everyday romantic turmoil, and proving himselfunstoppably witty in the process. Glasgow; GET
0 The Purple Rose of Cairo (PG) (Woody Allen. US. 1985) Mia
Farrow. Jeff Daniels. Van Johnson.
82 mins. In Depression-ridden America Mia Farrow is a downtrodden waitress and dogsbody
to an unappreciative spouse. She ; gains solace from her frequent visits to the local movie house where she
escapes into a world ofexotic
l locales. witty banter exchanged over
cocktails and romance where every
5 endingisahappy one.
Edinburgh: Dominion
0 Red Sonja (pg) (Richard Fleischer, US. 1985) Brigette Nielson. Arnold
Schwarzenegger, Sandahl Bergman. 88 mins. The Conan the Barbarian
. team conjure up another slice of sword and sorcery with Sylvester
Stallone‘s girlfriend Brigette Nielson as a legendary warrior out to combat the wicked queen Gedren who has evil designs on world domination.
Hokum.
Strathclyde: ABC (Greenock)
0 Repo Man ( 18) (Alex Cox. US. 1984) Emilio Estevez. Harry Dean Stanton. 92 mins. Bored LA punk takes up a job as a repo man (one who repossesses cars for finance companies) and an old hand shows him the ropes. They find themselves on the trail ofa vehicle with something decidedly strange in the boot. Harry Dean Stanton, car
. chases. hardcore music. and a
l plethora ofweird. and I mean weird. '; characters - this deserved cult classic 5 is the film with everything. almost.
Glasgow; GF'I‘
0 Return to Oz (U) (Walter Murch. US. 1985) Nicol Williamson. Jean Marsh. Fairuza Balk. Piper Laurie. 109 mins. Six months after her resumption of life down on the farm in Kansas Dorothy is pitched anew into that land over the rainbow. However. the Yellow Brick Road is in a shocking state ofdisrepair. the Emerald City is in ruins. and there isn't a Munchkin in sight. Now the land shudders under the dark shadow ofthe Nome King and the wicked Princess Mombi. Dorothy
has arrived in the nick oftime to
restore order.
' A proficient example oftraditional '; storytelling with excellent , Claymation effects compensating for the lack ofmagic and music that so
endearedJudy Garland's visit to our
hearts this will be best enjoyed by
older. book-loving children. Strathclyde; Kelburne
0 St Elmo’s Fire (15) (Joel Schumacher,US. 1985) Emilio Estevez. Rob Lowe, Judd Nelson,
Ally Sheedy. Seven recent college graduates. a fairly dull rather than
magnificent lot by and large. face all the sorts ofproblems that glossy. rich American college graduates usually face in this sort of glossy. rich American college graduate type of movie.
Glasgow; ABC (Sauchiehall Street). Lothian; ABC. Strathclyde; ABC (Greenock). ABC (Kilmarnock)
0 Santa Claus-The Movie (U) (Jeannot Szwarc. US. 1985) Dudley
FILM LIST —
The genial frame of American actor David Huddleston can currently be seen all across Central Scotland as the title character in Santa Claus—The Movie, a costly fantasy extravaganza
aimed at family audiences. Despite the
sackful of critical brlckbats thrown in the film's direction he remains convinced of its charm. ‘As an actor I felt a definite responsibility in approaching the role. Many children seeing the film may keep the image they see of Santa Claus forever so it
l
was important that the image be one of ‘
a warm, human being and not some
Phoney department store Santa Claus. I 5
E thinkl succeed in that. Also, it pleases
me that the film is not just for children but also for the whole family. Christmas is a tamin time when people
l
FROM SALESMAN T0 SANTA
e .M
should get together and communicate. I hope it will become an annual event, starting this Christmas that audiences can share in the wonder and joy of Santa Claus — The Movie. Hopefully it will become a perennial.‘
Huddleston had been playing In Death of a Salesman on Broadway with Dustin Hoffman when he was cast as Santa Claus. As the film relies on vast special effects for its sense oI-wonder he was on call throughout a long and tedious schedule. ‘The last two months were mainly flying sequences which were hard work. The reindeer had been trained for about six to eight months before I got there but I spent some time getting used to them. They are wild animals but working with horses a lot on all the westerns I’ve made was
useful.’ l
At 850 million the film is one of the most expenslve ever made and Huddleston was duly impressed by the scale of the enterprise on which they had embarked. ‘The sets were extraordinary,’ he confirms. ‘They were all made of real wood. The toy tunnel was about 100yds long and filled wlth handmade toys. This was the work of Anthony Pratt, Boris Karloff’s son. I suspect when Academy Award time comes around that the technical aspects will be recognised with lots and lots of nominations.’
The script for Santa Claus-The Movie is by David Newman who, co-lncldentally, wrote the script for Bad Company (1972) the debut of Oscar-winning director Robert Benton In which Huddleston appeared. ‘The character I played in that was my favourite. He was a killer, a robber and a thief, so multifaceted and so sure of himself yet somewhere underneath there was a warmth and cynicism. A good team worked on that film and I enjoyed It very much.’
For the large part of his screen career Huddleston has been typecast as a villain, menacing such luminaries as John Wayne, James Stewart, Richard Burton and Gregory Peck. His screen Image changed however when he appeared ln Blazing Saddles (1974). ‘Up until Blazing Saddles I had always played policemen and baddles, real straight parts. Mel Brooks saw me in Bad Company and asked me to be In Blazing Saddles and it was kind of a tumlng point for me. I had done about twenty-five musicals and comedies on stage, yet after all that film people would come up to me and say, “I didn’t know you could do comedy." So I was able to branch out a little.’
The clever Saltind dynasty have options on Huddleston for Santa Claus 2 and 3 should his services be required but, for the moment, be Is enthusiastically promoting the film across the globe and planning to spend Christmas at home with his family in Virginia.
(Allan Hunter)
I —
Moore. John Lithgow. David Huddleston. 108 mins. With Christmas under threat from the unscrupulous scheming ofevil toy manufacturer B.Z.. Santa and his reindeer must ride to the rescue of all the children in the world.
Cruelly misjudged seasonal story that is never quite as bad as it threatens to be and. at least. has a slight edge over the dim Goonies. A good panto seems infinitely preferable.
Edinburgh; Odeon. Glasgow; Odeon, Salon. Strathclyde; Odeon (Ayr). Odeon (Hamilton). Regal
0 Secrets, Secrets (15) (Guiseppe
Bertolucci. Italy, 1985) Alida Valli. Stefania Sandrelli, Mariangela Melato. 93 mins. Terrorism, its cause and effect on the lives of ordinary people, is the subject ofthis highly acclaimed Italian production.
l l l l I
Edinburgh; Filmhouse o The Seven Samurai (PG) (Akira Kurosawa, Japan, 1956) Toshiro . Mifune,Takashi Shimura. 155 mins. Americanised as The Magnificent I Seven. this medieval adventure remains vivid even today, with a restless narrative inescapably moving towards the explosive , violence of the climax Glasgow; GF'T! o The Spider’s Slratagem (PG) (Bernardo Bertolucci. Italy, 1970) Guilio Brogi. Alida Valli. 97 mins. A l young man returns to the village in the Po valley where his father was murdered by the fascists and finds out that the truth of the events is not quite as he had imagined it. Bertolucci is at his most controlled, and therefore probably least flamboyant, in this study of a son whose self-image depends on the identity of his father. Edinburgh; Filmhouse
O Steaming ( 18) (Joseph Losey. UK. 1984) Vanessa Redgrave. Sarah Miles. Diana Dors. 95 mins. Gloomy. old-fashioned film version of Neil Gunn's stage hit. A decaying bathhouse in London is the setting in which an unlikely collection of stereotypes congregate to swap experiences and offer advice on sex. money and personal satisfaction. When the site is required for property development they unite to oppose the move.
A top-notch cast offer some class acting and Dors is allowed a warm swansong but this is Losey far from his best. Edinburgh; Filmhouse o Streets of Fire ( 15) (Walter Hill. US. 1984) Michael Pare. Diane Lane, Rick Moranis. 94 mins. When a rock singer is kidnapped her former boyfriend rides to the rescue. Swaggering comic-strip rock 6; roll
fable that is hard to take seriously.
inc-List 1'3 beast-in 33 '