The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 61, No. 3, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 6, 1973 Page: 9 of 10
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Siamese twins go psycho in thriller, Mexican epic tops
by H. DAVID DANGLO
More gore: Murder by sharp
instrument is still in vogue in
the movies, and Technicolor
now brings us, in full hue, the
deep red ooze. Hitchcock pre-
ferred his blood in black-and-
white (Psycho, The Birds); it
was far more tasteful that way.
But now that Liz Taylor is
either divorcing, or murdering
by kitchen knife, her husbands
(Night Watch), what could pos-
sibly be bloodier?
Would you believe Margot
Kidder (beautiful French ac-
tress) and Jennifer Salt (snot-
ty American actress) as Sia-
mese twins? The new movie
Sisters has opened its first-run
at drive-ins, something which
would normally write "loser"
all over its face. But surprise
— Sisters is one of the most
remarkable psycho - thrillers
produced in a long time.
Granted, the director does
have a thing for heavy footage
of Techni-red blood, but other
than that (and there are only
two bloodies), Sisters will make
your mind queasier than your
stomach. Kidder, whose first
critical hit was Quackser For-
tune Has a Cousin in the Bronx
with Gene Wilder, plays a very
weird girl, Danielle, who stabs
her date several times with a
cake knife meant for her birth-
day party. He had even spent
the night with her. By the time
he writes help (in blood, of
course) on the window, Grace
Collier (Salt), who writes stuff
like "Why We Call Them I'igs"
for the Staten Island Panorama,
has seen it all. The police aren't
particularly friendly about the
whole thing, especially when
they get to the scene of the
crime after Danielle's ex-hus-
band-doctor cleans up the blood
and stashes the corpse in the
Castro Convertible (which is
soon shipped to Canada). Grace
hires an investigator, who fol-
lows the sofa; this leaves our
brave reporter to follow a lead
to the neighborhood nuthouse,
where the Lysol Lady warns
ominously that "you can get
sick from deadly germs passed
through telephone wires if you
talk on the phone" (the best
comedy bit in the film, other
(Continued from page 8)
Concert Changes: Bette Midler
will appear in Hofheinz Pavilion
three weeks before expected.
Her concert will be on Sunday,
October 7 . . . Wild West Pro-
ductions has added Steely Dan
(Music Hall, Sept. 13). and
Shawn Phillips (MH, Oct. 25-
26) to their September-October
schedule, which has Focus open-
ing this Sunday night, Sept. 9,
at the Hall, with Barnstorm and
Joe Walsh . . . Rod Stewart
and Faces will play the Coli-
seum on September 27. Tickets
at Foley's and Evolution
Tapes . . .
. . . Liberty Hall reopened last
weekend for the fall season
with United Artists recording
group Asleep at the Wheel, who
played a fantastic set of coun-
try & swing music. They'll be
at the Armadillo World Head-
quarters in Austin this week-
end, so if you're in Austin, see
than Grace's mother). Grace
already knows that Danielle had
a Siamese twin, Dominique, who
died on the operating table, and
that her death left no psycho-
logical outlet for Danielle's
more neurotic urges.
What ensues is one of the
most bizarre hallucinatory-
dream squences (on videotape)
I've ever seen. The camera pas-
ses directly into Grace's eye-
balls (an old trick, but it
works) and strange things hap-
pen. Watch out for the sur-
gical razor killing yet to come
and the hypnotic results. Closest
drive-in for Sisters is the Mc-
Clendon Triple on S. Main and
Hiram Clarke: take A/C or
wait for a cool night.
Second thoughts
On Last Tango in Paris: I
would recommend that anyone
disappointed with Bernardo
Bertolucci's Last Tango, star-
ring Marlon Brando and Maria
Schneider as pigs, should try it
again after three months or so.
I wasn't particularly function-
ing at 10am the morning I saw
it, and was bored to tears when
I wasn't sleeping. From second-
time - perspective, though,
Brando's performance, as a
cuckolded, suicided-upon hus-
band, is superb. Schneider's por-
trayal of a French nymphoma-
niac-type is charming and sexy,
and Bertolucci as himself is
even cuter. There are some ex-
cellent bits by the black hotel
concierge (one of the most in-
sane bits of any movie),
Brando's mother-in-law and his
wife's corpse, in a beautiful
Catholic setting.
The artistry is to perfection,
with opaques, translucents and
transparents mingling 1) o t h
visually and consciously. Trains
are phallic symbols; every
other word is "dirty" — hope-
fully you won't end up with an
audience of creeps who titter
at every obscenity (it can really
ruin some of those highly-
charged emotional moments).
The film's now playing at re-
duced rates at the Park III,
Allen Center III (Downtown)
and Bellaire; you can see it for
a buck early in the afternoon.
The last two entries of the
Alley summer cinemafest are
To Have and Have Not, in
which 20-year-old Lauren
Bacall says "If you need me,
just whistle" (Bogey plays her
man); and Sunset Boulevard,
the Gloria-Swanson-Star vehicle
#
with Erich Von Stroheim as
the director and a young Wil-
liam Holden as the lover. Gold-
diggers of 1933 plays tonight
through Saturday, 10pm and
11:30pm at the Screening Room
on South Main. This will end
the Busby Berkeley series there.
Kinky brings "Jew-stomp" to Hall
CAPSULES
them—they're terrific. At the
Hall Friday through Sunday
will be the current "country
phenomenon", twice - Grammy
nominated Kinky Friedman and
the Texas Jewboys. Coming
soon to Liberty Hall: the New
York Dolls, (all male — you'll
have to see 'em to believe 'em)
Sept. 13-16; Jerry Jeff Walker,
Sept. 20-23; and Country Joe
Mac Donald, Sept. 27-30.
More Musical Milestones:
Bob Dylan's new single, "Knock-
ing at Heaven's Door," is climb-
ing the charts — it's brilliant.
Dylan was advanced $5 million
by Columbia, but would have
turned it down if just money
had been involved (the creep's
loaded''— no offense, Zimmer-
man). Columbia threatened to
release six albums shelved by
artists' agreement . . . the
Stones' have a new single out,
"Angie", and it's good, too . . .
Grand Funk Railroad's new tour
will bypass Houston, but you
could see them in C o r p u s
Christi (more news later) . . .
STOLEN
With a name like Kinky
Friedman and Texas Jewboys,
how can you help being of-
fensive? Kinky opens this
weekend at Liberty Hall, and
with two Grammy nominations
under his belt, chances are he'll
be a hit.
The legend begins in Borneo
(if you overlook childhood
origins in Austin, Houston and
Kerrville), where Peace Corps
worker Richard Friedman in-
troduced the Frisbee ("But the
natives only used it to make
their lips big.") In 1071, armed
with songs born of "repressed
Hebrew lessons, Latin literature
and jungle languages," Kinky
took his band, named after Bob
Wills and the Texas Playboys,
t.i 1 . A., where they lived in a
"1 "Magic Palace ol
They didn't hit it
the Jewish recording
hho owned the whole
•s — the president of
r !'. ithers, though, con-
that he'd like to give
a contract, but "1 don't
know what I'd tell my mother."
Publisher Chuck Glaser of Nash-
ville finally directed them to
Nashville, where Glen Campbell
decided to do their song "Sold
American" (now nominated for
a firammy) and mentioned
them on a talk show.
The Jewboys are now cut-
ting a second album. Of their
first, Sold American f Van-
guard i Jeff Nesin of The Press
remarked "it's Like a six-pack
(•! Coors with a touch of bella-
d Kinky's music is clear,
his heart is pure and his-mind
is (bleep) ed." Kinky's songs,
arcording to Kaye Northcott of
Performance, transgress so
many cultural borders that he
offend Jesus Freaks and
•Tews, and geatropers and wom-
en's libbers at the same time,
tie's been compared to Lennv
v\
1\ i n k \
Bruce, the Fugs, Merle Hag-
gard and John Prine.
"The Ballad of Charles Whit-
man," described as a shitkicker
shuffle honoring the sniper
who killed thirteen fellow stu-
dents from the University of
Texas Tower, is probably
Kinky's most outrageous num-
ber — "bad taste is timeless,"
states the Boston Phoenix. "We
Reserve the Right to Refuse
Service to You" chronicle's the
longhair Jew in Texas, getting
kicked out of a restaurant and
a synagogue ("Boruch atoh
adonoy, whatcha' doiir' back-
there boy"), refusing military
service ("let Saigons he by-
gones") and again losing out,
in Heaven ("the quota's filled
. . . on singin' Texas Jew-.")
Other songs include "Get Your
Biscuits In the Oven and Your
Buns in the Bed" and "High on
Jesus".
"Ride 'Em, Jewboy" is the
consummate statement about
Jews and Texans. "They're the
only twv> groups of people in
the world to wear their hats in-
doors," observes Kinky. More
seriously, he notes that "both
Jewboys and cowboys are
wandering, soulful types. —
both have their problems and
know how to enjoy their suf-
fering well." About the music,
both seem to have a similar
plaintive quality: "the steel
guitar is plaintive ... so is the
traditional Jewish prayer." But
in more cynical moments, the
alienated singer has stated that
the "idea of a Jew trying to
be country is ludicrous, but
some people are so literal-
minded they'll actually believe
there's a whole Jewish-Texas
culture here that's rich with
love ..." (Rolling Stone)
Shows at 8pm, t o n i g h t
throug Sunday, with late 11pm
shows on Fri.-Sat. at Liberty
Hall.
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the rice thresher, September 6, 1973—page 9
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Jackson, Steve. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 61, No. 3, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 6, 1973, newspaper, September 6, 1973; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245168/m1/9/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.