It is getting more and more difficult to find a movie to see for an evening's entertainment. Either the films are directed to the 15-year-old and under set or they are too weird to fathom. How about us pre-boomers? Are we "chopped liver?"

Special effects are my special topic of dissatisfaction. Have all the tender stories between men and women, family sagas with a nuance and comic twists that are not disgusting dried up and disappeared? It would seem so.

With special effects they are emphasizing the trimming, the externals and losing sight of the plot and heart and soul of the movie. In George Lucas' Star Wars we are confronted by ridiculous characters that have no worth or meaning. The cinematography is notable but I am not bowled over by mechanical characters speaking and acting. Walt Disney in his heyday gave us Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, Bambi, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Cinderella. As we grew older the humanity of each of these characters became a part of our existence.

Will you remember the ugliness of Men in Black or will you think of poor Pinocchio trying to become a real boy? Will you compare Van Helsing to Dumbo and the sadness of the forest fire in the movie Bambi?

The drama and menschlichmeit are diminished by the frills and grotesque nightmares which are sold to an eager public hooked on cinematic tricks.

Humphrey Bogart as Duke Mantee in the Petrified Forest and as the river boat captain in The African Queen along with Kate Hepburn kept us more involved than all the science fiction epics conceived by Hollywood. Gregory Peck, both as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird and in Gentleman's Agreement where he exhibits an idea of justice and human insight that are absent in films like Kill Bill or Pulp Fiction. How about the compelling story of Henry Fonda as Tom Joad and the Okies in The Grapes of Wrath?

Hollywood is a place of business and capitalism and it must have its extravaganzas and billion dollar epics like Troy. The 10,000 extras charging at each other has less significance to me than the tragic love story of Helen, Paris Menelaus, Agamemnon, Hector and Achilles told with depth, feeling and humanity.

Give me Humphrey Bogart, Gregory Peck, Clark Gable, Paul Newman, Cary Grant, George C. Scott, Spencer Tracy, Henry Fonda, Kate Hepburn, Natalie Wood, Bette Davis, Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, Vivian Leigh, Jennifer Jones and Greta Garbo and you can keep all your so-called "special effects."

The play's the thing!