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And, in Clash Of The Titans, it's a toss-up as to which - special effects or story - con- tributes more to the other's lack of believability. Compared to the blending of live and animated action in the Star Wars and Superman pic- tures, Harryhausen's technique is as old-hat as the Greek myths themselves. By its casting, however, one might mistake Clash of The Titans for something more sub- stantial in general-audience en- tertainment. After all, Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, Claire Bloom and Burgess Meredith are not the calibre of performers one usually expects to see in such purely pre-adolescent screen fare. Actually, with the exception of Meredith, the "name" perform- ers are on screen for probably less than a total of 10 minutes, out of the pieture's 118. (Notably, the whistles were loudest and most sustained on a couple of occasions when women's bare breasts were briefly displayed, and the great- est cheers came with the hacking off of head or assortment of limbs of various "monsters.") Harryhausen has been practise ing his particular style of screen trickery - to which he has applied the lofty name of “super dynamation" - since 1949 when he was head animator on Mighty Joe Young, assisting the then- legendary Willis O'Brien who created the similar King Kong effects back in 1933. Boring, that is, for most adults and teenagers. The mostly five to ten-year-olds at the performance I attended found the occasional reason for en masse whistling and cheering. Essentially, Clash is merely another cinematic rehash of tales from ancient Greek mythology, providing an excuse for special effects creator Ray Harryhausen to demonstrate his mix-and- match action between live actors and animated models. Yet, there they are, prominent- ly advertised as the stars of this silly sword-and-sandal epic, hold- ing out the prospect of it being some mythological Star Wars. I probably looked at my watch more than I watched the screen during a matinee showing of Clash Of The Titans. It's that kind of movie - BUR ING! In Clash, Perseus. one of the 'Titans clash with quality By VICTOR STANTON Meredith is called upon to waste more of his time as a kind of mentor and guide to Perseus. Which brings us to Harry Ham- lin, an actor more in need of Harryhausen‘s animating than the model monsters he fights as Perseus. But then, both Hamlin and Judi Bowker as Andromeda (if ac- curately depicted, this character should be portrayed by a black actress) serve merely as physi- cal stereotypes of "hero" and "heroine." Olivier, Smith, Bloom and Ur- sula Andress do their bits as Olympian deities (again Cross doesn't worry about accuracy, placing Thetis - played by Smith - in their midst) with appro- The priate aloofness. “an Alternatively, a touch of self- mockery could have lent the predictable proceedings a light- ness and amusing quality that might have given them some appeal on an adult level. Usually, the "sidekicks" and "villains" are the most interest- ing and "entertaining" charac- ters in pictures of this sort. ln Clash Of The Titans, we have Pegasus, a winged horse, and Bubo, a mechanical owl, as aides to Perseus, and such creatures as the snake-haired Medusa, the Kraken (looking like a kind of under-water King Kong), gigam tic scorpions and a satanic mu- tant called Calibos as his deadly foes, Among these, only Bubo and Calibos (the latter played by Neil McCarthy) are endowed with anything like "character," “and then they are given only brief scenes in which to enchant or repulse us. What the picture basically lacks is any kind of excitement that would make possible the audience's acceptance of and involvement in such fantastic goings-on. Clash Of The Titans isn't rec- ommendable viewing for the young at heart. just for the very young. many illegitimate offspring of head-god Zeus, must battle a variety of monsters to win the hand of the fair Andromeda. Screenwriter Beverley Cross - Maggie Smith's husband - ad- heres only loosely to legendary "facts", and indeed his script does not actually feature a clash of "the Titans." (The creature referred to as a Titan is called a kraken, which is a Scandinavian sea monster.) The powerful Zeus (Laurence Olivier) decides the destinies of mortal men from his kingdom high atop Mt. Olympus in the Clash of the Titans. A New application forms are now avail- able to Canadian per- forming arts organiza- tions who wish to apply for funding from The du Maurier Council for the Performing Arts, for 1982 projects. Council grants are awarded on an annual basis to Canadian per- forming arts organizer tions incorporated more than two years prior to the year in which application is made. Funds are pm November 1 is the deadline for the court- cil's receipt of applica- tions requesting sup- port for performances which will not be staged before May of 1982. Full details on eligibility, and current application forms may be obtained by writing to Grant Applications, Post Omce Box 27. 180 Dundas Street. West, Toronto. Ontaio MSG 126. Grants available to arts organizations The K-W Symphony Orchestra has eradicated its accumulated deficit from its last several years of operation. according to a financial statement released Monday at the annual general meeting held at the Granite Club m Kitchener. - In the previous tiscit year, the orchestra faced an accumulated defieit of “LI”. The statement covers the fiscal year June l, 1900 to May 31, 19tri., Auditors for the orchestra. Thome Ridden Chartered Accountants. re- port the organization has ended the vided for no other pur- pose than to support the production of live, on-stage, public perfor- mances. Members of The du Maurier Council meet annually to assess all applications received, K-W symphony erases deficit WATERLOO WWICLE. WEDNESDAY, ME 2‘,” - PAGE " and to allocate grants, basing their decisions on how well each appli- cant has met the Coun. cii's criteria. The du Maurier Council does not sup- port, through sponsor- ship, programs already The projected budget for the new year is, closer to $1 million and symphony spokesman Carolyn Oliver says "I think it's realistic" that the symphony will once more be able to cover all its expendi- tures. Last year's total budget was about $800,000. The bulk of that was covered through ticket sales and income for the orchetrtra's services. Other monies came from grants and donations. latest fiscal year with a surplus of $1,032. part of an organiza- tion's season, but rather, offers seed money to assist in the development of new projects offering a wider performing arts scope to the Canadian public.