Emerson Batdorff

Films' words upstage actions

There is a curious change in permissiveness of movies these days. Instead of showing, they tell.

Whereas formerly there was a lot of nudity, particularly female nudity, today there is less.

But the slack has been taken up with words formerly not used in mixed company, not even in saloons where saying them too loudly would get you thrown out by the incensed bartender who didn't want his dive to get a bad name.

This curious change is apparent in a number of movies doing business here today. The most surprising is "Hustle."

"Hustle," the story of a call girl and a cop, is made by. Richard Aldrich. In circles that used to complain about what the screen showed, he will be remembered as the man behind the uniquely presented lesbian scene in "The Killing of Sister George."

Those were the days when such stuff was new. Tired New York businessmen

used to get less tired and rush out of the office at the proper time in the afternoon, pay their admission to watch the scene for a few minutes and then go back to the office.

They knew the proper time to do this

because the event was scheduled on a poster in the theater's box office. New York was different from Cleveland. In Cleveland they seldom have matinees.

...

Well, today Aldrich has made "Hustle." From its theme you would think it would lead to all sorts of visual excesses at Aldrich's hands.

Gene Hackman, left, Liza Minnelli and Burt Reynolds share love and adventure in "Lucky Lady"

explicit as the scène in "The Killing of Sister George."

Its words, however, go much further. Dirty words will never get a picture an X rating but certain of them certainly assure an R rating, which "Hustle" has.

If Aldrich had wished, he could have been much more wicked and kept the same rating. Obviously, he didn't wish. In fact, his restraint at times is laughable.

He shows what purports to be a salacious dance in a West Coast dive, but the girl keeps on her bikini bottoms and her

But visually there is nothing near as pasties while writhing considerably.

On the West Coast they take off more just to serve lunch.

In "Three Days of the Condor" there. is a long, soupy love scene between Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway that is entirely circumspect by today's standards.

However, Miss Dunaway says a word that really adds nothing to the story in: fact the whole romantic interlude is an intrusion in what is otherwise a fair action picture that assures the movie an R rating.

Perhaps "Three Days of the Condor" could have gotten the restricted rating on other grounds, namely blood and violence, but that, one word always has assured an R.

bed ¡-spect.

"Lucky Lady," which shows three in two men, one woman is circum-

It shows no bare hide at all and also holds down on the words so it gets a PG rating, although the part in the ads about some of it perhaps not being suitable for pre-teen-agers is certainly true.

"Dog Day Afternoon" contents itself entirely with talking dirty and gets an R rating. It is unlikely that the picture could have been as effective without the dirty talk because of the sort of man the protagonist is.

That's the way he would talk. In today's movies that's the way he has to talk or become laughable, just as "Hustle" becomes laughable for its reticence. You can't have a madman saying "Aw, shucks!"

Not on today's screen; where show and tell has become mostly tell.