Mail from our readers
Movie Brains
Your article on Cinema Literacy (May 10) was fantastic! Thanks to
Ty Burr and Owen Gleiberman for including such films as Behind the
Green Door, Jaws, and Dirty Harry on their list of essential films.
Most magazines won't even recognize these classic movies! Again,
thanks!
James A. Hall
Bristol, Tenn.
I scored 189 on your Cinema Literacy quiz, which qualifies me to
teach a film studies course, according to you. Well yes, but maybe at
a very small junior college. After all, what institution of higher
learning would hire an instructor who couldn't answer that Sandra
Dee's real name was Alexandra Zuck, or that Veronica Lake's last
movie was Flesh Feast? I hang my head. But hey, I think I deserve
some credit for being a film buff who has reached the sage old age of
44 without ever having sat all the way through Mary Poppins (one look
at ''Spoonful of Sugar'' and it was all over for me), who never saw
The Sound of Music, and who has a copy of The Giant Claw on tape. I
demand a recount.
Travis Michael Holder
Toluca Lake, Calif.
I have hosted the showing of old movies on the local PBS station
for the past 14 years. I was therefore chagrined when I scored a
paltry 193 on your movie quiz. My pride aside, I want to tell you
that I consider this the fairest and most comprehensive quiz of this
type that I have encountered, and I have had plenty of these things
shoved under my nose. Thank you for a challenging and entertaining
movie quiz.
Conrad Lane
Muncie, Ind.
Okay, so I can't tell Tim Curry's legs from Steve Martin's nose.
But I do know that the photo on page 23 of your Cinema Literacy story
is not of Clint Eastwood playing Dirty Harry. Harry Callahan never
wore cowboy boots! That photo was from Eastwood's Coogan's Bluff. And
how come there was nothing in your quiz about probably the greatest
movie of 1966, What's Up, Tiger Lily? No wonder I'm Cin-illiterate.
Jeff Garrett
Chino Hills, Calif.
Ed. Note: Mr. Garrett, you and all the other readers who wrote in to ''make our day'' by spotting our picture faux pas may hereby give yourselves 10 bonus points on our quiz.
Carpenter Responds
Owen Gleiberman's open letter to me (April 26) requesting that I
permit public exhibition of Todd Haynes' movie Superstar: The Karen
Carpenter Story misses the point. The issue is not, as Gleiberman
suggests, the content of the movie, but rather Haynes' behavior.
When Haynes requested permission in 1987 to use several Carpenters
songs in the movie, his request was denied. His request was also
denied by others who own and control all of the recordings and much
greater portions of the songs than the Carpenters do. Despite having
been denied permission, Haynes chose to proceed with his production,
and to include the material for which he had been denied permission.
He then distributed the movie to dozens of theaters, for which he was
paid. His decision to make his movie using this material amounted to
a deliberate attack on the rights of those who Gleiberman now
suggests ought to give their blessing to Haynes' exhibition of the
movie.
Richard Carpenter
Hollywood, Calif.
