CARL, a hobo who is tattooed from head to foot, is a walking anthology of horror stories that are no more than skin deep.Like the Ray Bradbury tales from which Howard B. Kreitsek adapted the screenplay. "The Illustrated Man" is set in the frame of a not-so-distant past. Carl (Rod Steiger) wanders into a lovely valley where he meets Willie (Robert Drivas), a young man working his way to California. Carl alternately bullies Willie and hypnotizes him, slowly forcing the young man into living out the hallucinations that are suggested by the tattoos.Of the three stories dramatized here, I can recall only the first (and the best) from the original Bradbury book. It's the one about the paranoid parents in some future time, whose two, zombie-like children trap them in a very chic, environmental playroom.The other two stories concern a crew that has been spacewrecked on a distant planet and a pair of concerned parents facing the end of the world.Mr. Bradbury's stories, at their best, are ironic comments on the contemporary scene projected into a nightmare future; at their worst, they are hoked up O. Henry, wearing space helmets. I suspect they always tell better than they read, and read better than they play in dramatized form.Mr. Kreitsek's screenplay is unsharp, without focus, working into and out of the hallucinations with great awkwardness. It also is so thinly structured that it simply cannot contain Mr. Steiger's baroque performance as the man whose very skin is haunted. Claire Bloom is wintry and beautiful in several roles, including that of the witch who specializes in "skin illustrations." Drivas is fine as the oddly pliant young victim of the hobo, but less effective in his fantasy roles.The movie, which opened yesterday at the Trans-Lux East and West Theaters, was directed by Jack Smight ("No Way to Treat a Lady," "The Secret War of Harry Frigg"). He was, I think, trapped by the screenplay. There are moments of eerie beauty, as in the first flashback that recalls Mr. Steiger's meeting with the tattoo artist, and in the seesaw relationship between the old hobo and the young one. But everything remains foetus-like and underdeveloped, although shrouded in misty pretentions of grandeur."Each person who tries to see beyond his own time," says the voice of a narrator (Miss Bloom) at the end of the movie, "must face questions for which there are no absolute answers."
The CastTHE ILLUSTRATED MAN, screenplay by Howard B. Kreitsek, based on Ray Bradbury's short stories; directed by Jack Smight; produced by Mr. Kreitsek and Ted Mann; an SKM Production presented by Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. At the Trans-Lux East Theater, Third Avenue and 58th Street, and the Trans-Lux West Theater, Broadway at 49th street. Running time: 103 minutes.Carl . . . . . Rod SteigerFelicia . . . . . Claire BloomWillie . . . . . Robert DrivasPickard . . . . . Don DubbinsSimmons . . . . . Jason EversJohn . . . . . Tim WeldonAnna . . . . . Christie Matchett
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