The Milwaukee Post

16 • Milwaukee County Post • September 25, 2015 ENTERTAINMENT By Tom Jozwik Special to TimeOut MILWAUKE — "I don't know how I ever worked a 40- hour job," movie buff Dale E. Kuntz mused during an inter- view at his Milwaukee home. "I'm supposed to be retired, but I have six part-time jobs." He was referring to staging shows for movie memorabil- ia collectors — the next one scheduled for Sunday in West Allis — and a biweekly clas- sic film series at Milwaukee's Charles Allis Art Museum, plus presenting several regu- lar movie programs else- where in Milwaukee County. Kuntz formerly led a pro- gram at the Brookfield Public Library. The movie man will also do occasional presentations, some featuring themed film clips (World War II, Christmas, etc.), for various groups. It's quite an ambitious schedule, even for a man appreciably younger than Kuntz's 82 years. Folks will be able to catch up with the octogenarian film enthusiast at Burnham Bowl Hall, 6016 W. Burnham St., as he welcomes fellow col- lectors to "Dale E. Kuntz's Semiannual Movie Collectable Show" from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. More than two dozen tables' worth of movie and TV memorabil- ia — films and DVDs, press kits and posters, scripts and still photographs, animated art and autographs — are expected to be available for sale or trade. Admission is $3, but free for youngsters under 12 with an adult. For more information, call 414- 466-1877. Kuntz has been running the show, which draws patrons from Milwaukee and Waukesha counties, Madison, Chicago and else- where, since 1995. But the friendly, soft-spoken, slightly built man's interest in things filmic began in earnest long before then, at a time when his parents — both of whom "loved movies" — were liv- ing on Milwaukee's West Lisbon Avenue and heading a family that came to include three daughters and three sons. "Our front door," Kuntz recalled, "was right across the street from the box office of the Parkway theater" when that now defunct movie house was offering family fare before adult entertain- ment became its specialty. Its manager gave the boy stills promoting films that played at the Parkway, starting a Kuntz collection that soon was bolstered by movie mag- azines contributed by a fami- ly friend. "My basement is a little theater," Kuntz remarked with reference to the home in which he's lived since 1948. Boasting seats from the National theater in Milwaukee, which has been razed, as well as from a faux auditorium featured on a children's TV program decades ago, the cellar is headquarters for a pair of informal film societies Kuntz heads. The groups' relatively few members gather monthly to view and discuss old movies like Hitchcock's "Rebecca" while munching on corn their host pops. Kuntz's "Tiny Tara Theater" is a rollback. He screens movies using a reel- to-reel projector; a number of canisters containing films rest on the basement floor, in proximity to photos auto- graphed for Kuntz by movie stars (Myrna Loy, Susan Hayward, Kyle Chandler, oth- ers); a framed invitation to the wedding of Kuntz's favorite actress Jeanette MacDonald to actor Gene Raymond, sent originally to MacDonald's mother; shoes worn by MacDonald in her 1940 movie "New Moon," co- starring frequent singing/acting partner Nelson Eddy; illustrations of Hollywood celebrities by friends of Kuntz; and a framed photo of Kuntz's favorite actor, Tyrone Power. His "biggest treasure," said Kuntz, is probably a paper- back "Gone with the Wind" movie book bearing the sig- nature of star Vivien Leigh. The film is Kuntz's all-time favorite, he said, with the Laurence Olivier-Merle Oberon version of "Wuthering Heights" rank- ing second. A graduate of Milwaukee's Washington High School, Kuntz was an aspiring artist who instead went to work as an usher for the Fox Film Corp. and rose to the position of ushers' chief of service. Later he worked as purchas- ing director for WISN radio and TV locally; he doubled by hosting a movie segment on the TV-12 "Dialing for Dollars" show for several years and also discussed movies and interviewed stars — Mickey Rooney among them — for two years on Milwaukee's Channel 18. These days, Kuntz's con- stant reminder of profession- al and hobby connections with the cinematic world is Nicki, his wired-hair terrier. Nicki shares a breed with Asta, the canine character of Hollywood's "Thin Man" series. Kuntz has had five wired-hair terriers over the years — about as many dogs as played Asta through six films starring William Powell and the aforemen- tioned Myrna Loy. Next movie collectibles show is Sunday at Burnham Bowl Movie enthusiast Kuntz keeps busy Photo by Tom Jozwik Movie buff Dale E. Kuntz sits in his Milwaukee living room. His semi-annual "Movie Collectable Show" will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at Burnham Bowl in West Allis. By Tom Jozwik TimeOut Film Critic To the list of places you need not visit, feel free to add theaters showing "The Visit," M. Night Shyamalan's latest film. The first 60 percent or so of this horror flick is actually pretty good, but the remain- der makes up for it. What might've been a trailblazing film employing the conven- tions of its genre solely and cleverly to concretize the horror of mental illness becomes a mediocre movie that will once again leave viewers wondering what's happened to Shyamalan since he earned an Oscar nomination for directing "The Sixth Sense" in 1999. The humor is too droll and the happenings too realistic to qualify "The Visit" as a comedy or dramedy. The gen- erally somber exercise leaves us with an incongru- ous, light scene involving star Ed Oxenbould rapping, and it isn't an outtake. Equally needless, and in worse taste, are bits in which 75-year-old Deanna Dunagan cavorts in the buff and her incontinent husband (Peter McRobbie) tells Oxenbould's Tyler he's never liked him — punctuating the point by rubbing a used diaper in the germophobic teenager's face. Had enough? By diaper- smearing time, I had. "The Visit" represents a movie within a movie, in that Tyler and sister Becca (Olivia DeJonge) use hand- held cameras to bouncily document their four-day vacation at "Nana" (Dunagan) and "Pop Pop's" (McRobbie) farmstead. The senior citizens have located their long-estranged daugh- ter (Hahn) and have extend- ed an invite for the 13-year- old boy and 15-year-old girl they've never met. Nana and Pop Pop are a pleasant enough pair … when they aren't displaying the effects of dementia by dressing up for nonexistent costume parties or running through the house and slam- ming doors without purpose in the middle of the night. Inexplicably, the couple have been allowed to volunteer at a local hospital — as coun- selors! The movie makes less sense as it goes along. The first hour is rather enticing, while both Australian-born adolescent actors evoke empathy and are enjoyable throughout. In the end, I've taken con- solation in saying my job required my attending "The Visit." I'm wondering what other patrons have been telling themselves. Shyamalan's latest movie is one 'Visit' you need not make At a glance "The Visit" ★★ Starring: Ed Oxenbould, Olivia DeJonge, Deanna Dunagan, Peter McRobbie, Kathryn Hahn Director-writer: M. Night Shyamalan MPAA rating: PG-13 Running time: 94 minutes The last half-hour isn't worth your time

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