The Day of the Locust. "The violet hush of twilight was descending over Los Angeles as my hostess, Violet Hush, and I left its suburbs headed toward Hollywood. In the distance a glow of huge piles of burning motion picture scripts lit up the sky. The crisp tang of frying writers and directors whetted my appetite. How good it was to be alive, I thought, inhaling deep lungfuls of carbon monoxide... A suttee was in progress by the road side... Violet and I elbowed our way through the crowd. An enormous funeral pyre composed of thousands of feet of film and scripts drenched with Chanel Number 5 awaited the torch of Jack Holt who was to act as master of ceremonies..." I wish that when John Schlesinger had made Day of the Locust he had paid a little attention to S.J. Perelman (see above) so that he could understand at least a little bit about satire. Satire is not soap opera, which this new movie is. I wish he had taken West's Images and terseness somewhere, anywhere. I wish he had a sense of the crazy and of the really grotesque, not just the horrible. None of this says very much about the film I'm afraid, because there will be a good evaluation of it in this paper by someone else on Monday. But if you were thinking of seeing it over the weekend, my advice is: don't, I say it's spinach and I say the hell with it.

BRATTLE

Plerre Le Fou, 6:15 and 9:40 p.m.; L'Atalante, 8:10 p.m.

CENTRAL II

Murder on the Orient Express, 7:15 and 9:30 p.m.

HARVARD SOUARE

Friday, Emerson, Lake and Paimer in Concert On Film at 6, 8, 10 and 12 p.m.

ORSON WELLES I

The Harder They Come at 8 p.m. and A Film About Jimi Hendrix at 5:55 and 9:55 p.m.

ORSON WELLES II

Friday and Saturday, On the Waterfront at 4:15 and 8:15 p.m. with it Happened One Night at 6:15 and 10:15. (If you want to forget about your exams, this last will do it.)

Midnight, Friday and Saturday, The Bed Sitting Room.

ORSON WELLES III

Bugs Shot (Wabbits) at 4, 5:30, 7, 8:30, 10 p.m. and midnight, Friday and Saturday.