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’’