'Norman' flops as movie

By Wilma Salisbury

When a silly Broadway play that is drowning in stereotypes is made into a movie, the result is a silly Hollywood movie that is drowning in stereotypes.

Norman... Is That You?" is a flimsy situation comedy about the reaction of Mr. Middle America when he discovers that his wife has run off with his brother and that his only son is a homosexual.

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The script by TV comedy writers Ron Clark and Sam Bobrick is little more than a tasteless stringing together of cheap jokes about the gay world. The dialog relies heavily on shabby old gags. Most of the characters are constructed of cardboard.

Redd Foxx, the exception, is believable as Ben Chambers, the square Tucson dry cleaner whose conventional values are suddenly threatened: Pearl Bailey, playing his wife, generates warmth as the Big Mama who arrives at the last moment to set everything right.

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Foxx's humorous timing and Miss Bailey's lovable personality are among the few admirable qualities in this vulgar farce.

Michael Warren is wooden as the homosexual son Norman. Dennis Dugan struts and swishes self-consciously as his roommate, Garson. Jayne Meadows makes a mercifully brief appearance as Garson's kookie mother.

Tamara Dobson looks the part of a $35 hooker who is hired to set the homosexuals straight. Vernee Watson portrays a girlfriend who would rather be a lover. Puppeteer Wayland Flowers makes his screen debut as a fruity ventriloquist.

In translating "Norman" from stage to screen, producer-director-co-writer George Schlatter has made only superficial changes.

Race is not an issue in the play, and the casting of black principals in the movie does nothing. to sharpen its fuzzy focus on sexual matters.

Fancy Hollywood interiors and attractive costurnes do not disguise the production's stereotyped characters, empty concept and low taste.

The change of locale from New York to Los

Dennis Dugan and Tamara Dobson eavesdropping in "Norman, Is That You?" ..

Angeles makes little difference, and the movement of characters from Norman's apartment to a street, night club, park, bookstore or bus station fails to add real action to the static story.

Intended to be funny, "Norman" is too dismally lacking in wit, point, imagination and style to merit more than an occasional snicker.