6—The Daily Collegian Wednesday, November 9, 1977
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Schoolboy' is a prime example
of today's declining spy stories
By TOM MARCINKO
For The Daily Collegian
"The Honourable Schoolboy" by John
le Carre, Knopf, $10.95, 533 pages.
. Like its close cousin, the Washington
political novel, the spy novel has been
going downhill lately. It's easy to see
why, in a world where political hacks
become literary ones. Why read a
• Fletcher Knebel novel about a president
cracking up when the real thing was a
news story?
Something like that has been hap
pening to the spy story. Spies used to be
the good guys but James Bond died
somewhere between the Bay of Pigs
invasion and Watergate. Secret agents
aren't heroes anymore unless they're
made camp.
All of which has something to do with
John le Carre's latest, "The Honourable
Schoolboy." Since his third book, "The
Spy Who Came in from the Cold," le
Carre has received deserved praise for
presenting the world of espionage as it
really is. (He spent five years in the
British Foreign Serivce.) His heroes
aren't heroes at all; at best they're
morally grey.
The new novel picks up where the last,
"Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" left off,
though it can be read on its own.
"Tinker" ended with the discovery that
the Russians had slipped an infiltrator
into the British Secret Service.
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"Schoolboy" deals with the service's
striking back.
"Only George Smiley," says a
character in the book, "could have got
himself appointed captain of a wrecked
ship." It's up to Smiley to restore the
morale of his organization, and to
recover his own self-respect. Revenge
takes on a personal form for him, so
personal that he is cautioned to think of
his enemy as "Moscow" rather than as
Karla, his opposite number in the
Kremlin.
bestseller
Illustration by Valerie Munn!
He enlists the aid of Jerry Westerby,
the fallen aristocrat-turned-reporter of
the title. Jerry doesn't care much for
politics. He comforts hard-liner Smiley
by telling him, "Tell me the shots, I'll
play them. World's chock-a-block with
milk-and-water intellectuals armed with
15 conflicting arguments against
blowing their blasted noses. We don't
need another. Okay? I mean, Christ."
Westerby never questions the reasons
for his actions, and this is the novel's
major point. It's all very easy for Smiley
to sit behind a desk and relish revenge on
a man he's never met.
His chief storytelling virtues come into
play when Westerby goes to work
trailing an Oriental businessman with
the unlikely name of Drake Ko (who has
no loyalties to anybody but "Chiang-mao
Shek"). The plot is super-convoluted,
full of the minutae of spying and includes.
well-drawn major and minor charac
ters. The settings, especially Vietnam
during the Communist takeover (or
liberation, depending on your leanings)
are especially convincing, probably
because le Carre has been there.
For better or worse, and I think it's for
the worse. The spy story is nearly dead
as an escapist genre. Le Carre's novel is
entertaining, but it's too realistic to give
you a vacation from the real world. I for
one can't read James Bond or watch
"Mission: Impossible" reruns without
wondering what the CIA was up to when
people were enjoying those books and
that program in the 60s.
Le Carre makes me wonder what
they're up to now.
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Funny flick has Burns as
By JOHN WARD '
Daily Collegian Staff Writer
It's been very slim pickings for movie
comedies this year. 1977 began
promisingly with "Fun with Dick and
Jane" and, of course, "Annie Hall." But
the rest of the year has been a vast
wasteland. Until now, with the arrival of
"Oh, God!" '
The film, now playing at the State, is a
nice, light comedy, directed in a relaxed
style by Carl Reiner and acted with
surprising ease by George Burns and
John Denver.
Denver is making his feature film
debut with "Oh, God! ," and he does very
well in the role of an assistant super
market manager who becomes God's
messenger.
Burns plays God in human form. It's
simply another example of Reiner's wit
that Burns appears before Denver
wearing a golf cap, windbreaker and
sneakers.
The basic plotline of the movie in
volves Denver coming to believe that
Burns is really God, then trying to
convince other people of the fact as well.
Denver's impossible task becomes the
springboard for most of the film's
humor.
The humor itself runs from sight gags
to one-liners, most of which belong to
Burns. One example involves Burns
answering a long list of questions 'and
Denver writing them down. Burns:
"Last question."
Denver: "Thank God."
Burns ::"You're welcome."
To be honest, .the film is so sugary
sweet that it could have been made for
television. Burns and Denver,
throughout the movie, are the chief
proponents of this "sweetness and light"
deal. Outside of this fact, any other kind
of criticism would be called nitpicking.
The supporting cast is great, with some
excellent comedy credentials to back
them up. Teri Garr, who was memorable
'et
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as the laboratory assistant to Gene-
Wilder in "Young Frankenstein," plays
Denver's wife with a distinct edge of
embarrassment and disbelief.
Paul Sorvino has the funniest role in
the film, that of a fire-and-brimstone
evangelist who holds a different view of
God than Denver. Sorvino really hams it
up for the audience, especially during
his revival scene. With a bit of luck, he
could end up with a supporting Oscar
nomination.
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Deity
Illustration by Merit Van Dine
When Denver calls Sorvino a liar in
public, Sorvino takes him to court,
setting up the climactic courtroom ,
scene. It's a scene straight out of
"Miracle on 34th Street;" only this time
it's God, not Santa Claus, who must
prove his existence. _ A.
Considering the quality and quantity%
of today's movie comedies (Mel Brooks
and Woody Allen are the only consistent
sources), "Oh, God!" is one hell of tr.
good movie. 9111
Siglinda Steinfit
Dean of Beer
I In!