Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 65

ALL EDITIONS The Arizona Republic Thursday, June 4, 1981 and the Arts Ho-hum Silver: Lone Ranger writhes again Hardy I Price tip -4 WrS ,4, UP P4 11. I Klinton Spilsbury and Michael Horse attempt to pass for the Lone Ranger and Tonto. fied wood by no fewer than four screenwriters. These screenwriters were not distracted by considerations of plot the plot is merely a string of Western-movie cliches about conflict between men who wear white and those who wear black, frontier friendship, frontier justice and frontier boy-girl mooneyness. Rhymed narration by a Euell Gibbons drawl-alike ties the package nicely.

We are 62 minutes into the picture before the Ranger dons his mask and the William Tell Overture sounds; unfortunately, another 36 pass before Jason Robards (as President Grant) gamely asks, "Who was that masked man?" Cinematographer-turned-director William Fraker intended all this to be camp, verging on cartoonish, one suspects. But the cinematography of Lazlo Kovacs is all funny. You didn't know that, did you? If it doesn't have a it's not funny." Klinton Spilsbury is funny. So is Michael Horse, and not just because the "ch" in his name is pronounced like a (Willie: "Casey Stengel, that's a funny name. Robert Taylor is not Preened and creased to within an inch of their lives, Klinton and Michael don't look like a Lone Ranger or a Tonto.

They do look like disposessed disco do-bees maybe former members of the Village People. (Silver, on the other hand, is ugly. This is a horse you want to call Whitey.) As actors, Klinton, Michael and their nemesis, Christopher Lloyd, who plays Butch Cavendish, all resemble wooden Indians. Their dialogue was carved from petri The tale of THE LEGEND OF THE LONE RANGER A UniversalAFD release produced by Walter Coblenz, directed by William A. Fraker; screenplay by Ivan Goff, Ben Roberts? Michael Kane and William Roberts from an adaptation by Jerry Der-loshon of stories and characters created by George W.

Trendle and Fran Striker. Cinematography by Lazlo Kovacs. Cast: Klinton Spilsbury, Michael Horse, Jason Robards. Rated PG. By Michael Maza Republic Staff The Legend of the Lone Ranger began developing its own uncomfortable microclimate in pre-production.

Now, on screen, we can't see it except through a mist of its own creation. In 1979, the owner of the Lone Ranger name decided that although Clayton Moore had been the Ranger on TV for more than 100 half-hour shows, he was too old for the new movie. Worse, Moore was ordered to stop making public appearances in his (former) character's trademark mask. The result was a legal hassle (Moore lost), followed by an alleged softening of heart Moore could wear the mask after all, it was decided. Whether the fight was a publicity stunt or real, everyone downwind of the flap smelled greed in the air.

There also were stories about new Ranger Klinton Spilsbury's ungentle-manly conduct on the set, and the film was pulled from the Christmas release schedule, allegedly for redubbing of Spilsbury's voice, which was deemed unsatisfactory. Now, at last, we have the motion picture itself. I suspect this has been said before because it comes easy and verges on a cheap shot. Nonetheless, it is true: QUESTION: Why does the Lone Ranger wear that mask? ANSWER: Because he doesn't want to be just another pretty face. More than his petulant good looks, the arresting thing about this new Lone Ranger is his name.

His name is Klinton Spilsbury Klinton with a Which reminds me of Willie Clark's comedy lecture to his nephew, Ben, in Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys: "Willie: Words with a in it are Sad sacEc By Lee Grant Los Angeles Times HOLLYWOOD Steven Bach, senior vice president in charge of worldwide productions at United Artists, answered the phone on his script-laden desk while sorting through his afternoon mail. The date was May 11; The call was from Dean Stolber in New York, the company's executive vice president for business affairs. According to Bach, this is how the one-minute conversation went: Stolber "This is the hardest phone call I've ever had to make." Bach: "Oh?" Stolber "Can you come to New York so we can discuss it?" Bach: "Couldn't you have handled it here?" (Stolber had been in Hollywood just days before.) Stolber "This is the way we've wanted to handle it" That's the way a major motion-picture executive was let go by telephone and with no mention of reasons or the word "fired." Bach says the reason is that he was in charge of a $43 million film called Heaven's Gate, which has become a financial disaster for United Artists. Heaven's Gate was not the fust very expensive movie to bomb. But it was the first to bomb in a long version, then bomb again in abbreviated form months later.

Bach reacted quickly after receiving the message to move on. An hour later he drove off the lot and was home by 4 p.m. Fade now to Bach's Spanish-style home in the Hollywood Hills. His gray Mercedes sports car is on display in the driveway. Inside, Bach, 41, dressed casually in jeans and a green plaid shirt, seems rested after vacationing in London and New York.

The profile of a fired studio production chief is not that of the average working man pounding the pavement and visiting the unemployment line. Studio jobs like the one he had pay (250,000 to 1400,000 a year, not including bonuses and profit sharing. There often is movement to independent pro- duction. Alan Ladd Jr. quit at 20th Century-Fox and came back with his own company and films like Divine Madness and Outland.

David Begelman bounced from Columbia to court to production chief at MGM. "It's popular in this town to terminate people on the telephone," Bach says. Yet it perturbs him that four days before the a Hollywood firing PEOPLE AND PLACES In response to the other day's listing of uptight and loose, councilman Barry Starr admits to being uptight earlier but adds: "That's changed since I bought larger shorts." The councilman is off on vacation, taking the wife and kids to London, Paris and Israel. Barry says his beard will be back when he returns, three weeks from now. Always liked people with beards.

Says something about character. You can relive those days of the Texaco Star Theater and Uncle Miltie in a couple of weeks. Milton Berle, whose material has changed little since his Texaco days, will play a week at Windmill Dinner Theater, June 16-21, replacing an ailing, Six Rms, Riv Vu. Berle entered the spotlight recently with the publication of the book on the sex lives of the famous. According to the book, Berle rates in the top 10.

This weekend's PhrlngeCon Inc. sci-fi convention at the Ramada Inn East has lost its star attraction. James Doohan, Scotty of Star Trek fame, entered a California hospital for tests and was forced to cancel. Still on the bill, however, are sci-fi authors Theodore Sturgeon and Jayne Tannehill, and NASA's Jesco Von Puttkamer, who was an adviser to Star Trek: The Motion Picture. If interested, three-day passes at $20 per person are available at the door.

The convention begins Friday. THIS AND THAT Thank heaven for the Chipmunks as in Alvln, Simon and Theodore. Hot on the heels of Chipmunk Punk comes Urban Chipmunk, a wonderful spoof of the current trend in country music. Couldn't have come at a better time. Ross Bagdasarian (son of David Seville, who created Alvin and company in the 50s) has put together a collection of country hits tinted with that unique brand of Chipmunk spunk irreverence.

In the threesome's version of The Gambler, Alvin sings: So I handed him my bottle (of soda pop)Jand he drank down my last he bummed a Twinkie and offered me a bite. Some cuts on the RCA album sound better than the originals Alvin doing John Denver's Thank God I'm A Country Boy and the hackneyed Eddie Rabbitt hit, Love The Rainy Night Long live Chipmunk power. LINER NOTES Larry Bonoff now is booking country acts for Graham Central Station in addition to his country dates at Symphony Hall. Bonoff said the club's policy is to have at least one name act a week. "That's 52 shows a year, which means I've got to work," he said.

Upcoming is Dave and Sugar on June 10 and Gary Stewart and the Drugstore Cowboyson June 17. Under the heading of coming soon, Bonoff lists Charly McClain, Razzy Bailey, Ronnie Mlllsap, Hoyt Axton and Ray Price. To show what shrewd judgment Bonoff the booker has, he went to Bonoff the manager (one and the same) and brought in Paul T. Morris and the PM Band last night Danny Zellsko is busy at Dooley'i. June 14 will bring Jorma Kaukonen, of the original Jefferson Airplane, and Hot Tuna, followed on July 4 by Spirit, including original members Ed Cassldy and Randy California.

That man in the white linen suit and the Panama, Leon Redbone, is booked for July 6. On July 13 it will be the Pat Metheny Group in a pair of shows. Today's quote from Dustln Hoffman: "My friends tell me I keep getting handsomer the older I get I have no doubt that's true. I had nowhere to go but up." Public Broadcasting dealt budget setback Associated Press WASHINGTON A House-Senate conference committee, in a major defeat for public broadcasters, has agreed to cut $35 million from the fiscal 1983 budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The decision, reached late Tuesday evening and revealed Wednesday, still must be ratified by both chambers of Congress to be final.

But public broadcasting officials said it was unlikely they could convince the Senate and House to reject a compromise worked out by conferees. The budget reduction for the year that begins Oct 1, 1982, from $172 million to $137 million, is expected to have a serious impact on the size of CPB's grants to individual radio and TV stations and on the level of national program production undertaken by the corporation itself. Even more important, according to CPB officials, the decision marks the first time Congress has failed to honor the principle of -allocating money in advance since the budgeting procedure was started in 1975. Under that procedure, the federal contribution to CPB is approved two years in advance as a means of insulating public broadcasters from political pressure or criticism that might develop over the showing of certain programs. "We deeply regret the action taken (Tuesday) by the House and Senate conferees," CPB spokesman Tom Otwell said Wednesday.

Otwell was unable to immediately pinpoint the specific effects of the conferee's action, but said: "There's no question that programming at the local and national levels will be adversely affected." i lisillil wrong for that. It's somber. Even clear skies are never quite blue. Is there any excuse, by the way, for filming in Monument Valley, near Sante Fe, N.M., and in Utah and Nevada, and calling it Texas? None, it would appear. But how can we expect proper topography from people who don't know what the Lone Ranger and Tonto look like? SECOND OPINION: From Janet Maslin, The New York Times: "Whether he is inducing seasickness by shooting a horseback chase with a hand-held camera, or taking the edge off action scenes by filming them in slow motion, Fraker consistently makes decisions that get noticed for the wrong reasons.

He has also included one of the screen's all-time least romantic love scenes "I wrote him a sympathy note at the time he was fired," Bach says. "I thought the way they handled it was appalling. To fire a major executive over the telephone Little did I know." Bach says feelings of solitude and distance overwhelmed him after his firing. "The thing you wonder is, 'Am I now a All the phone calls and letters from UA people and others were very important to me emotionally," he says. "It served notice that I hadn't vanished like the invisible man." However, a source at United Artists said of Bach: "He is now a black sheep.

Steven's name is not even mentioned around here anymore. It's amazing the way studios operate. Raphael Etkes is the man." Among the fringe benefits that Bach lost was the personal use of a rust-colored Mercedes sedan belonging to the studio. "The equivalent of striping off your epaulets in the movie business is (when) they take away your Mercedes," Bach says. Etkes reportedly is driving the car now.

"It is all very exciting but also very wearing and exhausting," Bach explains. "Being fired in this business is no disgrace whatever. There's a funny musical chairs quality about it all You don't automatically become unemployable, just unemployed. We'll find out how badly I was hurt if I can't get a table anymore at Ma Maison. Then I'm a disgrace." He is planning to become an independent producer in partnership with a director friend.

Bach's reign will always be remembered for Heaven's Gate and, he says, "that galls me a little bit I've already had my tombstone made up. It reads, 'Here lies the perpetrator of Heaven's Gate." Actually, it should be noted, he was the man in charge when Manhattan and Raging Bull were made along with a series of smaller films like Rich Kids; The Idolmaker; Those Lips, Those Eyes; and Head Over Heels. Coming up with Bach's stamp on them are True Confessions with Robert De Niro and Robert Duvall, and The French Lieutenant's Woman with Meryl Streep. Meanwhile, the trauma of Heaven's Gate will pass. "This," Bach says, "is an industry with a short memory." ft I ft I' i The process, he says, was less painful to the ego than to the frustrating matter of unfinished business: "It has to do with the projects you brought into the company and are leaving behind a little bit like orphaning your children and with the people left behind, too.

"That's the hard part These jobs, you know, are not about money. The government gets most of that anyway." Nestled now in Bach's old office, at Bach's old desk, with Bach's old title, is a man named Raphael Etkes, who had been fired by a film company in December. Bach Baid there is no disdain or animosity between them. Wi 'A Vy AP Steven Bach, left, learned from a newspaper article that studio president Norbert Auerbach, right, felt they had personal and creative differences. It wasn't long before Bach received his walking papers.

sacking he had dined with Norbert Auerbach, the studio's president and chief operating officer, and Stolber, the man who telephoned with the bad news. There was not a mention then of the impending action. "Maybe I did something wrong at dinner," Bach says. Auerbach has said in a newspaper article that Heaven's Gate was only part of the cause for Bach's firing. Other causes included creative and personal differences.

"We did have differences on the treatment of people and how a company should be run," Bach replies, "but I never discussed any of that with him. The first I read of it was in the newspaper.".