SAME TIME, NEXT YEAR

Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn

SAME TIME, NEXT YEAR (1978). Director: Robert Mulligan. Screenplay by Bernard Slade, based on his play.

Doris (Ellen Burstyn) and George (Alan Alda) are dining alone in a restaurant at a country inn, when they decide to have dinner together, leading into a one-night stand. Both of them are happily married with children, but decide to meet again at the same inn the following year. In five year increments, the movie shows them meeting up each year for a romantic weekend, telling each other both good and bad stories about their spouses, and changing with the times and as they grow older, suffering losses but remaining in love. Same Time, Next Year is entertaining but it never quite recovers from its highly contrived and theatrical premise, which probably worked much better on the stage. The performances are okay -- sitcom star Alda [The Mephisto Waltz] seems perfect for what is, in effect, a two hour sitcom, but Burstyn [The Wicker Man] completely lacks a finely-honed comedic gift, tossing off lines that might have been funnier had her timing and delivery been better. One foolish sequence has Doris showing up for one rendezvous when she's eight months pregnant. Some nice moments, but it probably should have been done as a TV special and not a theatrical movie. A basic problem with the whole concept is that it would be hard for two people to grow that close when they only see each other one weekend out of the year. Robert Mulligan also directed To Kill a Mockingbird and many others.

Verdict: Pleasant enough but very small-scale. **1/2.

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

Best performance: Brock Peters as Tom Robinson

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962). Director: Robert Mulligan.

Small-town Southern lawyer Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck), lives with his small daughter, "Scout" (Mary Badham of Let's Kill Uncle) and her slightly older brother, Jem (Phillip Alford), and their black part-time housekeeper, Calpurnia (Estelle Evans). The children are obsessed with a never-seen neighbor "Boo" Radley (Robert Duvall), who leaves them little trinkets in the hole of a tree and is said to be crazy. Atticus begins getting threats from the townspeople when he decides to defend a black man named Tom Robinson (Brock Peters), who has been accused of rape by the neurotic Mayella Ewell (Collin Wilcox) -- in court it becomes very clear that Robinson is innocent but racism must have its day. At the end of the film the two storylines -- Boo and Robinson -- come together when the childrens' lives are threatened and they have an unexpected savior. While it's easy to see why many people love this picture, it does have more than its share of problems and has not worn well with time. For one thing the movie, while admirably against racism, is awfully self-conscious and self-congratulatory, almost as if it were putting out a sign saying "Important, Socially-Aware Film Here. Don't You Dare Criticize!" [For the record, To Kill a Mockingbird is hardly the first film to deal with racism. In This Our Life, which was also based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and was made twenty years earlier, also had a black man -- the first non-domestic positive black character in a Hollywood film -- wrongly accused of a crime.] Elmer Bernstein's musical score does a lot of the work for this movie, and is quite good, although at times it is also positively cloying. Badham, Alford and John Megna as their friend, Dill (said to be based on novelist Harper Lee's friend, Truman Capote) are all marvelous child actors, and there are other good performances in the film. Peck won an Oscar (as did Badham) and while the role of Addicus is in his range (unlike the sexy bad boy in Duel in the Sun), he perhaps underplays too much, hardly giving the kind of impassioned speech that might have gotten through to the jurors. Admittedly Addicus (at least in the film) may be mild-mannered, but Peck almost makes him wimpy. While we're on the subject of racism, the very talented Brock Peters is superior to Peck in his brief scenes, but he never got an Oscar nod as supporting player, making the whole project seem hypocritical to say the least. [Although it could be argued that it is not the fault of the filmmakers if the Academy was behind the times.] On the plus side, Robert Mulligan's direction is generally assured, and Russell Harlan's cinematography is superb. The kids calling their father "Addicus" instead of "Dad" is never explained and becomes irritating very quickly. Since its publication in 1960 people have been debating whether Harper Lee's source novel is great literature or just a young adult novel with socially significant themes. Mulligan also directed Fear Strikes Out and many others.

Verdict: A painfully obvious message movie that was notable in its day. **1/2.

FEAR STRIKES OUT

FEAR STRIKES OUT (1957). Director: Robert Mulligan.

In Fear Strikes Out Anthony Perkins acts more "psycho" than in Psycho at times, but it's understandable, as he's playing a very troubled man in this drama based on a true story. Baseball player Jim Piersall (Perkins), who goes from the minors to the Boston Red Sox,  is saddled with a "sports dad" instead of a stage mother --  for his well-meaning father, John (Karl Malden), almost seems to act as if everything is happening to him. All of the stress and tension leads to neurotic episodes and a trip to a sympathetic psychiatrist (Adam Williams), although one senses Piersall's mental problems can't all be blamed on his father. Fear Strikes Out is absorbing, and Perkins gives one of his all-time best performances. Malden is also notable, as is Norma Moore as Jim's wife, Mary. Elmer Bernstein contributed a good score, although the music is somewhat overdone at times.

Verdict: Proof positive that there was more to Perkins than Psycho. ***.