Gold Coasting

After a year of filming and two weeks of advertising, Ivy Films has premiered Gold Coasting. Although the movie lacks the professional polish of most Hollywood productions, it is more cleverly written and in spots more amusing than either of Ivy's earlier films, Much Ado About Studying, and Touch of the Times.

The twenty-minute film sketch shuttles you through a series of students' rooms, Adams' panelled dinning hall, the Master's residence and the Radcliffe Quad. But the film is not merely a dry House travelogue; exhuberant students appear in almost every frame. Also Ivy has attempted to smooth its scene shifts with humorous plot sequences, but the transitions are still reminiscent of a newsreel.

In an effort to be aesthetic as well as amusing, Ivy throws in some unrelated art touches. Some of these like the history of a block of ice from the delivery truck to a glass of tea are fatuous and only chop away at the movie's strongest leg, the script.

Gold Coasting, which has no spoken lines or narration, was written by Nelson Galassi. Mr. Galassi's script shimmers deftly over the problems of a sound track with music as the only rider. He has concentrated on making the film entertaining, but in doing so has minimized its value as a documentary on Adams House.

Unfortunately Galassi's direction is not so effective as his script. Too many of the scenes are taken from obvious angles; and in some cases he strains to bring guffaws from incidents worth only a smile. Supplementing Galassi's script is the music of M. Joel Mandelbaum which never hampers, but seldom helps the action on the screen.

Because the projection facilities in New Lecture Hall are unusually poor, I do not think I can sufficiently evaluate the photography of the film. At first it appeared that the contrast was too great--even to the point of making me and my companion squint. But Naked City, the second feature on the program, showed the same technical deficiency. Until Gold Coasting is shown at an adequate theatre, the photography will carry quite a handicap.