The Lampoon

A fairly wise man once stated the difference between a comedian and a mere buffoon--the comic's humor is methodically pointed while the buffoon will do anything, to provoke a laugh, usually with little success. All this leads up to the thesis that after months of waving his lance through the air with little purpose, Lampy has finally found a good, solid chunk of meat to pierce. The result of his galloping attack on the movie industry is by no means a brilliant satire; yet it is well above the usual Lampoon fare and, on the whole, an amusing collection.

Without a doubt, the best lines in the current issue were written by no 'Poonster. They are the reaction of people outside the Cambridge community to former Lampoons. These letters run from a Tufts man's snide blast at Harvard in general to the pointed pouts of the Lana Turner fan club, angered by the Lampoon's attitude toward their heroine. "...Don't you wish your crummy students could see our Lana in person."

The big feature of the issue, however, is the annual movie worsts and other things "as Lampy sees them." Lampy is quite perceptive here except in the case of Tales of Hoffman. Of course, most of his worsts, like Alice in Wonderland and Robert Taylor in Quo Vadis, are sitting ducks, but the placing of Mario Lanza under the banner, "biggest argument for stricter immigration laws," is a clever ploy. Lampy shows his baser side only when he calls Franchot Tone "most miscast" for Tone's portrayal of a Boston Brahmin in Here Comes the Groom.

Of the Lampoon-written prose, Michael Arlen's essay How to Tell a Good Movie from a Bad Movie points humorously to the fallacies in film reviews based on truisms such as: "All English movies are good movies" or "All Technicolor movies are bad movies." Mistrusting these truisms, Arlen builds his piece around his personal way of picking pictures the advice of ten-year old cousin Henry "who knows when to walk out."

Mr. Right, by Charles Osborne, an account of a free trip to Hollywood won by two man-hungry uglies, also reads smoothly. But in the Lampoon's one non-movie story. Fish Old of Water by Arlen, it is easy to see why the 'Poon so often draws yawns instead of chuckles. It's the old formula. St. Mark's boy meets sub-deb at yacht club party; he tries to give the impression of being a world-wise man about the beach, she--a sophisticate. Girl sets fast pace for a while, but finally breaks down and acts her age. The humor here is pretty grim, and it is about time the Lampoon found itself a new plot.

Another feature, not on the movie subject, is a bright take-off by Arlen on Funny Coincidences columns. It almost makes up for his other story. The cartoons and sketches by John Updike, Charles Robinson and Lewis Gifford hold a pretty high level. Gifford's cover, again, is colorful and eye-catching.