University of South Carolina Libraries
Entent Hestc By David Baker Finn Crttte Charlton Heston may be in his mid-fifties, but it's doubtful that many men half his age would want to tangle with the Academy Awardwinning actor. He is big, strapping, as healthylooking as anyone you're ever likely to meet. He credits his fitness to tennis, a game he plays better than many of its professionals, but there's no disguising the laci mai ne wonts oui in gymnasiums on a regular basis. There's also no disguising the fact that Heston looks a great deal younger than his years. His auburn hair is mixed with gray only on the ' sides, giving one the impression that he's talking with a distinguished man in <TUt> A i M V iV/ i Jl? puts vie By David Baker FHm Critic If ever there was a movie with an inappropriate title, Mike Newell's directorial debut, "The Awakening," is it. This execrable occult it? a cnrf nf half.hnlfPri "Cleopatra" by way of "The Exorcist" and "The Omen'4 is more apt to put viewers to sleep than to rouse them in any way, shape or form. An updated version of a rather obscure Bram ("Dracula") Stoker novel, me jewel 01 aeven biars, "The Awakening" opens in 1962. That's when Matthew Corbeck (Charlton Heston), a young Egyptologist, stumbles upon the biggest archeological find of his career. It is the hidden tomb of Kara, a previously unknown queen, whose subjects so hated her that I Uai i rlnimb1 nntvtn uicj 3ii uci\ nci iiqiuc; iiuiu all historical records immediately upon her death at the tender age of 18. When Corbeck breaks through the door of Kara's tomb, her vengeful spirit whisks out across the sands and zaps Corbeck's pregnant wife (Jill TownsenH) whn is miles from the excavation site, in the stomach. A few pte. _-y- f t ^ , l is| ,v 0^:' I x\~ <m " Slf ^ ? '-. ^^s^hhh !- ? - --: :-c.-".:r-?i>;<\-:::-;^:$?3s^q^bph 8 WK^:"' | Egyptologist Matthew (Stephanie Zimba/ist) find ainmer >n enjc his mid-forties, professor perhaps, given his eloquence. Until hie lnioct film "Th? V/IIVl* ?UW AM t V/U A IiV Awakening," however, a professor was one of the few parts Heston had never been given the chance to play. The chance to play a professor, though, was not the deciding factor in Heston's decision to appear in the film. "I did 'The Awakening' for three reason," he explained. "In the first place, it's an occult film,the first one I've done. In the second place, I get a chance to exercise my frartnhic/i n o hn nnlir & JL C4 llvlllOV/ ao IIIV/ V/ 11 I JT American actor allowed to play Englishmen. And, in the third place, it's the first professor I've ever played." Occult films have always been of interest to Heston, he said, "because they are very vakeniri iwers to scenes later, when the film switches time frames to the present, we see that the child, now 18, has grown up to become the spitting image of Kara's death mask. The child's name is Margaret, played by Stephanie Zimbalist, and to everyone but her father, she's obviously Kara incarnate. Corbeck's near-sighted - nessresults in one of the more laughable climaxes to come our way thus far this year, what with mummy dust flying everywhere, statues falling hither and yon, and Zimbalist standing around hissing like a cat whose tail has been caught in a meat grinder. While the story is quite bizarre, the most amazing thing about ,4The Awakening" is Heston's involvement with it. Since performing in "The Three Musketeers" six years ago, Heston's taste in material has gone steadily downhill, but never did I expect him to wind up this low. He approaches his role as Corbeck with his customary seriousness, but it's so ridiculously conceived and written that he can't begin to Ilk "^5BH M(^SS si -vV^l''';':$" Corback (Charlton Hast tha missing kay to an ancian >ys hii tricky to do. It's not hard to make a scary film ? you can photograph a corridor with a lot of doors in it and you know there's a monster behind one of them. You can scare an audience very easily, but it's very hard to rMirc 11*1^0 fKnrrt nnrtorYn put auuuv infill) iv the audience's willing suspension of disbelief. "Indeed, on one level, audiences that are scared by films that don't persuade them are a little annoyed by them. Because you can't resist the frissone of terror, you don't like yourself for being scared. But if you believe this film, then you surrender to it and you r* if nllif 1 v^opvuu IU IV lUUllljr . "This film had a very difficult casting problem," Heston continued. "I was shooting 'The Mountain 9 g clz>/>n do anything with it. Not helping Heston's characterization any is his "aging" process. This consists solely of his donning a phoney beard that looks as if it once had been part of a Wise Man costume in an elementary school Christmas pageant. The same pre-teens who constructed Heston's beard might also have been responsible for the heiroglyphics scrawled on the walls throughout Kara's tomb. It's as if the movie's art director, Lionel Couch, scooped up several dozen Vacation Bible Schoolers, supplied them with neon paints, and then turned them loose in a run-down stucco apartment complex somewhere in Baja, California. Tt'c imfrtrhinofn fhat nnfil IV O U1I1UJI IUIIU IVy llldl, VIIIVB A its final 10 minutes or so, "The Awakening" doesn't throw caution to the wind and concentrate on becoming the hoot it so easily could have become. After all, hoots are almost as hard as to come by as hits and, in such a dreary moviegoing season, I'll take my laughs any way I can get them. on} and his daughter t vitual. ,1?^ S\v\ > 'elbc Men' and literally up to my neck ih beaver ponds the whole time we were preparing 'The Awakening.' I said to them (the producers) by phone that we really have a severe problem here. If we can't find an actress who can plausibly suggest an American teenager and, at the same time, act a very long part and project a girl who is occasionally possessed by the spirit of a 'Xinn.uaQP.nM Fflimfian AiVVV J VMI VIU ogjpviuu queen, the picture's not going to work. Her part is longer than mine. "But Stephanie Zimbalist, whom they chose for the part, is extremely good in the role, extremely good. If she wasn't, we'd certainly be in trouble with it." "The Awakening" is Heston's second film to be released in 1980. The first, "The Mountain Men," in which he portrayed an illiterate 19th Century fur trapper, did not do well at the box office when it was released this summer. Heston admitted, however, that he starred in the film for a special reason. "I would be the first to concede," he said, "that one cf the things that drew me to 'The Mountain Men,' even before I read it, was the fact that my son, Fraser, had written it." Heston confessed that he was concerned about the possibility of not liking the script when he first learned I can remember the first tii Cars. I was painting shutters on a rainy New Jersey su stopped painting until the spc and introduction to the band'! was being aired on WNEW-F! finished. They seemed to have a refi not too commercial, but ui pealing,sound. Why, after having their "Panorama," in my record about four weeks, have I wait write about it? Well, I listener first day I got it, but founc dishes more interesting. Besic album by Talking Heads, th< English Beat, "I Just Can't St new John Lennon single Starting Over," who needs group of middle-aged trend fol I'll admit it. I thought the G out to be something differer they've turned out to be some! By the time their second alt I thought I'd puke if I heard Needed" one more time. Rt New Wave (I hate usin| classification) stars. "Candybetter than the "The Cars, back, maybe I liked it because of the first one. Free show James Rokosny Staff Wrfcer If paying a cover charge ev< see a band or artist perform is bank account into the ground you. The Quarter Moon is fe* quality act for free. /Unnointinllo l.iitk I v/vvaoiuiiaujr, vviiii iiuiiuii^ v the newspaper to see if there bands around. Even Columl once in a while. To exp something I know nothing ab must be right. The Stewart Tussing Band v the Quarter Moon Wednej Saturday. I can't stress enoug fcJ?.r\v.V> vli vi'S$? >w roo that his son was writing it, but after reading the final draft, he said, he was both relieved and delighted. Heston said that when he reads a script, he always looks for something as different as possible from what he's just done. t4I think I'm luckier than most actors," he said, "in that, over the years, I've established some elbow room. i4T rfiiocc ?'m fKn nnlt/ l 5UV.00 A All lll\y \jllljr American actor who does non-American parts. I'm one of the few American actors who does biographical roles and that gives me chances that, perhaps, are denied to some of my fellows. "Obviously, if David Lean offers you something, it's not necessary to read it, but you must look for something that seems viable for an audience. Because about every six pictures, you'd better have a very sue cessiui one or you won i get any more chances. "And underneath all that, I think, you must look for some kind of gut response to the character. It doesn't need to be a man who is like you, Cardinal Richelieu is not like me, but to Richelieu, I could say 'Yes.' " Heston portrayed the notorious Richelieu in both "The Three Musketeers" and its sequel, "The Four Musketeers." The two pictures were filmed together, unbeknownst to the cast, and when their producer, Alexander WBffBfBfl LUliffliMBM ne I heard the Last Octobe in my garage and performe mmer day. I coliseum. Up< icial interview perform, I i music, which assignment to A in N.Y., was paragraph wei coliseum Sun eshing, crisp, disappointmer liversally ap- $8.50 ticket pru oik. The concert *\\ ,albufm' long), loud, e> collection for ,, ^ ^ two albums. V I" ""'? album that is to it once the Through," a tv washing the seemsK,iie H ,, lcs; ^[7 all about i ebut of the business to the "*" ,an?'he Somehow "1 "(Just like) number three o listen to a Hundred Alb(J lowers issue, which h are would turn cover Bigdea It but instead , hate se, hing boring. reality with th mm came out tell if they wil a.h? bargain bins ir 7u V another alnui a,s.,,a deserve to. It KW.aS,a ttlle empty and m< but looking fjke jt d0< I just got sick sold great. Bu, at Quarter 1 is the place tc srytime you go the tempo has > running your Street with n , tonight is for Delbert McCli a _ I. uuring a nign i tuumui junu Having be d do, I'11 check giving audienc are any good time favorite >ia slacks off Rigby", Stew eriment with nothing but out, the price Freeman of t wrote ."...a /ill perform at mellifluous hi iday through combinations h that this bar acoustic six-st MS dSteocfijo no m' Salkind, announced that the second film would be assembled from footage left over from the first, virtually every member of the cast responded with a lawsuit. Heston, however, expressed no resentment. "I didn't get upset," he explained, "because I only worked 10 days on both movies and I was paid better than anyone else in the cast. That gave me a certain detachment," he said with a laugh. "If they'd made three pictures out of it, I would still have felt i iiad a very good part and had been very well Daid." *' Charlton Heston in "The A wakening" r the Cars came to Columbia d for a small crowd in the an finding out they were to mmediately requested the review the show. My lead 4 A ii iiv, me concert in me day night was a definite it and certainly not worth the ce." was a short (about an hour tact reproduction of the first fith only one song on the new ? worth anything, "Getting jo and a half minute rocker, it > typical of what the Cars are racing through the music bank. Panorama" has made it to on me noning Mone lop im Chart as of the Oct. 30 as our subject at hand on the I. e bands go downhill, but it's e Cars. It's much too early to II eventually be cast into the 1 the future. But if they put out in like "Panorama- they just seems so effortless, so eaningless, I can't believe it es. No, I take that back, disco t look where that is today. Vfoon > see a performer. Recently, been changing over on Main ;markable performances by inton and the well received Hartford Monday night. :n trained classically, and es a blend of originals and all* cover songs like "Eleanor /art Tussing has received favorable reviews. Clark he Savannah Morning News night-clubbers' treat, with irmonies, strikingly intricate of electric guitar and flute, ring and cello.