St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 55

w- emwi 'tty I spectator April 9, 1976 5F ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH Goldie Hawn and George Segal in "The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox." Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford in "All the President's Men. Roger E. Mosley as the singer in "Leadbelly." 'IX 1 fev i Glorifying Reporters Without Glamour at the movies The original screenplay, by Bill Lancaster (son of Burt) is a delight. Matthau is a beery, broken-down athlete who is hired to coach a kids' team composed of misfits in a league whose structure is far more disciplined than See MOVIES, Page 9 do.

Then ask them to explain the terminology when you get home. "The Bad News Bears" is one of the funniest films of recent years, with a perfect performance from Walter Mat-thau, and a collection of young actors who are incredibly realistic. News Bears." That way, both of you can enjoy this delightful comedy to the fullest and laugh uproariously without the necessity of a sidelong glance to see how the other generation is taking it. Another solution is to go with them, but to be careful not to laugh when they The Bad News Bears' Hey, kids, do your parents embarrass easily? Do they think your vocabulary on the baseball field is limited to "gee" and "golly?" If the answer is "yes" to both questions, I suggest you and they go to separate performances of "The Bad By Joe Pollack Of the FoKt'Dispatch Staff 'All The President's Men' Makifig A movie hero out of an investigative newspaper reporter is an extremely difficult task. Investigative reporting simply isn't very exciting, nor very dramatic.

It involves a lengthy search for sources and tedious checking and cross-checking of facts, combined with an amount of telephone-calling and door-knocking that can become very dull. "All the President's Men" has turned these potential minuses into gigantic pluses, and comes through as a wonderful motion picture, one that explores the abuses of power and the work of the free press with a mighty magnifying glass. It glorifies the work of the reporter without making it glamorous. It shows exactly how much went into the stories that first began to crumble the Nixon Administration without a lot of fictional devices, without even the single display of a press card or a cry of "Stop the They've got a dream, each other, "Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn are superb together. REX REED, Ntv York Duty Nm: and a 1 i mi rignr to the Robin and Marian' is a grand and enthralling romantic saga in which Leverything jells gloriously and it represents the best work of Sean Connery, Richard Lester and James Goldman.

what we grew up loving about movies and Audrey Hepburn is one of the reasons we keep going and loving them. Few stars have ever achieved the kind of supersonic international stardom she has. She's still the kind of star marquees r-T, finish, ugluupiui. VINCENT CANBY, sm York I 'he strength of 'Robin and is I in its story about two former lovers 1. who discover in themselves and in each other -something new, more valuable than what had existed before.

has the wit, strength and sheer presences of Sean bW mpm Connery and Audrey Hepburn in the title JUDITH CRIST, tariny i. Robin and Marian' is a worldly, wise, and witty response to our eternal wonderment of how our heroes lived ever after, thanks to two masters of the genre screenwriter James Goldman and director Richard Lester. Robert Shaw's Shenff is a lion in autumn shrewd patience! In those days words didn't buy much. A LAWRfCt C30RDCX Ftoductofi 7 Ho HARD TIKES I wsmm AUDREY HEPBURN ROBERT SEAN CONNERY SHAW "ROBIN AND MARIAN" a RICHARD LESTER nun Scieenplav by WAlTtR 11. GlNOOff ond WuCf WIl, Slav BRWN GlNDOff ond BRUCE NfNSlfll fta by MR 0eO fiocked by IAIWf.ua GORDON Directed by VWR HI cauveiA pcwf mm mnuuKmn cm oa CfNtsu woouCion Ug JAN-MCHttt VINCENT KA IENZ "WHITE iHHW Coaal JONES SlMMCKiNSaOuana tauaon JOHN KEMtNY Dacun JONATHAN KAAAN Ijmain r.

ColiBbui Ptctara NOW SHOWING n4 IM, Hi Sua. iM. SM. 740. Ml (NOW SHOWING!) iri.w.n:uvi:MTJU:.n Kill) San.

1:30, 3:30. 5:30, 7:30, 3t Dlily 1:30, 139, 130, 7:30, a Dai) 1:10. ill. 5:10. 7:10.

li 1:15, 3:15. 5:15, 7:15. I5 UiSknFii.ibt.il mm I "rm jra-ij able to find something new, something different. It's a magical genius, and it shows up strongly in "Family Plot," a light, bright gem of a mystery story and a highly enjoyable cinematic experience. There's no killer to find, no real horror to await, but it's still a mystery in the Hitchcock tradition, clever and neat.

The addition of some humor, a bit of spoof here and there and a sparkling, wonderful performance by Barbara Harris is what sets it a bit apart from standard Hitchcock, and the master's touch is what sets it apart fropr the standard movie. Based on Victor Canning's novel, "The Rainbird Pattern," with screenplay by the veteran Ernest Lehman, the film is actually two stories a medium's search for a child lost some 40 years ago, and a kidnap-for-ransom tale. The fact that they are woven together with neatness and dispatch is to the glory of Hitchcock. Miss Harris is the medium, with help from Bruce Dern as her cab-driving boy friend who is really an out-of-work actor. The kidnapers are the husband-wife team of William Devane and Karen Black.

All four actors are excellent, and there is a fine performance from Ed Lauter as a catalytic agent to the goings-on, but Miss Harris simply steals the picture. She's bright, perky, delightfully sex-starved and she handles the spiritualist's functions with just the right touch to keep the audience wondering exactly what she is and how serious she is about it. Hitchcock lays the parallel story lines out for the audience, and the trick is watching them gradually draw together and meet, just as Albert Einstein said they would. Along the way, the film touches many areas, from the sophistication of the kidnapers with tape recorders, fancy locks and quarters for the victims and elaborate ransom arrangements, to the simplicity of Miss Harris and Dern, who kind of wander around in a manner that is not quite aimless but which certainly is casual. Typically, Hitchcock drops a few clues here and there, provides for coincidental situations that draw the lines closer together and wraps it up with neatness and dispatch.

Dern, Miss Black and Devane work with considerable competence, and 86-year-old Cathleen Nesbitt is charming as the wealthy woman whose search for her long-lost nephew gets the film into action. Lehman, who also wrote the screenplay for Hitchcock's "North by Northwest," has provided a highly literate script, but the plaudits belong to Hitchcock, once again proving himself one of the great masters of the cinematic medium. (Running time: 2 hours. Rating, PG. At the Avalon, Creve Coeur, Grandview, Mark Twain) 'Leadbelly' More folk singers than you can shake a guitar string at will admit a large debt to Huddie and many more owe the late, great singer even though they may never have heard of him.

"Leadbelly," the film of his life, pays a long-needed tribute to the man and the musician, and is an excellent, stylish motion picture on every level well-acted, intelligently written, brilliantly photographed and directed with real maturity by Gordon Parks. The film does not pander to cheap sentimentality. It shows Leadbelly for the roistering, hard-drinking, quick-tempered man that he was a strong, tough man in a Southern society where toughness was a vital prerequisite to survival. Roger E. Mosley is excellent in the title role, backed with real expertise by Paul Benjamin as his father and Madge Sinclair as the Shreveport madam who takes him into her house and heart.

Art Evans is wonderful as Leadbelly's friend and fellow-singer, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and John Henry Faulk and James E. Brodhead do well in brief roles as Gov. Pat Neff of Texas and John Lomax, the folk-song recorder and historian, respectively. Fred Karlin scored and conducted the music, which covers a wide range of Leadbelly tunes, from "Green Corn" to "Goodnight, Irene," stopping along the way for the classic "Midnight Special," and using void Hannah" over the main and end titles. HiTide Harris sings the Leadbelly vocals, and the backup musicians include Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry.

The stature of the music is impressive, and will be appreciated by fans of the folk song. Filmed tributes and biographies often tend to be sentimental and sloppy, or else completely fictional, but "Leadbelly" seems generally accurate, and is a dramatic, moving, outstanding story of the great musician. (Running time: 2 hours, 6 minutes. Rating, PG. At the Fox) FROM GHETTO TO SUPERSTARS WEHRENBERG PRESENTS presses." Credit for this documentary approach apparently belongs to Robert Redford, who served as executive producer as well as star.

He insisted that the Carl Bernstein-Bob Woodward book be fol-' lowed exactly, and that no phony glamour be added either to the characters of the protagonists or the action of the story. This, of course, immediately eliminates sex, violence and the mandatory chase scenes. But William Goldman's screenplay and Alan J. Pakula's direction don't let that faze them at all. Even the fact that 'everyone knows how it turns out is not a difficulty.

The excitement is there, but it is all i subliminal. The movie explains the "how" pf the uncovering of the scandals, rather than the "who" or the "why," which are all too obvious. Dustin Hoffman is Bernstein and Redford is Woodward, a pair of almost-misfits. Both are semi-failures on the staff of the Washington Post when what looks like a nickel-and-dime burglary is interrupted at Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate complex. Woodward gets the assignment as a routine item, but strange things begin to happen, and Bernstein, rather arrogantly, inserts himself into the story.

Much of "AH the President's Men" provided cinematic difficulties. A newspaper city room, even a gleaming, tlean Une like the Washington Post is not a particularly exciting site, and a subterranean garage, at 3 a.m., is even less attractive. But Pakula and cinematographer Gordon Willis have used as many different camera angles as possible to keep the film from becoming static, and they move around Washington as much as possible, from the restaurant balcony of the Kennedy Center to the row houses of Virginia in an effort to get some exterior shots. Still, Hoffman and Redford spend a great deal of time doing a lot of talking, to each other, to the editors of the Post and to a large number of sources, and there are some moments when the story gets over-talky and drags a little. Both actors are excellent in their performances, showing the frustration of the search in fine style, and they underplay just enough to appear very natural.

The supporting roles are unanimously played to the hilt, starting with Jason Robards as Ben Bradlee, the executive editor. Robards, who boasts, "I hate trusting anybody," is first-rate in the part, i testing the young reporters thoroughly, then backing them to the hilt. He insists, for example, on a verifying source for each report, and he deSends them by showing how the administration uses the "non-denial denial," which showed that "Woodstein," as the team came to be called, was on the right track. Martin Balsam and Jack Warden also are splendid as two other Post editors, and Jane Alexander is extremely effec-. tive as a bookkeeper who provides some important financial information.

Hal Holbrobk is the mysterious "Deep Throat," adding his own style to the anonymous informant. Stephen Collins and Robert Walden are believable in briefer roles as Hugh Sloan and Donald Segretti, respectively Frank Wills, the watchman who actually found the taped-open door in the Watergate complex, plays The film is a great one as a documen-tary lesson in the evils of power and the methods of investigation, and a joy to the average ink-stained media wretch for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is, the fact that the working reporters are portrayed by matinee idols and the editors merely by character actors. ,4 (Running time: 2 hours. 18 minutes. Rating, PG.

At the Esquire) 'Family Plot' Age doesn'J seem to mean a thing to 'Alfred Hitchcock, for which all movie-, goers should shout a loud hurrah. He's 75 years old, has been in the motion industry for a iftlf-century and has directed 53 films, yet he aJways is Tl B.ELT-UNE WASHINGTON AVE. 462-1131 FIRST NEW CINEMA IN 41 YEARS! Z4 STARTS TONIGHT "Sister Sisters!" The brothers who built them up L-UL-J and brought them down. George Segal Goldie Hawn Sean Connery Audrey Robert Hepburn Shaw DOORS OPEN 3:30 PM. Featuring the sensational music of CURTIS MAYFIELD THE DUCHESS "ROBIN AND AND THE DIRTWATER FOX" mi im.

IM. 340, 540. 740. Ht MARIAN" MMr 730, fcM Jul 1 30, 130, 550, 7J0, tJO SPARKLE s.a,nng PHILIP M. THOMAS IRENE CARA LONETTE McKEE DWAN SMITH MARY ALICE DORIAN HAREWOOD And TONY KING as proMtr HOWARD ROSENMAN SAM O'STEEN Screenplay by JOEL SCHUMACHER Story by JOEL SCHUMACHER A and t.ec,e wtos BERYL VERTUE PETER BROWN by CURTIS MAYFIELD TECHNICOLOR PG PWfKlW.

GUIOUtCE SUGGESTED -E- Music from the motion picture "Sparkle" sung by Aretha Franklin available on Atlantic Records and Tapes, From Warner Bros. A Warner Communication! Company sqmi i 81 iU '3il 'JB 'W OX.