The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, March 25, 1976, Page Page 5, Image 5
t
By Chuck Cromer
Hollywood biographies of famed
American musical, literary and
historical figures have during the
years been notably high-handed in
distorting the truth behind their
subject matter.
The biographical fiction films
Hollywood created in the 1940s (the
decade that Hollywood biofantasies
were at their zenith)
brainwashed us into believing that
Errol Flynn, in his role as George
Armstrong Custer in the film They
Died With Their Boots On, was a
paragon of justice who sincerely
felt the Indian was a noble
American.
At the same time, propaganda
pictures made during World War II
presented the "complete and
untainted truth" concerning the
sadistic and barbarous Axis hordes
that peace-loving Americans
needed to rise up in arms against to
meet the threat to their families
and world democracy. This type of
picture dominated the screen.
Holly's attempts to rewrite
history have faltered during the
vears when World War II and fhp
threat of a massive world communist
takeover subsided. In the
50s and 60s Americans encouraged
Hollywood to provide them with
realistic movies of contemporary
society and light comedies
satirizing American institutions.
Moviegoers wished to be entertained,
but not lied to.
Americans' need to escape
In recent years, with the onslaught
of recession, inflation and
a stagnant economy, Americans
have once again felt the need to
escape into a world of fantasy.
Many Americans have with_r
iu. m.
uaciwii niiu uic aucicijf ui me cms
hoping to displace their difficulties
by adopting the lifestyle of an era
that was more prosperous and
easy-going than our own.
Sensing this transition and our
engrossing phobias for nostalgia
and fantasy. Hollywood has at
tempted to art ?? nur vehicle for
James Brolin
Entertain
briefi
Music concert
set Wednesday
Music of the recorder and harp
sicnora win oe presented ui n p.m.
Wednesday in Fraser Hall.
od fan
oc n n r?i c f nntinnc Kir earning
\ZUVM|^>UV iuviui itJ i-/j OV/1 VIII g UO
Jaws and The Exorcist to satisfy
our fetishes for shock sensations
while producing films like The
Towering Inferno and Earthquake
to meet the demands of the
disaster lovers.
In the past year Hollywood has
also resurrected the fictitious film
biography that was prevalent in
the 40s. but has somewhat chanced
- - - O
the format. Instead of bios about
historical figures, Hollywood
filmmakers chose to produce flicks
about their own movie star legends
such as Clark Gable, W.C. Fields
l m i ni
aiiu Ejiroi riynn.
Gable-fact or fiction?
If the most recent example of
this genre, Gable and Lombard, is
anv indication of what wp miaht
expect from it in the future, the
series will be shortlived.
Any producer or director who
initiates or perpetuates such
^,1 ?i i-i: '
aidiiuciuus Iiiisiepicseiiutlion OI
facts about Hollywood's most
memorable stars as this film does
should be run out of town on a rail
for lack of good taste.
As a study of the six-year
romance of Clark Gable and Carole
Lombard, the film is a fictitious
farce. The only truth conveyed to
the viewer through the torturous
131 minutes of the film is that these
two excellent film stars were
actually in love with each other,
something we knew from the
beginning.
This love Gable and Lombard
shared from 1935 to 1942 was indeed
an excellent subject for a
feature film. Gable was undoubtedly
the most worshipped
American film star of the 30s.
During that decade, affectionally
called the Golden Age of
Hollywood, he was nominated for
three Academy Awards for Best
Actor and he won that prestigious
hnnnr Vtto om/ia ?%
iviiui ivri Ilia pvL IV! IliailkC 111 UIC
movie It Happened One Night in
1934.
Gable was the epitome of
masculinity-rugged, handsome,
virile, gentle and amazed with his
success. All men imitated him
while women transformed their
:-4- J 1?*- - ^ ?
uwu uectus iiiiu ureuiniiKe uaDie
replicas. Gable was voted "The
King" of Hollywood by the
American public in 1938 and was at
the height of his success after his
immortal characterization of
Rhett Butler in Gone With The
Wind in 1939.
Carole Lombard was perhaps
the finest screwball comedian that
Hollywood had in the 30s. She was
sexy, amusing, elegant,
glamorous, sophisticated, serious
and wealthy. She also was
demanding?and receivingtiie
Ann ~ 1 *i? l ? * -
fiu,uvu a (jitiuic uy inc laie ws.
Even though their love affair
began in earnest in 1936, the two
wmmmmmmmmm
ment
?
Carolina music faculty membei
Jerry Curry will play solo worki
for harpsichord by Blow anc
Geoffroy. Recorder player Jeffrey
1/H V IO VYIII ^/Vl 11/1 111 WU1 ivr> ui
Telemann, Handel and Senaille
The public is invited free of charge
tasizes 1
C The Gar
Entertai
ryM-^" ' - s??H
3?>~
; -J-;..?,. p
.: ,;=-;.Aiv;;-: ; v ;"7:?
^ s * 'JF
V
X v., .
James Brolin and Jill Clayburgh s
1930's who fell in love and defied com
Lombard," a Sidney J. Furle Film am
had been distant friends since 1932
when they starred in their only film
together, No Man of Her Own.
Between 1936 and 1939, Gable and
Lombard shared a love affair that
was never reallv keot a secret
from the Hollywood press or the
consumer public.
Almost everyone knew they were
constantly together and would
eventually marry when Gable's
wife, Ria Langham, granted him a
divorce, which she agreed to do in
1939. Gable and Lombard were
married in March 1939 and lived
happily together until her death in
a Diane crash in Januarv 1942
The film Gable and Lombard
would have us believe otherwise
with its total distortion of the facts.
Scriptwriter Barry Sander decided
to rearrange their lives for the
picture to make it more
melodramatic and commercially
** i-wl ^ 4. ~ 12
dcccpiauit; iu a muss auuience.
Sander's version has Gable,
played by James Brolin, and
Lombard, played by Jill
Clayburgh, secretly meeting at
hidden rendezvous for almost three
Music trio
to play Tuesday
'PU ^ KT X 7 1_ n .
me i>ew ioik ^aineraia, a
highly acclaimed musical trio, will
perform at 8 p.m. Tuesday in
Fraser Hall.
The performance will feature
works of early masters as well as
contemporary music.
r ine concert will be open to the
> public, free of charge.
1 While in Columbia, the group will
/ also conduct a lecture demon/
stration, discussing the technical
and interpretive aspects of the new
music which they perform.
xeroes'
1 V
neeock
towMt I ' r
Hk. B
' ' B
j^SBSHP^KJ :
in* IBSi
<ry $m ,JB
J W ?MM
tar as the two screen idols of Use
mention in Universale "Gable and
[1 Harry Korshak Production.
years in hope that nobody would
detect their relationship, supposedly
because it would abruptly
and totally end their film careers.
To further the insult, Sander rigs
a phony 1939 paternity suit against
Gable where only the testimony of
ionium u uttii rescue mm oy leinng
the public know the truth about
where Gable was spending all his
nights and with whom he was
shacking up.
In essence, for the sake of
romantic fiction, Sanders hopes we
will apppnf Hie nnnconca fViof HoKln
wr ?m? >*1U IIVIIOVIH7V UlOl VICAUIV^
and Lombard were sacrificing
their careers as the truth (?) about
their relationship was disclosed.
In reality, there was a paternity
suit against Gable in 1937 that was
the joke of Hollywood that year.
ml ' -i-i 1' *
uie case: was quicKiy aismisseo
from court when the plaintiff was
indicted for fraud and perjury.
Even if the suit had occurred as
Sanders depicted it, Lombard's
and Gable's careers would never
have been shattered, as they were
the most noDular film Dersonalities
publicly and financially that
'Frogs' shown
today in coliseum
*
The Medicine Show Theatre
Ensemble, a 10-member theatre
company, will be performing today
r\ ?i f 1 ^ i i o c / k 1 1 UaiU'A t\<> t i /v 1
mi iiic ivuoouii uuiioc pauu di i
p.m.
Their main performance will be
"Frogs". The performance is open
to the public at no charge.
lives
Hollywood had at that time.
A critical disaster
Artistically and critically, Gable
and Lombard is also a disaster.
Director Sidney Furie (director of
such films as Little Foss and Big
Halsey and Lady Sings the Blues),
is a continuous bore. His
motionless camera lulls tne viewer
to sleep. Michael Legrand's
musical score is also dull and
extremely repetitious, showing a
tntnl lonlr nf imartinalinn
WVUI VI UllU^llIULlUll.
Allen Garfield portrays his usual
character actor stereotype as the
coniving, manipulative MGM
studio chief god Louis B. Mayer.
His entire characterization in the
ftlm t o fnf ollvr okl/i
1UI11 10 IUW41IJ pi ^U1V.M1UIC.
The dialogue is quite trite and
amateurish. Name-dropping of
Hollywood's most famous movies
and stars of the 30s constantly
bombards the viewer along with
predictable conslusions of comic
lines and episodes.
Our sympathetic regrets should
be forwarded to Brolin and
Clayburgh for ever attempting to
portray such difficult roles as
Gable and Lombard. Brolin particularly
requires our pity because
i. a *l?
ui iiis suiuicit i leiiueiicies. rus
depiction of Gable as an unsophisticated,
easily-manipulated
! _t_ 1 1 -1 1 LI
iuck is niueeu uepiorauie.
The viewer must really fantasize
to pretend Brolin is Gable, and to
accomplish that, your imagination
would certainly have to run away
with you. Not even Marcus Welby,
m m rv 1 J * * -
ai.u., couia penorm a miracie 10
save this performance.
Clayburgh could not act her way
out of a kindergarten recital. Her
shallow rendition of Lombard as a
no-holds-barred hellraiser, who is
foul of mouth and obsessed with an
inferiority complex about not
meeting the qualifications of a full
wuiiiau, m ijuiic caa^ci aicu auu
totally overacted.
On the other hand, the average
moviegoer knows nothing about
Gable and Lombard and could care
less about the accuracy of the
film's facts or its merits as a work
of art. This viewer will indeed find
this film quite entertaining and
funny.
Some comic episodes do exist-on
a simpleton's level-that could be
construed as funny. For example,
the supposed initial meeting
between the couple, when Gable
wrecks his car while avoiding a
fake ambulance Lombard uses for
one of her jokes, could be mildly
amusing if it were not so pathetic.
It is hard to believe this film had
a budget of $4.5 million. With that
kind of money, a quality product
which would stand as a timeless
memorial to Gable and Lombard
should have been produced. Instead
we got garbage that will
initially make a tremendous
amount of money and then be
rini/^lrlv fnpffnHan
V|UIV IMJ 1*/* ^ViVVII.
Wine, cheese
preceed show
The University Players' Wine
and Cheese Theatre production,
How the Other Half i/oves, a
comedy by British author Alan
Ayckbourn, will be presented
March 30, 31 and April 1, in the M &
N lounge.
The lounge will open at 7:00 with
o xr Q \r nf urinAi*
w vc4i ivij ui v? iivo, v,11i aiiu
crackers. The curtain is at 8:15.
Advance tickets may be purchased
at the Russell House Ticket Office
and at the door. Tickets are $3.
.... /.V/ - .