Word: hallelujah
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...Hallelujah. Designed originally for teaching illiterate adults (Peace Corpsmen find it intriguing for potential use in illiterate countries), Words in Color is now being tried in 100 schools in seven states. In Euclid, Ohio, where a pilot project was launched last year, five-year-olds read simple stories, first-graders whip through fourth-grade readers. "What do brown, light orange, magenta make?" the teacher will ask. "Pot!" cry the kids. Dr. William Jordan, assistant head of the elementary schools, says: "We have never seen such progress. Our color readers are far ahead of any comparable groups." Students conquer the course...
With evident pleasure the producer of Hallelujah the Hills (David C. Stone) writes that his film is a "zany romantic comedy" which conveys "a feeling of Americana, camaraderie, and youthful adventure." "It has been likened," he continues modestly, "to a combination of Huckleberry Finn, the Marx brothers, Douglas Fairbanks, and the works of D.W. Griffith." I wish I could say that the comparisons are valid, for such a combination, I feel sure, would be delightful indeed; but the fact is I found Hallelujah the Hills intensely boring...
...cinema circuit. It was a great spoof of all sorts of movies, from the Last Year at Marienbad variety to the Disney cartoon, and it was brilliantly funny without being selfconsciously clever. Writer-director Adolfas Mekas has tried without success to pull off the same sort of joke in Hallelujah. All that comes through however, is an hour and a half of very self-conscious and very unfunny cleverness...
Ostensibly, Hallelujah has a plot, but I can't say I felt like puzzling it out. So let me refer to a printed synopsis: Vera is a lovely girl who has been courted by two men for seven years--Leo (Marty Greenbaum), who is quiet and awkward, and Jack (Peter H. Beard), who is handsome and unpredictable. Since each suitor sees the girl differently, Vera is played by two actresses (Sheila Finn and Peggy Steffans). This is clever. In the eighth year Vera marries Gideon, who never appears; and Jack and Leo go off on a camping trip...
...only marvel that the tiny cast did not sustain several fatalities in its wild romps through Vermont. I also find it a great shame that this exuberant and refreshing amateur spirit--which could do much for the good of the American cinema--has been so subverted in Hallelujah the Hills by the arty pretensions of producer and director...