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Elliot Gould: heroic shnookBy Toni MastroianniCleveland Press August 7, 1970 The pendulum swung from the protagonist as hero (Gable, Cooper, Flynn) to the protagonist as anti-hero (Newman, Brando, McQueen) and now it has stopped somewhere in between. Now it is the age of the heroic shnook, the super-kook. As though waiting in the wings for the right moment to make his entrance for such a time is Elliott Gould. Gould is the big, shaggy anti~hero who pauses long enough in his neurotic mumbling to do the right thing; who bumbles and stumbles but eventually in the right direction. FOR MOVIEMAKERS and that magic 16 to 26 age group that buys most of the tickets he is the hottest thing since Dustin Hoffman at the time of "The Graduate." Gould's movies have been lesser efforts than that one but there have been more of them. In spite of their qualities (variable) Gould has emerged as a super-star. Currently he is being seen in "MASH," an off-beat service comedy enjoying phenomenal success, and "Getting Straight," a film about student rebellion which is saved by Gould. Today's Showtime cover is a scene from that picture. GOULD IS NO YOUNGSTER (age 32) and no Johnny-come-lately to show business. There was a childhood spent in the background chorus of the Milton Berle show, a continuation of chorus work in Broadway shows after finishing high school in 1956 while he studied ballet and tap dancing. In 1961 he was the star of the Broadway musical “I Can Get It For You Wholesale." He was a hit but a bigger hit was the Brooklyn gal who played Miss Marmelstein, his secretary, Barbra Streisand. They married, then drifted apart and while her career went straight up his went nowhere. For too many years Gould was principally known as Miss Streisand's estranged husband. THE MOVIES DISCOVERED Gould three years ago when he was cast as Billy Minsky in "The Night They Raided Minsky's." Then came "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice," and Gould walked away with the film. His next is "Move," another picture in which he will play a neurotic kook and another film which gets by principally on Gould's talents. Coming along a little later is "The Little Murders," a movie treatment of the Jules Feiffer play in which Gould appeared originally and which is being directed by actor Alan Arkin. At the moment helpless-looking Gould commands a per picture price of $350,000. Even with five pictures in three years the Gould potential is not fully tapped. There are still all those years as a song-and-dance man. So if the pendulum swings to movie musicals Hollywood can discover Elliott Gould all over again. |
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