Word: nickelodeons
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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When a director's three latest films are commercial and critical bombs like Daisy Miller, At Long Last Love and Nickelodeon, where does he go next? In Peter Bogdanovich's case, it is back to basics. Saint Jack, the director's first film since 1976, is a sharp departure from the projects of his Hollywood heyday. Adapted from a Paul Theroux novel set in Singapore, the movie has a small budget, no big stars and not a single loving reference to a classic screwball comedy. Cybill Shepherd is nowhere in sight...
...rival cable operators doubt that it can be made to pay. But it is already having an impact on cable programming outside Columbus. In March, Warner began selling to cable operators nationwide 13 hours a day of children's programming, approved by Columbus viewers, under the general name Nickelodeon. Sample shows: Pinwheel for preschoolers, featuring puppets, mime and dance; Video Comic Books, showing pages of the Green Lantern and Space Ranger with dialogue balloons, voice-overs and sound effects; and America Goes Bananaz for teenagers, a mix of zany comedy and rap sessions about drugs, birth control, sibling rivalry...
...CURTAIN RISES, someone is pounding out Scott Joplin and vaudeville tunes on the upright piano in the corner. Credits appear like titles from a 1910 silent movie: "Executive Producer--John Cooper; Director--Evangeline Morphos; Set Designer--Martin Shofner." The Hasty Pudding Theater has been transformed into a nickelodeon for Measure for Measure. the premiere production of The Harvard Shakespeare Theater. It's an extraordinary and ambitious first appearance...
...Take the nickelodeon, for instance. It is a stylish device, as are all the devices of this production, but besides relieving the tedium of set changes, what does it do here? Why impose a device from a cliched art form of the early 20th century on a chosen 19th century setting of a 16th century play...
Unfortunately, these themes of hypocrisy and sincerity, sex and love, so strongly introduced, are left dangling. The 19th century setting is as much an imposition and as little a genuine idea as the nickelodeon. Part of the problem is Jennifer Marre's interpretation of Isabella. If only it had been a little less inexplicable, more seemingly affected by the thought of sexual violation or even by the threat of her brother's execution. Isabella is not necessarily selfishly chaste; especially in the setting of this production, Marre might have been directed to make evident that it is a different sort...