DON MORRISON'S 2 CENTS' WORTH

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000400080026-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 17, 1998
• Sequence Number: 26
• Content Type: NSPR

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DON MORRISONSf'
2 Cents'
Worth
The Century Theater was full of young peoples Wednes-'
day afternoon. Manager Tom Martin watched the you~ig
sters streaming in and out and shook his head happily.
"it seems like years since we've had the kids
in here," he said.
Small wonder, considering that recent features at the'
Century have run to heavyweight adult films like "bays'
of Wine and Roses" and
"Term of Trial." The attrac-
tion that is bringing the kids `Gait Me Bwana'-.
in now is so far from being
heavyweight that they prob- Tribe
ably had to nail lead ballast Tickles
on the screen.
It is "Call Me Bwana," a of Youngsters
new Bob Hope movie that is
just like all the old Bob
Hope movies only not as good. In fact, it Is pretty bad,
but the youngsters were yocking it up just its I did when
I was their age.
It seems quite a while since I last saw a genuine
blown-in-the-bottle, copper-riveted, stem:winding, bevel:
edged, triple-distilled Bob Hope movie of the old style-
"Alias Jesse James," I think, was the last. More recently,
the master has tended toward sophisticated comedies like
the recent "Critic's Choice."
But, "Call Me Bwana" has all the vintage ingredients
Hope is. a writer who makes his living writing first-persor'
books about his African t.dventures. He has never beet:
out of New York and gets his information from the diary ot,
a deceased uncle, who really was an old Africa hand
In a standard Bob Hops racvie plot, the CIA drafts him t
recover a secret space cI f#:nle that has larded in unexplored
territory peopled by hcutdle tribesmen. So, O.K., we now
have the setup in wlillli congenital coward Hope must
falteringly engage in deft9rg-do.
Next, you gmltd a bosomy broad for Hope to
pitch pachydernliltous woo at. Anita Ekberg is it
-with Edie A(uns thrown in for full weight;
Anita is a Coiri. ,Hoist agent also trying to get at
the capsule. Edi i.--,s a-get this-CIA agent sent
along to protec (lope. What more need be said?
r
GPYRGHT
Actually, the picture starts out m c}erately well. Hop
s given some chance to get off his s?ecial kind of joke
When the CIA men brace him for the assignment, he urges
'Try Robert Ruark-he flinches a little, but he's a goc;
an." They hand him a phial of cyanide pills in cas :
e is captured and tell him that death will be instantaneous.'
'Oh, good," says Hope, "no side-effects, eh?"
But, even this cheerful juvenilia soon deteriorates into
desperate struggle to get a laugh. There is a painful
equence in which Arnold Palmer pops up in Africa to play
game of golf with Hope. Palmer quite obviously couldn't
ead even a funny line, let alone do anything with the bilge
e is given to say. Hope walks through the dreary windup
n an absent-minded fashion that is the best possible com-
entary on the material supplied him.` Aa I said, the kids
ike it. Normally, I can easily will myself into that re-
ressed state necessary to enjoy an old-style Bob Hop
movie,but this one defeated, my best Intentions
Approved Release:, CIA-RDP7 =OA R 5 4r,
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