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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 11/08/91 -- Vol. 10, No. 19
MEETINGS UPCOMING:
Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are on Wednesdays at noon.
LZ meetings are in LZ 2R-158. MT meetings are in the cafeteria.
_D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C
11/13/91 MT: THE RED MAGICIAN by Lisa Goldstein (Jewish SF) (MT 3K-302)
11/20/91 LZ: THE PUPPET MASTERS by Robert A. Heinlein (Alien
Parasites)
12/11/91 LZ: MIRKHEIM by Poul Anderson (Novels with Names of
Scandinavian Mythological Places in Them)
12/18/91 MT: "The Star" by Arthur C. Clarke (Christian SF)
01/08/92 LZ: EXPECTING SOMEONE TALLER by Tom Holt (Operatic SF)
01/29/92 LZ: A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess (Dystopias)
_D_A_T_E _E_X_T_E_R_N_A_L _M_E_E_T_I_N_G_S/_C_O_N_V_E_N_T_I_O_N_S/_E_T_C.
11/09/91 Autographing: Ellen Datlow, Janet Kagan, Ellen Kushner,
Melissa Scott, Jack Womack (B. Dalton, Willowbrook
Mall, Wayne, 1-5 PM) (Sat)
11/09/91 Autographing: S. N. Lewitt (Science Fiction Shop, NYC)
(4-6 PM) (Sat)
11/09/91 SFABC: Science Fiction Association of Bergen County: Bob
Eggleton, space artist (phone 201-933-2724 for
details) (Saturday)
11/16/91 NJSFS: New Jersey Science Fiction Society: TBA
(phone 201-432-5965 for details) (Saturday)
HO Chair: John Jetzt HO 1E-525 908-834-1563 hocpb!jetzt
LZ Chair: Rob Mitchell LZ 1B-306 908-576-6106 mtuxo!jrrt
MT Chair: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 908-957-5619 mtgzy!leeper
HO Librarian: Rebecca Schoenfeld HO 2K-430 908-949-6122 homxb!btfsd
LZ Librarian: Lance Larsen LZ 3L-312 908-576-3346 mtunq!lfl
MT Librarian: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 908-957-5619 mtgzy!leeper
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 908-957-2070 mtgzy!ecl
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
1. The next book discussion will be in Middletown; the following
description was provided by Evelyn Leeper:
THE MT VOID Page 2
When I first selected _R_e_d _M_a_g_i_c_i_a_n by Lisa Goldstein, I didn't
realize it would be such a difficult book to find. Because of
this, the discussion will probably be more about the topic than the
individual book. "Jewish Science Fiction" is probably too broad a
topic, however, even for Jewish Heritage Month, so I would like to
narrow it down to one that was used at Chicon V this past year: The
Nazi Holocaust and Fantastic Literature. Goldstein's book is a
fantasy set during the Holocaust; another well-known fantasy with
this basis is Jane Yolen's _D_e_v_i_l'_s _A_r_i_t_h_m_e_t_i_c, which has won
several prestigious (and non-science-fiction) awards. Is the
Holocaust a valid background for fantastic literature? Should a
writer worry about offending people by "trivializing" it? What
pitfalls, if any, should be avoided?
(By the way, _T_h_e _D_e_v_i_l'_s _A_r_i_t_h_m_e_t_i_c is a very short book--it is
marketed as a young adult novel--so you should be able to read it
in an evening if your library has it, and because it has won so
many awards, your library may well have it.) [-ecl]
2. Well, he's back in the news again. Who do you think is the
worst current monster in film? I will give you a clue. It's not
Freddy, it's Teddy--Ted Turner, that is. Evidently the French
government is looking to make illegal the showing on television of
colorized versions of black and white films. And you-know-who is
Mr. Colorization world-wide. To film fans all over the world Ted
Turner is a man who chews up classic films and then spits them up
on television screens everywhere. Well, as usual I have a stand on
this issue that nobody, not even Ted Turner, would like, I suspect.
I think both sides are wrong. If I could make colorization go
away, I would. Turner is doing a bad thing when he colorizes John
Huston's great _M_a_l_t_e_s_e _F_a_l_c_o_n. (Oh, please stop doing that,
Mr. Turner.)
One standard argument that colorization isn't so bad is that you
can always turn the color off. The standard response to that
argument is that colorization spoils the carefully crafted black,
gray, and white tones that Huston orchestrated for the film.
Right. This is a film that has been stored on unstable film stock
for half a century, then is broken down into lines and broadcast to
cathode ray tubes. Now, no two of these cathode ray tubes have
exactly the same setting of brightness or contrast and yet every
one until now has gotten the precise black and white tones this
film had when projected in 1941. But turning off the color on a
colorized print is just going to distort the tones horribly. Come
on. Face it, you are not going to get Huston's original tones if
you watch _T_h_e _M_a_l_t_e_s_e _F_a_l_c_o_n on television. You cannot even get
them in a theater any more. the response of film fans was going to
be to get a bill through Congress that a large number of films were
special treasures and Turner could not colorize them without a big
warning at the front saying this film has been colorized. So
there, Mr. Turner. Turner's response to this was, "Sure. Good
THE MT VOID Page 3
idea." Not just special treasure films but everything Turner
colorizes bears the announcement at the front. I guess I'd call
that a class response.
In my experience this violence done to the mood of a film by
colorizing it is small compared to the violence done by
commercials. The New York ABC affiliate broke the opening credits
of _H_i_g_h _P_l_a_i_n_s _D_r_i_f_t_e_r for a commercial. Then generally show a
generous ten or twelve minutes of the film at a time before cutting
to an interruption. Turner's two stations show films in a manner
that indicates he respects cinema. He does not have excessive
interruptions--more than I would like but nothing like some other
stations. And his stations show features about the making of
films. And he shows shorts. Then there is _T_h_e _U_n_h_o_l_y _T_h_r_e_e.
That's Lon Chaney, Sr.'s only sound film. Not a great film, but
because it was Chaney's only talkie, I was curious for years to see
it and there may have been about a dozen people in America who knew
the film's background and wanted to see it. Nobody in their right
mind would think this obscure artifact could be a big audience
draw. Imagine my disappointment when I found out from a friend
that Turner had broadcast it and I missed it in the listings. I
was luckier a few months later when he broadcast it a second time.
Turner also broadcast the silent version of _B_e_n _H_u_r, _W_i_n_d, what is
left of _G_r_e_e_d, and the nearly silent _M_y_s_t_e_r_i_o_u_s _I_s_l_a_n_d with Lionel
Barrymore. For years I had wanted to see the Japanese film _U_g_e_t_s_u.
I had never seen even PBS broadcast it. Turner showed it in
Japanese with subtitles.
I love _K_i_n_g _K_o_n_g. I didn't want Turner to colorize it. Turner got
the best existing print he could get and cleaned it so more detail
was visible and colorized that. He also released, I am told, the
cleaned-up black and white version. I saw the colorized version
and thought Turner had done little to add to or detract from the
film. I would like to see the cleaned-up black and white version.
Most of the films Turner colorizes are readily available in black
and white. An d most that are not are also not mood pieces where
the shades of gray are super-critical. They are films like
_D_i_r_i_g_i_b_l_e, an adventure film about the Navy using dirigibles. The
only real atmosphere was that in which the dirigible flew.
Turner has, to my mind, been a boon and not a bane to film fans. I
like his news coverage too.
3. This year's World Fantasy Award winners are:
Best Novel (tie): _T_h_o_m_a_s _t_h_e _R_h_y_m_e_r by Ellen Kushner and _O_n_l_y
_B_e_g_o_t_t_e_n _D_a_u_g_h_t_e_r by James Morrow
Best Novella: "Bones" by Pat Murphy
THE MT VOID Page 4
Best Short Story: "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by Neil Gaiman and
Charles Vess
Best Anthology: _B_e_s_t _N_e_w _H_o_r_r_o_r edited by Stephen Jones and Ramsey
Campbell
Best Collection: _T_h_e _S_t_a_r_t _o_f _t_h_e _E_n_d _o_f _i_t _A_l_l _a_n_d _O_t_h_e_r _S_t_o_r_i_e_s
by Carol Emshwiller
Best Artist: David McKean
Special Award -- Professional: Arnie Fenner
Special Award -- Non-Professional: "Cemetery Dance" -- Richard
Chizmar
Life Achievement Award: Ray Russell
Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 908-957-5619
...mtgzy!leeper
All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to
the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing
higher than reason.
-- Immanuel Kant
THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1991 Mark R. Leeper
This is not a review--it is a symposium of ideas about _T_h_e
_P_e_o_p_l_e _U_n_d_e_r _t_h_e _S_t_a_i_r_s based on an after-film discussion. It will
contain spoilers in the same sense that a road sign that says
"Bridge Out" is a spoiler.
- Kate Pott, acknowledged film viewer, cautions us that it really
would be unfair on the basis of one psychotic cannibal film to
condemn all the psychotic cannibal films being made and that
many are considerably better than _T_h_e _P_e_o_p_l_e _U_n_d_e_r _t_h_e _S_t_a_i_r_s.
- I think it somewhat politically simplistic for this film to
suggest that there is sufficient money in the black ghetto for
everyone to have a high standard of living, but that the money
is all going to killer psychotic slumlords who, through
inbreeding, have become crazy as bedbugs. Even if you accepted
that premise, I am not sure that their dementia would take the
form of kidnapping children for their own and then, when the
children become unhappy, imprisoning them in the walls of a
house.
- Evelyn Leeper points out that this house that appears small on
the outside would not have walls three to four feet thick.
Much of this film takes place within the walls of the house and
we can see the inside of the walls are excessively spacious.
- Evelyn pointed out that door-to-door salesmen are a much rarer
phenomenon than they used to be. The few salesmen who came to
the door could not be rendered into sufficient meat to feed the
twelve growing children living in the walls of the house.
- I would add that if so many door-to-door salesmen have
disappeared it would be fairly easy for the police to pinpoint
the trouble spot in the neighborhood.
- I was less than pleased with a plot structure in which all but
about ten minutes of screen time is taken up by two over-
extended chases through the walls, basement, and roof of a
single house.
- Evelyn was not totally pleased with plot elements like having
the African-American boy who is the main character mostly
trying to earn enough money for a cancer operation to save his
mother's life (and wanting to become a doctor someday) and
getting advice from his kindly uncle Booker and his somewhat
shady friend Leroy.
People Under the Stairs November 4, 1991 Page 2
- I found that in spite of the fact that our main character has
found rooms full of money wrested from ghetto tenants, it seems
unlikely that the explosions at the end of the film would
shower only money on the neighbors waiting outside.
- It was the overall impression of the three of us that this film
sucked pond water. Kate rated it a -2 and Evelyn and I each
gave it a -3 on the -4 to +4 scale.
BILLY BATHGATE
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1991 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: A film with a nice period feel
about a young man rising in Dutch Schultz's
organization while Schultz himself is falling. Above
average accuracy for a gangster film, but still some
mistakes. The film needed a really good performance
by Hoffman, who for once just could not muster the
power the role needed. Rating: low +2 (-4 to +4).
"Organized" crime was not so organized in the 1920s and early
1930s. Individual gangs built on bootlegging, prostitution,
gambling, or other rackets fought each other for turf. Meyer Lansky
forged a single government over the major gangs to organize them and
to minimize inter-gang warfare. The birth of this syndicate was the
death of the last wild gangster. And it was not the FBI or the
police who killed him; it is generally assumed to have been fellow
gangsters terrified because this loose cannon had just effectively
declared war on the United States government. In his fiery temper,
Dutch Schultz had announced that he was going to kill government
prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey. The new syndicate was trying to bring
order. The last thing it wanted was a war with the United States
government packaged and delivered by the likes of Dutch Schultz. So
Schultz died and true organized crime was born. E. L. Doctorow's
novel _B_i_l_l_y _B_a_t_h_g_a_t_e tells the story of a young Irish-American
rising in Schultz's organization at the same time Schultz's star
started descending. Tom Stoppard wrote the screenplay for a film
adaptation directed by Robert Benton.
The structure of _B_i_l_l_y _B_a_t_h_g_a_t_e's plot parallels that of
_G_o_o_d_f_e_l_l_a_s. The story begins with one horrendous crime, flashes
back to how things got to this state, and then continues from there
into the future. Billy (played by Loren Dean) is on hand to see
Schultz (played by Dustin Hoffman) murdering Bo Weinberg (played by
Bruce Willis). It is a long ritual involving a tugboat, a tub of
cement, and Drew Preston (play by Nicole Kidman), who is Bo's
unreliable girlfriend. From there we return to how a teenage Billy,
awestruck at Schultz's power and wealth, first accidentally
impresses Schultz, then intentionally does it, then connives his way
into Schultz's organization. Bathgate begins as mascot and errand
boy to the Schultz organization and uses his new-found wealth to
impress his girlfriend and his mother, the latter drained from a
sweatshop job that pays in a week what Billy spends on one lunch.
There are problems with the script that might also be virtues.
This is not a rock 'em, sock 'em, _U_n_t_o_u_c_h_a_b_l_e_s sort of film. There
are scenes with action, but there are not many. There is little to
Billy Bathgate November 3, 1991 Page 2
race your pulse. There is not even much dramatic tension. The film
is more concerned with questions such as whether Schultz really is
exceptional or whether he is just an ordinary man. There is a
little bit of inter-gang rivalry, a bit of Billy's risking his life
from or for his boss. But Billy's scams are small and short. Like
_R_a_g_t_i_m_e, this is not an adventure film; it is an opportunity to put
the viewer in a well-realized historical setting so that the viewer
can appreciate the situation. In some cases advancing Billy's story
frustratingly takes us away from Schultz's story. There is also a
little sex in Billy's story, giving us some visual candy to appease
us that we are not seeing Schultz's story.
One problem with the dramatic tension is that Hoffman does not
do angry and psychotic very well. Sometimes putting someone mild in
a vicious role works extremely well. A case in point might be Alan
Arkin in _W_a_i_t _U_n_t_i_l _D_a_r_k. However, the decision to have the driving
power of a film to be the force of Dustin Hoffman's anger is
questionable.
"Sorry, Mr. Hoffman, we're looking for someone meaner."
"I can be meaner!"
"We're looking for someone angrier."
"I can be angrier!"
"We want someone scary."
"I can be sceary!"
"We want someone else."
Hoffman kicks the casting director in the bedoobees.
Henry Fonda also was convincing in nice-guy roles but had
problems with heavies. Hoffman is not terrible in the role, but he
is only okay and much more could have been hope for.
Next we come to the question of historical accuracy. Here,
too, the film is flawed, but not terribly. There were some points
that were indeed quite accurate. Arthur Flegenheimer did indeed
borrow the name Dutch Schultz from another hood. And he was indeed
very even-tempered until it came to the question of money. If
Schultz thought you were cheating him out of even small money, your
life was not worth much. "Legs" Diamond and Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll
each died from Schultz's rages over money and they were by no means
alone. But the film did not go far enough. It showed Dutch Schultz
as a fancy dresser. Schultz was too much of a skinflint ever to
dress nicely. Lucky Luciano said, "Dutch was the cheapest guy I
ever knew. The guy had a couple of million bucks and he dressed
Billy Bathgate November 3, 1991 Page 3
like a pig." The film shows Bo Weinberg being an independent hood
murdered before the upstate New York trial. In actual fact,
Weinberg worked for Schultz. He had little faith that Schultz would
win the upstate New York trial and let Luciano move in on Schultz's
rackets while Schultz was pretending to be a good citizen for the
trial. Another inaccuracy is in the spoiler section following this
review.
As a minor aside, incidentally, we see a little of Stephen Hill
playing Otto Berman--known as Abbadabba Berman. He was a
mathematician who worked out a method to increase the numbers racket
take by 10%. He would find out what numbers had been least played.
From there he figured how much he had to bet in racetrack pari-
mutuel machines to make the low-played numbers come up winners.
That part was perfectly legal. The pari-mutuel machine bets would
lose, but the right numbers would come up and Schultz would pay out
less. The "Abbadabba" nickname was a magic word (corrupted from
"Abracadabra"?) indicating that Berman was the magician of the
numbers racket.
Overall this is not a perfect portrait of Dutch Schultz and the
people around him, and it could use a bit more action, but it is
watchable and enjoyable. My rating is a low +2 on the -4 to +4
scale.
*****SPOILER**********SPOILER**********SPOILER**********SPOILER*****
The attack on the Palace Chop House could have been better
researched. Charlie "The Bug" Workman (I'm not making this up!) did
the hit. To make sure he was not surprised by someone coming out of
the restroom, he went there first and shot the heavy-set man washing
his hands. He then burst out of the john with a .38 in each hand
and gunned down the three men at Schultz's table. Bug then realized
the man in the john was Schultz and went back in to rifle Schultz's
pockets. This is quite different from the scene in the film. Also,
Schultz appears dead in the film. Actually, Schultz raved for about
two days before dying. I occasionally get mail from people whose
response to having inaccuracies pointed out is "What does it
matter?" That is never an easy question to answer. In truth,
historical accuracy is its own reward. It only matters if it
matters. To me it matters.
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