Show Business: Ali MacGraw: A Return to Basics

(10 of 10)

Cinema Center Films, expresses a questionable view when he declares: "There is a volcanic desire on the part of directors, executives and players to come up with films that will open in New York and get The New Yorker, TIME, the New York Times. They live in euphoria for three weeks, and then the film goes out of town and dies. Our supposition and proposition at this company is a broad base of entertainment."

Entertainment, yes; sleaziness, no. Violinist Mischa Elman used to admit, "If I don't practice, the first night I notice it; the second night the critics notice it; the third night, the public." It is true that Airport, for example, was bombed by reviewers—and is still the big picture of 1970. There will always be an Airport in the worst of years. Forgotten are the features that did not work for either critics or public—overpriced losers like Scrooge, or Dirty Dingus Magee or Cromwell, or Tora! Tora! Tora!

It is perhaps too early to tell whether the new romanticism is a wave or a ripple, whether the new, new Hollywood will hold or go under. What is certain is that Love Story has succeeded because of some organic need in '70s America, that people will leave the tube for a movie—if it is the right movie. What will be the right films for the '70s? Well, since Ali MacGraw appears to be the best indicator, perhaps a Samuel Johnson quote, carefully entered in her leather notebook, ought to be engraved over the entrances to the major studios: "Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble."