The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, October 08, 1979, Page Page 8, Image 8
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Moore happy;
By David Baker
Gamccock FHm Critic
"Saucy, aren't you?," Dudley Moore
r*>nlif*d whpn I askpd if h? nersnnallv rated
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women on the 10 scale. "It's just rather
crass," he explained, "to tacky, to use 10 as
a rating, but we do rate them, even if it's not
necessarily the physical side. I do,
anyway.
Moore is currently starring in Blake
Edwards' 10, a comedy about a man who
rates women from one to 10 and what
happens when he discovers a woman whom
he deems to be an 11.
Moore got involved with 10 a little more
than a year ago, just after he and Edwards
had planned to do a different film together.
"We met in a group therapy situation," said
Moore. "He asked me, maybe three or four
weeks after he'd been in this group, whether
I'd like to do The Ferret. I was all signed
and sealed for that and then in October of
last year, I got a call from my agent saying
'Do you want to do 10?' He said, 'George
Segal has walked out of 10 and Blake needs a
replacement.' " Moore immediately agreed
to take the part.
Stepping into the role so quickly proved to
be "no difficulty at all," Moore said. "It was
a very easy role for me because I'd written a
screenplay on exactly the same theme, but I
had him going after alt the fantasy figures
he'd ever lusted after. He noes after rock
stars that he sees on TV and TV announcers
and cabaret artists that he sees on Spanish
television."
"I felt very at home with the part," Moore
said, "and with Blake, who, I think, quite
brilliantly didn't direct me. That's a very
real talent, not directing an actor ? just
casting as you want to, then letting the
people do what they want. Then they
produce what they really are, which is the
most valuable side of their acting, anyway."
The only things Moore didn't enjoy during
the filming of 10 were the nude scenes he
was required to perform. "I found walking
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s, Moore, Derek
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around in the nude verrrry difficult, very
tricky," he said, "especially when the
cameraman just falls on the floor
laughing."
Moore first began making people laugh
when he was a teenager. "I knew I wanted
to be funny when I was 13," he said. "I did it
as a form of defense against bullying in
school.
"I was a bit of a squat. I used to love work,
used to ask for more homework. That didn't
used to go down too well, so I very consciously
and intuitively felt I must make
people laugh. This seemed to be a way of
stopping them from being so shitty to me all
the time. And it did work."
Although Moore had appeared in such
films as Bedazzled and The Hound of the
Baskervilles, it wasn't until Foul Play,
wherein he portrayed an orchestra conductor
with an affinity for blow-up sex dolls
and porno movies, that he became well
miuwii in ninciita.
Eventually, Moore would like to try his
luck with a dramatic role. "I'd love to do a
drama, but I'd hate to do it if it had absolutely
no shred of humor in it," he said, "i
would only do it if it had the possibility built
in of becoming a role with a certain amount
of humor in it ? not necessarily pratfalls ?
but with a humorous edge to the character.
"I'd hate to do a gloomy sort of role. I like
to enjoy myself too much when I work."
Moore s next film will De called Wholly
Moses. It's a comedy and it will co-star
Saturday Night Live's Larraine Newman.
"It's much more farcical than 10," Moore
said.
Hopefully, Moore said , Moses will not
have to be filmed on location, as 10 was. "I'd
rather be at home," he said, adding that the
perfect film for him would be one that could
be shot entirely in his bedroom. "My part
would be that of a man who stays in bed all
his life and has various amusing things
happen to him, like various beautiful women
would come in and do a bit of light dusting."
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By David Baker
Gam?cock F8m Critic
Blake Edwards' 10 is an extremely wellcrafted
comedy of manners that has enough
elements of slapstick thrown in to keep the
audience continuously off its guard. The
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cumeuy is nui nearly so uuuauuisn us u is 111
Edwards' Pink Panther movies, but it's
every bit as funny and every bit as profuse.
The picture tells the story of George
Webber (Dudley Moore), a successful
composer whose 42nd birthday sends him
reeling into a mid-life crisis. Every time he
drives down the streets of Los Angeles,
young bosoms seem to beckon him back to
the youth he so desperately wants to return
to.
Despite the fact that he is currently enjoying
a healthy relationship with a 40-ish
opera singer, Sam (Julie Andrews), George
spies a young girl (which he conservatively
rates as an 11 on the 10 scale) one afternoon
and decides to pursue her. That she's on the
way to the church to be married doesn't
matter at all.
A bee sting on the nose is the only thing
that Keeps George from approaching the
woman of his dreams at the altar, but
nothing can keep him from following her
and her husband on their Mexican
honeymoon.
On the hot sands of Manzanillo Bay,
George's feeling for the girl is shown to be
love rather than lust. Her husband has
fallen asleep on his surfboard and has
floated out to sea, but instead of letting him
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go in nopes or caicning uie giri on uie
rebound, George rents a boat and sails out to
the young man's rescue. He doesn't want
anything to make the girl unhappy.
This bit of derring-do results in George's
finally being able t6 meet the girl (Jenny's
her name) and also in his being asked to
escort her around the resort while her
husband is in the hospital recovering from
the accident.
To George's surprise, Jenny turns out to
be a girl with very loose morals. Eventually,
they become so loose that even George is
horrified, and he returns home to California
a better man from the experience.
On the surface, this string of events
Irardlv sounds like a scintilla tinff scenario
for a comedy, but Edwards (who wrote as
well as directed the film) and Moore have
worked at least one good laugh into every
scene.
In more than one instance, verbal comedy
and visual comedy are piled one on top of
the other for stretches of up to 15 minutes of
non-stop hilarity. The best example of this is
the sequence wherein George visits Jenny's
father, hoping to find out where she'll be
honeymooning.
The father is a dentist, so George
goes into his office pretending to
need a cleaning. The old fellow discovers,
however, that George has eight cavities in
dire need of filling, and so pumps his patient
a Through th
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ny unman atnas *
Ent*rtelnm*m Editor and "V
f fitting, in a way. For what seemed power i
d months, the horrible, pretentious LedZej
number one album position with Get Howe
most overpromoted record since the not on tl
. Fever soundtrack. Then, all of a the paa
tiknown group called Led Zeppelin The ne
umber one spot in just two weeks with exactly
3ut Door. root of t
ie Out Door is Zeppelin's first album The a
heir best album in miite n while I inimiati
ghout its long and turbulent history, break,
remarkably unaffected by the dross the nov
te rest of the music world. Zep just old Led
p where they left off, producing some lyrics, i
lily remaining pure rock and roll. "In 1
erienced one of the worst things that patent*
a band: they produced several stun- standai
pieces of music that they have had a typical
tyring. Let's face it: it's almost im- not fall
to think of Led Zeppelin without overpn
lirway to Heaven," one of the few true and she
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r on rise
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's highlights
Dudley Moore
full of novacaine before he has the chance to
refuse.
When George goes home, brandishing
jaws as red and swollen as the bee sting on
his nose, Sam calls. Thanks to George's not
being able to speak clearly, she thinks
there's a prowler in the house and calls the
police. While the cops are on the way,
George focuses his patio telescope on a
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him to be a prowler and a pervert.
After he convinces them of his identity, he
drives over to the neighbor's house and joins
the orgy. Sam arrives at George's house and
finds nothing peculiar except for the
telescope, which she looks through only to
see George peering back at her through the
telescope that the neighbor has set up to
watch George's and Sam's evening interludes.
I was laughing too hard to notice
the exact way the sequence ends.
Fortunately, Ten features a number of
touching moments, all of which work impeccably
well, that give the viewer a much
neeaea respite irom laugmer. inese
moments also provide us with insights into
the characters that are neccessary to give
the comedy its substance. Edwards
beautifully orchestrates both kinds of
scenes for the films entire 120 minutes.
Technically, Ten is as well-honed as a
Cartier watch. The settings are sumptious
and Frank Stanley's photography is often
breathtaking. Henry Mancini's score is one
nf Hie hoef nnH ic wall infaarataH intn fVia
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story itself, what with George's
dissatisfaction with his inability to meet
Jenny driving him to play out his hostility on
the piano every now and then.
~ i
e (Jut Door
: their best
issics. Add to that such songs as "Black Dog"
in _ * - a a ? . <t
vnoie LiOiia L?ove," ana tne sneer musical
Tiakes for a hard act to follow, even if you're
>.
iver, In Through the Out Door, while certainly
hat level, makes one forget for a minute about
ks for the sake of the whole mountainscape.
w album reflects better than any other just
what Led Zeppelin is; what genius lies at the
he masterpieces.
lbum ranges from good old hard rock in Zep's
?le style to country-bebop to a Carribean-style
But Plant, Page, Bonham and Jones handle
elties well, and underneath it all is the same
I Zeppelin, along with some surprisingly good
ilmost hidden by the musical pyrotechnics,
the Evening," the first cut, starts with a
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*1 lUHwn nam wan men moves into a fairly
d Zep rocker, complete with Jimmy Page's
ly outstanding guitar work. Led Zeppelin nas
en to the temptation that the Who have, that of
xiuction. The recorded sound is still raw j
tckingly refreshing. LEP ZKP. 9