Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 45

Features 1 Section 2 Chicago Tribune Thursday, October 28, 1971 The (Vlovies Tin Fuii-msMimg! by Geno Siskel eeking Fame in the Big City .1 mi i ii I v. 1 1 mi 1 R. BASKIN" is supposedly the story of a small town girl who comes to Chicago seeking fame and fortune. And yet not once does she do anything as imaginative as asking someone where she can buy some race track stock. Instead, Miss Baskin Candice Bergen immediately goes to work as a typist for a heartless big bank obviously one without a little bank inside.

She leads an impersonal life in that I -J aW Mjr 1 1 5s, -T TRIBUNE MINIREVIEW T.R.Ipe R. BASKIN" 7 A A VI Directed ay Herbert Ross, written and produced by Peter Hvamt, photoerashed by Oerald Hirechfeld, mine by Jack Elliott, art direction by Albert Brenner, Paramount reins at the United Artlsta Tlwater. Rated GP. THE CAST Candice Berton Peter Boyle James Caan Marcia Rodd Erin O'Reilly Howard Piatt T. R.

Baskia Jack Mitchell Larry Moort Dayle Kathy Arthur including a dining table, two sofas, and lounge chairs. Each piece comes in three finishes the natural reed; nutmeg, which is a pale brown finish, or cocoa, which is a deep brown. A three-pillow sofa shown in the dark finish, with natural suede upholstry, looks as modern as the sofa in the light finish with deep orange upholstry looks provincial. FOUNDER'S suggestion of a return to a more natural and pure interior environment comes in the form of two wall systems executed in light maple. One is called "Founders-Keepers" and another is called "Stoweaway." The 11 pieces in Stoweaway are priced to appeal to those with thin young pocketbooks and have an almost handcrafted look.

When combined with door and drawer fronts colored in bright lacquers, the system takes on a look quite unlike the many wall systems which have been introduced in the last few years. Chrome pulls imported from Europe add a modern touch. In their own interpretation of the natural look, showroom designers here have set up modern room scenes rampant with rush denum cane and pure homespun. No where is this look more apparent than in The Tyndale Showroom, where new designs include lamps with brown craftpaper pleated shades on pottery bases, a scrubbed pine table and mirror, a scrubbed pine chair with a rush seat which flips over to produce a step ladder, and a hanging lamp covered with a brown and white checked gingham shade. To achieve the natural looking scrubbed pine finish, the wood is scrubbed with a stiff brush, tinted, and then sealed with a protective finish so that while it looks raw and untouched it is practical.

While the light, almost white finishes of many years ago were apt to be uneven and sometimes blemished with dark mineral streaks, the light finishes of today look as pure as that driven snow. Furniture manufacturers have, since that period, discovered a bleach which insures these even tones. Butcher Blook, a grouping by Charlton, is an example of this technology. BY JUNE HILL High Point, N. C.

NIX THE "City Mix." A better way to stamp your home with individuality has emerged and it's called "The New Synthesis," says furniture designer Milo Baughman. "The New Synthesis" is a return to things au natural, "a complementary merger of the natural and the homespun with the smooth and the glossy, combining the crafted look with advance technology. "In one sense it is a protest movement. It is antipretension, it is fed up with the superchic; it is antisyn-thetic and even antiurban. It expresses the 'back to nature mood of many of our young people.

It doesn't give a hang what the 'beautiful people' are doing." Baughman's personal offering to this are sophisticated designs carried in natural materials or combinations of man-made unnatural materials. An example is one of his new sofas for Thayer Coggin, which features a mirror-chrome veneer base punctuated with upholstry made of a whit handwoven Haitian wool. This piece is one of many being revealed this week to retail store buyers and the Southern Furniture Market in High Point, N. C. The new furniture will be available to the public early next year.

"The New Synthesis" is not restricted by any means to the designs of Baughman, altho he personally got the natural look off to a sound start last spring when he designed and introduced a line of furniture made of natural knotty pine. He has expanded that line to include bedroom furniture with tops and base trim made of a champagne-colored formica for durability and easy cleaning. A refreshing approach to reed furniture is being introduced by Directional, thanks to its recent discovery of a furniture designer named Carlos Lopez-Benitez who not long ago escaped from Cuba. Lopez-Benitez has his own small factory here in High Point and is producing reed furniture with a modern accent-brushed bronze and polished chrome fillings. There are 26 pieces in his collection Candice Bergen foreground tries to type her way to fame and fortune in It.

Baskin," now playing at the United Artists Theater. This scene was filmed at the First National Bank of Chicago. bank, where she is just another member of just another typing pool. But that only lasts from 9 to 5. From 5 to 9, it's worse.

The two men with whom she develops relationships both mistake her for a hooker. And even then, only one of them offers her money. That's not the worst of it. She can't walk into one of our most famous downtown department stores without getting a bone rattling cross-body block from a fellow female shopper. The inside of her Near North Side apartment looks as tho it was gutted by The Great Fire and preserved by the Chicago Historical Society.

A cab ride from O'Hare to 1001 N. Dearborn St. costs $15.50. Does the hayseed give up and go home to Findlay, Ohio? No, because she isn't a hayseed. She is an "emancipated" woman which, in the psychology of this mean little movie, means a wisecracking shrew.

Hayseed, shraayseed. This broad and she is the kind of woman for whom the word was created should be working at a typewriter, all right, writing one of those "1,000 Insults" books. "What do your initials stand for?" "Thelma Ritter." Does your last name begin with a as in Peter?" man James Caan she picks up at O'Connell's on Rush Street. Bad writing, however, does not always make for a bad movie. Many a talented director has been able to shoot around a weak screenplay.

But R. Baskin" director Herbert Ross Goodbye, Mr. Chips" and "The Owl and the Pussycat" may have been handcuffed because, in this case, writer Peter Hyams, also was the producer. Money talks and money codirects. It would be a mistake to allow this film's technical excellence to go unnoticed.

Shot entirely in Chicago, R. Baskin" is a beautifully photographed movie. Credit must be shared among Hyams, who found most of the locations, Gerald Hirschfeld, who photographed them to their best advantage, director Ross, and the technicians, most of whom regularly work in Chicago. R. Baskin" is an unusually well-made bad movie.

No, with a as in Bedlam." What kind of a name is that? "Lithuanian." R. Baskin" is badly written. If you are writing a movie about an urban life that oppresses decent young women, it seems to me you'd better make sure your heroine is a decent young woman. The truth is that Miss Baskin gets almost everything she deserves. I was hoping one of the guys she ran into would have been armed with a grapefruit and had seen Jimmy Cagney give it to Mae Clarke in "Public Enemy." Verbally, T.

R. is the female equivalent of the musclebound bully who used to kick sand in the faces of 99-pound weaklings. Unfortunately, not one of her targets ever discovers Dynamic Tension. Not the salesman from Utica, N. Y.

Peter Boyle better known as "Joe." she visits in room 1453 of the Sherman House. Not the hip young How to boost the power of TV reading shows The Proper Lettering Style Ellen Peck -The A letters themselves. Tall letters should be approximately 1 inch high and short letters half an inch, or one-half as high as the tall letters. The only exceptions are and which are inch high with the horizontal line made at the half inch mark. You can easily draw guidelines for your child yourself, with three dark lines at half inch intervals and lighter lines at the quarter inch intervals between them.

Joan Beck WHEN YOU WRITE letters and words for your child as you use this new reading series together, it's best to make the letters in the style shown below. This is the manuscript form teachers use to write the alphabet in school and is the easiest way for children to learn to make the letters themselves. It's preferred in the primary grades because it adapts smoothly to adult cursive writing later on. Most children appreciate having ruled guidelines when they first learn to print Divorce Dilemma DEAR ELLEN PECK: I was married for a brief time less than a year at an early age. I was divorced and am now living where few people know of my marriage.

I have resumed the use of my maiden name, and everyone just assumes I've never been married. rm 19 now. I rarely No.4 Games parents can use with children from 3 to 10. How fast your child learns to recognize the shape of the consonants and the sounds they make depends on his age, his interests, and whether he's been exposed to reading instruction before. If he's just beginning to use letters, he'll need several days of practice and play before he's ready for another step.

Si date, because I just don want to get involved again yet. But my question is this: how do I tell any man about my divorce? It's not that I feel I should hide it, but I don't want to announce my status at first meeting. Also, if a man knows I'm divorced, I'm afraid he might assume I'm ready for sex. Technically I am not a virgin, but my standards have not lowered. Thank you for any answer you can give me.

Helcne Nashville 1024B To help your child recognize upper and lower case letters, you can construct a puzzle game for him, using file cards and marking pen or crayons. On each card, write clearly the upper and lower case form of a letter, leaving as much space as possible between them. Then cut each card in half, using a different, irregular cutting pattern for each card so that only the matched pairs will tit back together. Challenge your youngster to reassemble them correctly. The irregular shape acts as a self-correcting check so he can work independently and be sure he's right.

9ffr4T--r-S By Joan Beck, Frank Hopper Marj Hopper Dear tlelene: When you first begin seeing a guy, you'll probably spend a good deal of time talking about each other's background "Where are you from?" "How long have you lived This would be a natural time to mention your previous marriage; and I think it's best to mention it when it seems natural. If you wait, the guy might not appreciate it that you concealed something important. But mention it casually. And don't wait until you're pressured before you define your moral stand. Whenever you do tell a man you date about your marriage, you might add: "I don't consider myself a dashing divorcee.

I feel just as I did before I was married. That is, I feel like a single girl who is not yet ready for the full relationship of marriage." That should clarify your position. If not, don't hesitate to add a more explicit explanation. Good luck. DEAR ELLEN PECK: Do you think it's ever all right to ask a girl friend to "cover" for you when you're not going to be where you said you'd he? I'd like to meet Steve, but my folks don't like him.

But if I told them I'd be at Evie's house well, do you think that would be all right? Jennie Kenosha Dear Jennie: In a word: No. You're asking for a very complicated situation. You were only half on hour late, but Dad grounded you and cut your allowance or two weeks! Slop you don't haue to leave home. Quickly write or Ellen Peck' booklet, "How to Live With Parents and Like It." Send 20 cents end a self-addressed envelope to Ellen, care of this newspaper. Please specify the title and allow three weeks for delivery.

I 1 cm iKtA I km. 777T I AUJAY2 CALL IN 5ICK Good Morning A word to the wise usually is sufficient but what's the word? Sunshine Mojilne I i nf 5- J-tirjl.