Liddy and Leary return in bizarrefilm
By Paul Kaihla For Canadian University Press
t has been said that Richard Nixon “was the weirdest man ever to live in the White House.” True to the Nixon legacy, one of the disgraced President’s former cronies is now starring in the weirdest road show ever seen in America.
For more than a year, G. Gordon Liddy, so-called “mastermid” of the bungled 1972 Watergate burglary, has been appearing with Sixties acid guru Dr. Timothy Leary in college campus debates. What’s more, a film has been made about the two, and Liddy was present for the film’s North America premiere at Toronto’s Festival of Festivals in September. '
“Return Engagement” gets its title from a strange quirk of history: Liddy, as an ambitious assistant district attorney in Duchess County, New York during the Sixties, conducted several raids against Leary’s experimental drug haven, the Millbrook Institute. Liddy was successful in chasing Leary and crew out of Duchess County.
Since getting out of prison in the Seventies, Liddy and Leary have been lecturing for a living. Liddy says he’s debated Abbie Hoffman and Daniel Ellsberg, “but the thing with Leary is what took off.”
Return Engagement is a comical, and sometimes moving, look at what happens when you mix a spacey humanist philosopher, with an ultra-nationalistic. right-wing, ex-F.B.I. agent: the political odd couple are shown in debate, dining together, at a party, at lunche with their wives, and doing their own thing (for Liddy its target practice, for Leary its exploring video game arcades).
In the most memorable moment of the film, Leary is giving
a talk to blissed-out nudists on the sunny slopes of Califomia’s Big Sur, and the founder of the Esalen Institute is on hand, leering into the camera with a wide grin: “I know what travelling with Tim did to me. I have my suspicions about what it’s doing to Gordon.” The scene cuts to Liddy tearing . along a coastal highway on a Harley Davidson with a gang of Hell’s Angels. ~ v “We were riding together,” Liddy explained in an inter- view, “because they wanted to travel with me to see what I
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A very personal portrait of Liddy and Leary emerges from behind their stereotypes as kooks of the left and right. When Liddy went before the audience at the premiere to introduce the film, a wave of snickers passed through the crowd as many people asked, “Is this guy for real?” But afterwards several patrons made comments along the lines, “You kind of start to like the guy after seeing the film. ” ,
Liddy said in an interview that he’s goint to stay on the lecture circuit as long as the going’s good. “One of my remaining ambitions,” he says with a devious grin, “is to fly the German World War II Messerschmidt fighter.” And if he didnt’t have to put five kids through college, on top
Dramatist says industry. run by business
By Sharon Leighton writing successful stage plays
island dramatist Larry Leclair gave a workshop on scriptwriting Oct. 20 in the UPEI library.
Leclair, who earns his living as a dramatist, has sold both radio and TV dramas to CBC, as well as
and film scripts.
Ten aspiring playwrights listened to stories of CBC foibles and difficult directors.
At one time Leclair sub- mitted a drama to CBC, which was accpeted with the proviso that it be extensively rewritten. He rewrote it. They requested a second re-
write; he complied. The script script, as he had written was approved, a contract was originally, after all.
signed, and he went to bed ' “Leclair advised would-be happy. At 3:00 am the tele- writes: “You do what phone woke. him. An irrate works.”
director shouted at him, long distance from Toronto, “I can’t work with this junk! I won’t work with this junk!” In the morning another call came; they would use his first
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“Comedy,” he said, IS irony. If you’re going tahave a red-hot lover, he’s a shy little guy whose hands stink.”
Leclair said “the most essential part of writing is the process of editing.”
“Sometimes,” he said “the unspoken word is more powerful ’that the 27 spoken wors you didn’t need.”
Leclair stressed the dif- ference between writing for stage and writing for the media, which he_referred to as “the industry.” ,
“Stage still has somesense of integrity,” he said. “The industry is not run by writers or actors or directors; it is run by businessmen, and if you can make people sad by feeling them the subliminal sound of a baby crying, you do it.”
Leclair’s nicotine-stained fingers gave weight 'to his assertion that working full- time as a dramatist is a highly
pressured way of life. Through a haze of smoke he offered encouragement;
“writing drama is the most disciplined art. It is also the most saleable art.”
Asked whether writers from the Maritimes were not at a disadvantage when trying to work in the Toronto- based industry, he nodded. “It’s difficult.” Then he smiled broadly. “But it can be done. I’ve done it.”
of that, he would seek a job teaching government. and history at a university.
“What does he think of Leary as a debating opponent?
“He’s difficult for two reasons: he never comes to me with the same material twice, and he has this charm and elfin wit which allows him to say outrageous things and get away with it.”
On the topic of whether Leary’s circuits have been fried by acid, as Liddy suggests'in the -film, the fallen G-man acknowledges Leary’s academic achievements of the early Sixties, but says he didn’t know Leary back then, so it’s hard to judge if he’s deteriorated. ' 1
When it came to fielding questions» from the Toronto audience at the end of the film, Liddy carried on with an authoritarian pomposity.
“Isn’t it good that the Watergate burglary was dis- covered?” he was asked. “You wouldn’t be standing here if it hadn’t.” - ‘
“No, but I’d be in a position of a lot more power.”
“Do‘es Canada have an equivalent of G. Gordon Liddy?”
“I would be surprised if you didn’t, and if you don’t you’d better get one fast.”
Guess again Gordon.
Holy Ghosters a sleeper
By Jonathan Orlowski /
N ova Scotia in 1775 is the setting of the play Holy Ghosters The British colony is caught in the middle of chossing sides loyalty to the British sovereign, breaking away from th 14th colony of the American independence revolution, 0 going their own way. '
The men breaking the middle ground were called “hol ghosters”, a slang term used in that era meaning cowards. Richard John Uniake portrays such a coward in the pla He is the go-between for Delesderniers — the British loyali that moved over from England and Mary Allan, wife of t American rebel leader, John Allan. He marries the daught of Moses Delesdernier but is lured to the rebel side by M Allan. In the end Uniake is still not sure which side he is 0 Parts of the play were comical and facial expressions we excellent, but the acting could not overcome a plot th dragged on and on. : " ' _ Constantly throughout the” playflthe audiences attenti drifted. You couldn’t'help but feeling, “whenwill it end. The' Characters were very dramatic, maybe too dramatic captivate the full attention of the audience. The monstrous flags that draped both sides of the stage we distracting and could have been limited in used to a' few seen The sound effects and music were clearly audible lighting could have been better: . j _ _, ’ It is an old fashion type of play that does not seem to these modern times. "
The Netted Gem,“ meaty,