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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (May 9, 1968)
fil THE BATTALION Thursday, May 9, 1968 College Station, Texas Page 3 At The Movies by Mike Plake ki! ELVIRA MADIGAN “ . . . possibly the most beauti ful film ever made!” — Bosley Crowthers of The New York Times Review, in an advertise ment. “Not worth my d...d dollar!” —One Aggie who saw the film. This, I think, is a peculiar form of concensus. Crowthers reviews many movies; he knows the per sonalities behind film-making; he finds himself at best surrounded by a multitude of excellent films, and at worst having to sit through “B” westerns and “C” sex flicks. Crowthers obviously has high re gard for Elvira Madigan. On the other hand, consider the Aggie. He’s not a drugstore cowboy, or a veterinary student running around with hematods swinging from his hips. Unlike Crowthers, he isn’t so smothered by “B” westerns or “C” sex flicks, except for the times it happens across the street. He is selective. It just so happens that his selection, if he doesn’t have trans portation downtown, is limited to the Campus. An important point: Crowthers goes to the film, observes it and reviews it as a professional. The Aggie goes because he has excess time between classes, or he has a problem he wants to forget, and it’s not close enough to the weekend to go and drink his proverbial beer. He goes to the movie, mostly, for entertain ment or escape. To him, a film appraised as “the most beautiful love story ever produced,” may not quite fit his standard for excellence. To him, a young lady like Pia Degermark, 17 years of age, named best actress at the Cannes Film Festival of 1967, may not cause him to jump up and spit wooden nickels as a result of her tremendous acting ability. Miss Degermark’s case, how ever, is aided by her natural beauty; she, as the Aggie said, is out of sight. The photography in Elvira Madigan is disarming. It almost carries the film. It is producer Bo Widerberg’s only consistently good trait; the camera, following the deserting Lt. Sparre (Thom- my Berggen) and Elvira through fields of flowers and berries and beautiful quiet streams, is mag nificent. One other film to date has practically achieved the same style of camera technique, but with more effectiveness: Blow- Up. Another aspect of Elvira Madi gan resembles Blow-Up in tech nique. It, too, ranks second in effectiveness. Passages of Beet hoven are woven with passages of silence and those natural sounds of the Swedish woodlands and meadows. While these breaks can be a good tool for effect, Elvira Madigan misuses them. Instead of exquisite wine, you have cheap beer. The plot is misused and drags. No doubt, the true story of Lt. Sparre of the Swedish Army is compelling—the film was based on it—but two hours wears the tale thin. Lt. Sparre is seen with Elvira, a sweet young thing who dances ballet on a tightrope. They traipse through the fields, making love and catching butterflies. Flashback. The lieutenant is a deserter. Flashback. Elvira is a deserter from the circus. Flash back. They desert together. They find love together. They starve together. And in the end, well . . . see for yourself. Is Elvira Madigan “possibly the most beautiful film ever made ?” No, that’s not possible at all. I think Grand Prix was the most beautiful film ever made. But then, I’m not Bosley Crow thers. I’m an Aggie. ■ w //,/!« By VERN SANFORD Texas Press Association AUSTIN—Texas Liquor Con trol Board is heading for an early showdown test of its new get- tough policies on subterfuge private clubs. In a surprise order, the Board outlawed cash sales in all bottle clubs. Some club operators, who al ready were complaining mightily about an earlier LCB directive prohibiting manager - members from issuing guest cards to walk- in customers, were hard hit. One promptly filed a lawsuit here to enjoin the board’s regulations. Net result of the cash sale re quirement will be to eliminate the casual guests, since operators wouldn’t want to run the risk of granting total strangers a month’s credit for a highly perishable commodity. Hotel-motel clubs who expect to solve the phoblem by putting club charges on room tabs may find the Board’s definition of a cash sale quite restrictive: “It shall be deemed that a cash sale has been made if payment for a service or commodity is made on the same date or within eight hours after the occurrence of such service or the delivery of such commodity.” Clubs also received a long list of new instructions for keeping records and running their affairs according to by-laws and through boards of directors. More rules are expected to be I forthcoming from the LCB. Times I may be hard for all but strictly I private and proper clubs in the I near future. LCB Attorney Lynwood Elliott I said he thinks the cash sale direc- I tive will restrict clubs: “I feel, t | quite frankly, that when you pro hibit a club from making a cash , [ sale it will be less inclined to | serve the public at large and will I start serving properly screened | members.” Situation is expected to bring ^ | new pressure for liquor-by-the- ^ f drink legalization. Club owners f claim they are being made politi- K cal footballs. RIOT CONTROL TRAINING All Department of Public Safety have undergone an inten sive, accelerated riot control train- i ing program. Plans are drawn P for maximum assistance to local authorities. State also is buying $200,000 worth of anti-riot equip ment for use of National and ; State Guards. DPS reported it stands ready ' to make “major commitment” of personnel and equipment on re quest from a local law enforce- | ment agency—although it hopes none will be necessary. COURTS SPEAK iiy Supreme Court held taxable natural gas used as fuel for en gines that pump oil. In a variety of other opinions, High Court ruled as follows: • Lower courts were right in concluding that a Houston fire man was suspended improperly for buying two mink stoles and a color TV set (believed to have been stolen) from another fire man. (Suspended firefighter de nied any knowledge of stolen goods.) • Women should be enjoined from operating an alleged house of prostitution near Brenham. • American Travelers Insur ance Company, Ltd., a Bahamas- based corporation, cannot do busi ness in Texas without a state permit. • A Refugio County woman who granted a pipeline easement across her property in 1943 is still stuck with the deal for future extension of parallel lines. Thirteenth Court of Civil Ap peals supported a Nueces County trial court view that voter regis tration applications cannot be submitted en masse. Third Court of Civil Appeals held that a firm must pay $11,556 in sales taxes, plus interest and penalties, on the cost of trans porting materials to job sites. Same court also ordered a new trial in a landowner’s suit against the city of Temple for damages due to inadequate drainage of property; found the movie “Blood and Black Lace” doesn’t have to be labeled “not suitable for young persons”; and gave Austin’s Texas State Bank a go-ahead to move its quarters from the Uni versity of Texas area to the down town district despite objections of neighbor-to-be City National Bank. ATTORNEY GENERAL RULES Atty. Gen. Crawford C. Martin has held invalid an appropriations bill rider attempting to set up priority for restoring historical sites. This since the Parks and Wildlife Department is otherwise authorized to use its discretion in acquiring and rebuilding such sites. In other new opinions, Martin held that: • Proceeds received by the Armory Board of the Texas Na tional Guard in exchange for land near Camp Maxey must be de posited in the state treasury, and cannot be spent for purchase of land. However, other Board funds not in the treasury can be spent to buy land. • County clerk of Parker County may accept for filing a city subdivision plat of property in an area overlapped by extra territorial jurisdiction of two cities in the county if approved by the largest city’s planning commission. • Although dedicated for a 120- acre park in Colorado County, Hill Memorial Park Foundation is not exempt from ad valorem taxes. SHORT SNORTS Rep. Gus Mutscher of Brenham not only is assured of election as Speaker of the House of Repre sentatives next January, but re portedly has a second term as speaker virtually nailed down. Number of draft delinquency cases in Texas decreased from 1,028 to 970 in first quarter of 1968, State Selective Service Di rector Col. Morris S. Schwartz reports. Supreme Court will license 222 new lawyers, who passed bar exams, here May 13. 317 Patricia NEED CASH Money Gone After 9 Months of School? Then see us for a personal loan. Take advantage of our prompt, confidential loan service now. UNIVERSITY LOAN COMPANY (North Gate) College Station, Texas Telephone: 846-8319 Open 11:00 a. m. to 12:00 p. m. Our Pizza Is The Best . . . Anywhere PIZZA INN THURSDAY SPECIAL Regular $1.45 Pizza Only 98^ Call in or eat here 846-6164 Sunday 413 Texas Ave. i^oo p- «>■ 12:00 p. m. Across the street from Ramada Inn C&S Sales & Service The Radiator Shop 1308 CAVITT BRYAN, TEXAS 822-3298 Major Company Credit Cards Accepted. Same Day Service 15% Discount With This Ad. RESCUERS WORK TO FRE E 25 TRAPPED WORKERS Teams of rescuers run aluminum piping into a flooded mine trapped. The passageway flooded and trapped some of the shaft at Hominy Fall, W. Va., where 25 coal miners were miners two miles from the entrance. (AP Wirephoto) ‘Dropout’ Makes Good High School Senior Mike Glanville is a high school dropout. He’s also an engineering whiz at Texas A&M University, where he hopes to participate in a re search grant this summer to study in a field so new it doesn’t even have a proper name. The Houston youth should be graduating from high school this month. As it turns out, he is winding up his freshman year of college with sophomore standing. Glanville was awarded the equivalent of a semester’s credit by breezing through rigid exam inations in freshman math, chem istry, physics, mechanical engi neering and English. Texas A&M officials spotted Glanville last summer when he enrolled in an eight-week Na tional Science Foundation engi neering program conducted by Dr. J. George H. Thompson. DR. THOMPSON reported the quality of Glanville’s work to Dr. A. D. Suttle Jr., A&M vice presi dent for research, who promptly extended the lad an enrollment invitation after conferring with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. C. R. Glanville. Glanville accepted, hedging only slightly. “I went ahead and enrolled at Westchester High School, just in case things didn’t work out,” he recalled. He attended classes one and a half days. Is A&M Freshman “They have me on record as ‘withdrawn’, rather than ‘disap peared’,” Glanville quipped. Any apprehensions about tran sition to college work were un founded. He completed his first semester with a 2.44 grade point ratio. GLANVILLE said he would have had a perfect 3.0 GPR, ex cept for history, which has proved to be his Achilles’ heel. “I don’t like it (history) and it doesn’t like me,” he remarked. He noted, however, he has spent more time studying history this semester than any other subject. The electrical engineering stu dent topped off his early entry into college by winning the A&M freshman mathematics contest this week. The honor included award of a gold watch from the Robert F. Smith Memorial Fund. Asked if he regretted missing his last year of high school, Glanville replied: “I guess it would have been fun being a sen ior, but I like it here, too.” One of the most unusual as pects about this unusual young man is that he made it to A&M at all. Both his father, who also studied electrical engineering, and his mother, a chemistry stu dent, were graduated from SMU and received master’s degrees from the University of Texas. For Your Corsage For Parent’s Day It’s The Student Floral Concession. See Your Dorn* Salesman Or Stop By The Floriculture Greenhouse Thursday or Friday 8-5; Saturday 8-12. Carnations Double Cymbidiums White Orchids Lavender Orchids Student Floral Concession “Run by Aggies for Aggies’’