit-com but this Hungarian comedy promises sharp humour with social comment. Glasgow: Glasgow Film Theatre.
0 Ladyhawke (PG) (Richard Donner, US, 1985) Matthew Broderick,
Michelle Pfeiffer, Rutger Hauer. 121 mins. An impressive breadth of scale
in the production enlivens an otherwise dull sword and sorcery epic set in the middle-ages when a black knight and his trusty hawk set out to avenge his exile at the hands of the evil Bishop of Aquila. Strathclyde: La Scala, Saltcoats. o The Last Dragon (15) (Michael Schultz. US, 1985) Taimak, Vanity, Chris Murney. 107 mins. Unbelievable martial-arts disco movie featuring the hit single Rythmn of the Night by DeBarge. Strathclyde: La Scala, Saltcoats. Glasgow: Salon. Strathclyde: East Kilbride. 0 Mad Max - Beyond Thunderdome (15) (George Miller and George Ogilvie, Australia, 1985) Mel Gibson, Tina Turner, Bruce Spence. 107 mins. Robbed in the desert by a flying scavenger, subdued by Tina Turner in Bartertown, forced into deadly combat with Masterblaster in the Thunderdome arena and hailed as a new messiah by a group of children fresh from the pages of Lord of the Flies Max has every reason to be mad in his third adventure. The action set-pieces are as exhilarating as ever but the directors spend too much time admiring their canvas of a bloated, post-apocalypse society for the comfort of this viewer. Edinburgh: ABC. Glasgow: ABC (Clarkston Rd), ABC (Sauchiehall St), Grosvenor, Rio. Lothian: ABC. Strathclyde: ABC (Greenock), ABC (Kilmamock), Kelburne, Odeon (Hamilton) 0 Micki & Maude (PG‘,(Blake Edwards US, 1984) Dudley Moore, Amy lrving, Ann Reinking. 117 mins. Middle-aged Moore, presenter of a trivial TV show, pines for parenthood but his careerist wife Micki refuses to play ball. Then he meets charming cellist Maude whom he subsequently impregnates. He offers to divorce Micki and marry Maude but then Micki announces that she too is expecting his child. The frantic complications of double paternity ensue. An old-fashioned bedroom farce ofa comedy from Pink Panther director Edwards that won Moore a comedy actor of the year award in the face of competition from Eddie Murphy, Bill Murray and Steve Martin!
0 lehlma: A Life in Four Chapters
(15) (Paul Schrader, US/Japan,
1985) Ken Ogata. 120 mins. See caption review. Glasgow: GET.
0 My Beautiful Laundrette ( 15) (Stephen Frears, UK, 1985) Daniel Day-Lewis, Gordon Wamecke. 94 mins. See caption review. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
0 My First Wife (15) (Paul Cox, Australia, 1984) John Hargreaves, Wendy Hughes, Lucy Angwin. 94 mins. Radio disc- jockey John and his wife of fourteen years Helen endure love, pain and the whole damned thing as their union is split asunder by his obsessive jealousy and need to be cherished. Daughter Lucy is caught in the crossfire.
Generally acclaimed Australian feature whose universal theme of breaking up is hard to do is undermined by a somewhat equivocal handling. Edinburgh:
30 The List l-l4 November