278
JONATHAN BAUMBACH
leave out.
Serpico,
which is directed with skill and minimal inspira·
tion, is in the business of telling certain kinds of audiences what
they've already suspected in their bleakest paranoid fantasies-–
that almost every policeman in New York City is on the take. Al
Pacino plays the title character as an attractive, perhaps exces·
sively self-righteous, enigmatic figure, though the film offers no
clue to what makes the man so tenaciously scrupulous . It seems at
times that a kind of neurotic adamance drives him, which mayor
may not be one of the film's insights. Bad news of a righteous sort,
the evidence indicates, is a highly marketable commodity in our
culture.
THE LENORE MARSHALL PRIZE
$3,500 awarded annually to the outstanding new book of poems
by a living American poet published in the United States, in honor
of the late editor, novelist, and poet Lenore Marshall
The selection for 1974 will be made solely by poet Hayden Carruth and
administered by the Book·of·the·Month Club. Submissions should be made
upon publication to David W. McCullough , Book·of·the·Month Club, Inc.,
280 Park Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017 by January 15, 1975. The award is
given by The New Hope Foundation .
