REVIEWS • Night, in a Heavy Snowfall, Without a Bob Clark's Companion Or a Radio: Tense Boredom

• REVIEWS • night, in a heavy snowfall, without a Bob Clark's companion or a radio: tense boredom. Or, worse, su bject yourself to a viewing of Of Unknown Origin. AChristmas Story The tension of the film comes from the conflict behoveen an executive a nd a rat that has invaded and is slowly destroying Some years ago, about the time of Black his Manhattan brownstone. :\l ow, a rat Christmas and Murder By Decree, it may sound like a dandy little tension: was thought Bob Clark might have gifts ge~erator. It's a traditional foe of human as a director of thrillers. Ever since then, ity and a common object of fear. It's also however, with Tribute, the two Porky's small and quick enough to hide in all films, and now A Christmas Story, an sorts of unlikely places .and jump out adaptation of Jean Sheperd's "In God w ith fangs a-flashin', which it does, thus We Trust, All Others Pay Cash: ' it has providing Of Unknown Origin with a become apparent that Clark is little number of effective suspense-and-shock more than a talentless hack, with no sequences. Unfortunately, once it's done ability for anything save a connection that, there's nothing for it but to scuttle with the densely corrupted sensibilities back into the darkness and get ready to of America's tee naged movie audience. jump again. This lends a certain same A Christmas Story follows the at ness, that is to say boredom, to the sus tempts of young Ralphie (Peter Billings pense and. since we know that rat and ley) to con his parents, Mother (Melinda he ro are fated to battle it out at the Dillon) and The Old Man (Darren climax, attempts to vary the suspense by McGavin ), into giving him his dream the introduction of a cat and leg-hold Christmas Gift, a Red Ryder model a ir traps are spectacularly unsuccessful. At rifle. He is constantly rebuffed by his the first sight of each, we know the rat mother, his teacher and even the store will kill the cat and the trap will chomp Santa Claus, all of whom tell him that the trapper. And events prove us right. "You'll shoot your eye out," which is the Furthermore, a rat lacks the awe-ins film's first of many errors. The line, as I piring qualities of, say, King Kong or recall from my youth, is "You'll shoot Bruce the sh ark. Director George Cosma someone's eye out," which goes with tos and Ci nematographer Rene Verzier those two other great maternal adages, have tried to pump up the rat with the "Com e down from there or you'll break sorts of extreme close-up, partial view your arm:' and "Put on your rubbers or • Reuben Freed's production design steals the show in A Christmas Story a nd ultra-short shot so effective in Alien, you'll catch double pneumonia." The BB but, since we already know what rats gun seems to be the one area where the set while the film was in production look like - small, brow n and typically parents are not worried about the kids' at Toronto's Magder Studios, I was im 'George Cosmatos' rodentoid - and what they do - gnaw a nd own health. mediately struck by the wonderful house scuttle - the hype doesn't work. What it Anyway, A Christmas Story no doubt that had been constructed in the studio. does achieve is irritation and a h eight is intended to evoke the lovely sort of On a dolly near the front door was a box Of Unknown e ned viewer awareness that the rat just Christmas films that were popular in filled with old appliances - toasters, doesn't have the star power to carry the the late '30s and early '40s, films like waffle-irons, Waring mixers. It was Origin movie. Meet Me in st. Louis and Miracle on evidence of care and taste, and made Fortunately for the rat, it doesn't have 34th Street, but it fails to approximate one tremendously nostalgic. It is unfor to. That's Peter Weller's job and he plays any of them, for the simple reason that tunate that the film does not live up to Some jobs and situations are best des Bart Hughes, competently, as an intelli Clark is a heavy, thudding oaf of a direc its art direction. cribed with the words "tense boredom". gent, warm-hearted, ve ry likeable, tor. I have never been one to complain Cops, nurses, truckers, and soldiers all supremely balanced individual. Unfor If we remember anything aside from about the arrival of American produc spend time scanning their environments tunately, for us, that isn't how the char the warm feelings generated by a film tions in this country, nor about the for the first signs of trouble they know is acter was intended. Brian Taggert's like Meet Me in Sf. Louis, it is the extra Americans who work in the industry. Of coming. The trouble and the fact that script (from Chauncey G. Parker's novel, ordinary subtlety of the playing of actors these, Clark is certainly one, and he has they must remain constantly alert com "The Visitor") tells us that Hugh es is like Judy Garland and Margaret O'Brien. been working here for a decade. But the bine to create tension. Put yourself at the ambitious, desperate for more money In A Christmas Story, the playing time has come to say "Yankee go home." wheel of a small car on a freeway, late at and far more deeply in love with the couldn't be any broader if the film had John Harkness. been shot in Panavision. Darren McGavin, a generally good actor, plays the role of A CHRISTMAS STORY' d. Bob Clark p. the splenetic head of the family like a Rene Dupont and Bob Clark sc. Jean Shephe rd, Nebraska insurance salesman audition Leigh Brown and Bob Clark, based upon the novel ing for the roads how company of Mr. In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash by Jean Magoo. Melinda Dillon has some effec Shepherd d .o. p. Reginald H. Morris, C.S.c. p. des. Re uben Freed ed. Stan Cole mus. score Carl tive moments as Mother, but Peter Bil Ziffrer and Paul Zaza post-po sup. Ke n Heeley- Ray lingsley, the pie-face, wide-eyed, bes cost. des. Mary E. McLeod assoc. p. Gary Goch pectacled hero of the piece, seems to c ast. Mike Fe nton, Jane Feinberg, Marci Liroff have spent his early childhood being NY/ Chi. cast. Marcia Shulman, Joann e Pascuito, P.K. Fields (asst.) Tor. cast. Karen Hazzard p. man. dropped on his head. Marilyn Stonehouse 1st a.d. Ken Goch cam. op. While this broadness of playing, com Harald Ortenburger sp. eiL Martin Malivoire bined with an extensive use of the make-up Ken Brooke hair James Brown ,,'a rd. distorting powers of the fisheye lens Lynda Ke mp sc. sup. Blanche McDermaid art d . Gavin Mitchell set dec. Mark Freeborn cam. asst. might seem to be a reasonable way to Gordon Lagevin sd. mixer Alan Bernard s d. boom adapt Shepherd, whose literary style man. Malcolm Rennings asst. ed. Ri ck Cadger, consists of the canny exaggeration of Neil Grieve sd. sup. Ken Heeley- Ray sd. rec. Joe petty events into epic comic conflicts, it Grimaldi, David Appleby dialog. ed. Wayne Griffin s d. eix. ed. David Evans, Steven Cole asst. sd. ed. is not, because the satiric ideal in the Ann Heeley- Ray, Gudrun Christi a n, Tom Ha nrath cinema is quite different. Playing this mus. eng. Frank Morrone gaffer != hris Ho lmes broadly defeats the innately realist basis key grip Ron Gillham props maste rJ. Tracy Budd of the cinema - a faithfu l adaptation of prop. man. Ken Clarke canst. sup. Bill Ha rma n p. acct. Joanne Jackson p. office co-ord. Suzanne Gulliver's Travels would be almost Lore lac. man. Ci ndy Morton, Mi chae l MacDonald impossible in any sort of live action film. Cleveland co-ord. David Cra ig 2nd a.d. Don The exaggeration involved would simply Brough' 3rd a.d . Alan Goluboff p. sec. Denise be unbelievable, whereas a literary Mu lvey stills Shin Sugino unit pub. Janice Kaye c hildren's coach Cha rl es Northcote asst. art d. figure can push things much farther, Carmi Ga ll o I.p. Me linda Dill o n, Darre n McG avi n, simply because the mind is more supple Peter Billingsley, Ia n Petre lla, Scott Schwartz, R.D when supplying its own images as Robb, Tedde Moore, Valla Anaya, Zack Wa rd, Jeff opposed to the cinema's images. Gi ll e n, Colin Fox. Paul Hubbard. Les Carlson, Jim Hunter, Pa tty Johnson, Drew Hocevar, David S\ ' o ~ The o!1e thing the film has going for it boda, Dwayne McLean, He le n E. Kaider, John Wong. is the beautiful production design of Johan Sebastian Wong. Fred Lee. Dall Ma, Rocco Reuben Freed, a loving recreation of the Bellusci, Tommy Wallace. • Of Unknown Origin'S Peter Welle r and Shannon Tweed : a film about twits and rats film's early '40s period. When I visited - Not a certified Canadian jilm January 1984 - Cinema Canada/25 .

Load more