The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 62, No. 35, Ed. 1 Monday, March 17, 1975 Page: 6 of 8
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Dustin Hoffman offers tour de force in "Lenny
ii
Lenny
Starring Dustin Hoffman
Directed by Bob Fosse
At the Gaylynn
All too often, it happens that
when a director sets out to make
a film about a man, he either
whitewashes his subject's life
and actions or he paints them
blacker than they ever were.
Both possibilities exist in exam-
ining comedian Lenny Bruce, for
the temptations are strong to
turn him into a "hero of the
people" or into an enemy of all
that is right and proper. Director
Bob Fosse, however, has neatly
sidestepped both pitfalls in his
new film, Lenny, including the
difficulty of having Julian Barry,
the author of the original play
(which was largely a tribute to
Bruce), adapt the script to the
screen.
This is the story of the rise,
from low-grade comic to power-
ful comedian, of Lenny Bruce,
best known to today's public for
his early challenging of the
obscenity laws and his frequent
run-ins with the police over
drugs. Barry has written an emo-
tional documentary composed
of flashes from interviews with
such characters as Bruce's wife
and agent, back to Bruce's past,
then forward toward the rou-
tines he did in. the later part of
his life.
The effect is to create a series
of impressions of the man that
do not nece.ssarily justify any of
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his actions, or even satisfactorily
explain them. It is instead a
study of an incredibly perverse
man (in many ways), a sick, dis-
turbed, and unhappy enigma.
The role is a tour de force for
Dustin Hoffman. His develop-
ment is excellent: Bruce's inten-
sity starts out bright, then dark-
ens as his life progresses until his
final black, burning intensity
that destroys him. And behind
him is a drab background of
Overexposure — At the Bob
Hope Theater in Dallas, pre-
mieres and a William Wyler Ret-
rospective are on view to the
general public when the Fifth
Annual USA Film Festival is
held March 18 through 23. Stars,
directors, and critics will be in
attendance to discuss the films
and answer questions. Visiting
luminaries include William
Wyler, Warren Beatty, Jack Lem-
mon, Judith Crist, Hollis Alpert,
Samantha Eggar, Bruce Dern,
and many more. Shampoo, star-
ring Warren Beatty, Julie
Christie, and Goldie Hawn will
be the major premiere tonight;
other Texas premieres to be
screened are The Prisoner of Sec-
ond Avenue, starring Jack Lem-
1
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if you are staying here over break, please
fill out and send to Rick Goldman, 458
Sid Rich or call 526-7873 with this info by
1 2pm March 20.
NAME
ADDRESS
PHONE
Transportation?
Hillel is sponsoring a Seder for the second
night of Passover. If interested in participating
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blacks and whites and grays, sur-
rounding him with an aura of
unfulfillment.
Lenny establishes Bob Fosse
as a master of straight drama as
well as of musical productions
and solidifies his reputation for
film technique. His approach to
the story is effective, his atten-
tion to subtle detail is excellent
as a background to Bruce's obvi-
ous words. The only moment
when the film's pace slows down
occurs during the comedian's
breakdown on stage while he is
trying to do an act. The scene
drags painfully, although Hoff-
man is working hard, but the
film picks up its inexorable
motion again almost immedi-
ately.
The only major flaw in Lenny
is the deletion and occasional
misrepresentation of some facets
of Bruce's life. The emphasis is
almost solely on the obscenity
charges he faces, for instance,
ignoring for the most part his
drag arrests, and shying away
from the drug problem as a rule.
Bruce's wife, Honey (played
very well by Valerie Perrine),
was presented only in certain
lights. Honey is still alive today,
and threatened to sue if she did
not like the way the film pre-
CAIPJULES
mon and Ann Bancroft; A Boy
and His Dog, starring Jason
Robards; and in a special. Friday
program, Ike's Woman — Tina,
Political Cartoon, Boobs Alot,
and Bawling Ducky Do Goes to
Gino's Bordello. Single perform-
ance tickets may be purchased
for the daytime shows at $3.00
per person, and for the evening
shows at $6.00. If you do go,
buy tickets early: only 400 seats
are available and the weekend
shows may sell out...
* * *
Earth News — Nicholas
Walshe of Cliffside, New Jersey
will soon release a new record on
an international label called
"The Ballad of King Timahoe,"
all about Richard Nixon's dog.
Walshe is promoting the record
as "a song about...a President's
dog...and a nation's future. A
song about gladness and sadness
...loneliness and hope...beauty
and pain...loyalty and regrets.
'The Ballad of King Timahoe,'"
says Walshe, is "more than a
song...it's a metaphor for Amer-
ica..."
Horror star Vincent Price
makes a guest appearance on
Alice Cooper's newly released
album, Welcome to My Night-
mare." Vincent is featured doing
a one-minute monologue about
the poisonous qualities of black
widows on a track called "Dev-
il's Food"...
* * *
Cont'd — It's almost time
once again for the Annual
Armadillo Confab and Expo-
sition in Victoria, Texas. The
confab has grown in recent
years, and this year will feature
some new events. Naturally,
there will be the traditional
"Miss Vacant Lot of the World
and Surrounding Counties" con-
test, but this year there will also
be a belching contest, a spitting
contest, and a world champion-
ship tuba and raspberry blow.
There's also the world cham-
pionship armadillo rooting and
burrowing contest, the largest
armadillo in the world contest,
and, as always, the inspirational
beer can crushing contest...
The film Hie Exorcist has
been banned by the government
of Tunisia on rather unusual
grounds. The government cen-
sorship board voices no objec-
tions to the film's four-letter
words, but ruled that it presents
"unjustified" propaganda in
favor of Christianity. Tunisia is a
Moslem nation.
* * *
In Time, In Town — Ed
McMahon, best known as
Johnny Carson's late night TV-
show side kick, will appear with
his Las Vegas revue on the open
air Astroworld Concert Stage; 6
and 8pm shows during the
sented her. Other incidents in
Bruce's life are slipped into a
flexible time format, seeming to
occur in different relationships
to other events than they actu-
ally did. «
Lenny does not purport to be
a factual biography of the man,
Lenny Bruce, exactly as he lived,
but to present a series of shift-
ing, developing impressions of
the man as he was seen. In this,
the film is successful. Bob Fosse
has created a moving series of
sketches of a man, a collection
of questions with very few
answers.
-elaine bonilla
March 28-29 opening weekend
festivities are scheduled.
Oh What A Lovely War will
be the next presentation by the
UH Drama Department. Perfor-
mances are scheduled for April
2-12 at 8:30pm in the Attic
Theater, third floor of the Cul-
len Building on the UH campus.
The play contrasts the unaware-
ness of the high command with
the plight of the soldiers on the
field...
Tommy will start its run at
the River Oaks Theater by
Easter. The rock musical stars
Roger Dal trey, with guest stars
Eric Clapton, Ann Margaret, 0
Elton John, Tina Turner, and
Jack Nicholson. There is no
spoken dialogue in the movie,
which was filmed .in Great Brit-
ain in only 12 weeks. Ken Rus-
sell (best remembered for
Women in Love and The Devil)
directed the extravaganza, and
Peter Townsend supervised the
musical direction...
MFA plans de Carava exhibit
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An exhibition of photographs
by Roy de Carava of New York,
the first black artist to be
awarded a Guggenheim Fellow-
ship, is currently being organized
by Aliva Wardlaw Short, Associ-
ate Curator of Education at The
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
and will open at the Museum on
September 11.
This exhibition marks the
first major retrospective showing
of photographs by de Carava,
who has been described as "the
first black man who chose by
intent to document the black
and human experience in Amer-
ica." A major influence on many
of New York's young black
photographers, who labeled him
"the spiritual father of much
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Afro-American photography,"
he has been praised for his con-
sistent commitment to social
change as well as his attempt to
grasp the essential spirituality,
meaning, and complexity of Har-
lem life.
Roy de Carava started out as
a painter, but rejected painting
when he discovered that "a
black artist had to join the white
world or not function—had to
accept the values of white cul-
ture, like emphasizing technique
in painting rather than what the
artist feels." His photographs
have been included in numerous
exhibitions, including four group
shows at New York's Museum of
Modern Art (Always the Young
Stranger, 1953; The Family of
Man, 1957; 70 Photographers
Look at New York, 1957; and
The Photographer's Eye, 1966)
and the exhibition Hiru Black
Eyes at the Studio Museum in
Harlem in 1969.
Several of the photographs to
be included in the Houston exhi-
bition will come from The Sw6et
Flypaper of Life, a book of de
Carava's photographs with
accompanying text by the late
Langston Hughes, but many will
be shown for the first time.
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the rice thresher, monday, march 17, 1975 — page 6
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Brewton, Gary. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 62, No. 35, Ed. 1 Monday, March 17, 1975, newspaper, March 17, 1975; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245230/m1/6/: accessed June 21, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.