CINEMA
One, Two, Three. A sort of Mack Sennett investigation of the situation in Berlin, conducted with a wham-bam abandon by Director Billy Wilder.
Throne of Blood. A barbarically splendid Japanization of Macbeth; both brutalized and energized by Director Akira (Rashomon) Kurosawa, the Elizabethan tragedy becomes a noh play of demonic majesty.
The Five-Day Lover. A hilarious bou-Dior farce in a sly French style that mingles lowlife and haute couture, but at the end Director Philippe de Broca does not find lovers in the closets--he finds skeletons.
A Summer to Remember. New wave in Soviet cinema? Probably not, but this is the fourth good Russian film (the other three: Ballad of a Soldier, Fate of a Man, The Gordeyev Family) to reach the U.S. this year. It is a fresh, warm, funny story of a little boy's life with father in Russia.
The Kitchen. British Playwright Arnold Wesker flings capitalism in the soup and serves it piping hot.
West Side Story. This big, slick cinemusical, like the Broadway show that it is based on, decorates its hoods with halos and its cops with badges of dishonor, but its dances still seem (mostly) fresh and its Romeo and Juliet story still seems (mostly) sweet.
Loss of Innocence. Rumer Godden's novel, The Greengage Summer becomes a charming thriller of sensibility, in which Susannah York provides a memorable impression of what Eve was like when the serpent first began to whisper.
The Hustler. A morality play in a poolroom, brilliantly directed by Robert Rossen, vigorously played by Paul Newman, Piper Laurie, Jackie Gleason.
TELEVISION
Wed., Dec. 13
The Bob Hope Show (NBC, 9-10 p.m.).* A comedy special on which Hope's guests include James Garner, Nancy Kwan, Danny Thomas, plus something over one long ton of All-America football flesh on the hoof.
The Bob Newhart Show (NBC, 10-10:30 p.m.). Tonight's guests are The Eligibles, a male quartet. Color.
David Brinkley's Journal (NBC, 10:30-11 p.m.). Subjects for dissection: works of art by children, a chimpanzee, and avant-gardists who work with sound, cut-up posters and smashed musical instruments Color.
Thurs., Dec. 14
Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic (CBS, 7:30-8:30 p.m.). A program of Christmas music seldom heard, including selections by Poulenc, Messiaen, Foss, Handel, Bach and Britten.
CBS Reports (CBS, 10-11 p.m.). Russian and American scientists informally discuss disarmament.
Fri., Dec. 15
Straightaway (ABC, 7:30-8:30 p.m.). Gloria Swanson's TV debut, as--guess what?--an aging film queen, accused of hit-and-run driving.
The Peace Corps in Tanganyika (NBC, 9:30-10:30 p.m.). Third in a three-part series of specials.
Sat., Dec. 16
Update (NBC, noon to 12:30 p.m.). Robert Abernethy's news program for teenagers.
Sun., Dec. 17
The Twentieth Century (CBS, 6-6:30 p.m.). A political biography of Wendell Willkie.
Meet the Press (NBC, 6-6:30 p.m.). Guest: A.F.L.-C.I.O. President George Meany. Color.
Mon., Dec. 18
Expedition (ABC, 7-7:30 p.m.). The first exploration of an active Alaskan volcano called Aniakchak.
Tues., Dec. 19
Alcoa Premiere (ABC, 10-11 p.m.). An hourlong fact-based drama about events immediately preceding World War I.
The Garry Moore Show (CBS, 10-11 p.m.). Guests: Julie Andrews and Gwen Verdon.
THEATER
On Broadway
A Man for All Seasons, by Robert Bolt, is a prismatic play that throws its varicolored light on the theme of public duty v. private conscience. As Sir Thomas More, British Actor Paul Scofield gives a performance that is an incarnation.
Gideon, by Paddy Chayefsky, explores the relationship of God and man in a compelling, if not exalted, drama. Fredric March and Douglas Campbell brilliantly light up Chayefsky's firmament.
The Complaisant Lover, by Graham Greene, entertainingly argues that love and marriage do not mix, but that lovers and husbands can be good mixers, if they meet in an unconventional triangle play.
Write Me a Murder, by Frederick (Dial "M" for Murder) Knott, gives its killer a pen with which to sign his own death warrant, and after some fancy scalp tingling, he does.
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is a bright, captivating spoof of corporate wheels and wiles. In a bravura display of officemanship, Robert Morse proves an irresistible comic wonder.
A Shot in the Dark, adapted by Harry Kurnitz from a Paris hit, puts a pinch of murder into a pot of sex. It is stirred amusingly well by Stars Julie Harris and Walter Matthau.
From the Second City is a Chicago-born revue that jauntily aims a satiric blowgun at beatniks, headline heroes, the University of Chicago, and the company of man, and most of its darts are incontestably funny.
Off Broadway
Misalliance, by George Bernard Shaw. Halfway to Heartbreak House but twice as blithesome and half as apocalyptic, this 1910 play gives the Edwardian British upper classes the chance to talk their heads off.
BOOKS
Best Reading
The Letters of Beethoven, edited by Emily Anderson. For those who are forever trying to dissect genius, this is an instructive and humbling collection; the composer's letters show him to have been petty, sour, contentious and a hypochondriac, and give no hint at all of the spirit that soars in his music.
Lawrence of Arabia: The Man and the Motive, by Anthony Nutting. Lawrence has been so thoroughly bunked and debunked by his biographers and by his own accounts that no one can be sure now where man and myth divide. But Author Nutting argues persuasively for his theories, which sketch a man frightened by his own vision of himself as a messiah.
Assembly, by John O'Hara. In the best of these 26 short stories, which are very good indeed, the author superbly uses sight and sound in the skilled creation of mood.
The Super-Americans, by John Bainbridge. Oil billions and all Texas still fascinate, and the author's report on the state and its native inhabitants is a fine example of malicious objectivity.
Horace Walpole, by Sheldon Wilmarth Lewis. The author provides a diverting study of the 18th century fop and litterateur, a man whose triviality of mind amounted to genius.
Scrap Irony, by Felicia Lamport. Humorous verse with an unusual twist: frequently it is funny.
The Complete Ronald Firbank. Duchesses, bishops, and clockwork nightingales move languidly among the silver cobwebs of the oddly fascinating world created by this ineffable British fantast.
Franny and Zooey, by J. D. Salinger. Regardless of what form, or formlessness, the author's projected chronicle of the Glass family may take, this segment of it--two related stories dealing with Franny Glass's fascination with the far shores of prayer--will endure as a glowing minor work.
Best Sellers
FICTION
1. Franny and Zooey, Salinger (1, last week)
2. The Agony and the Ecstasy, Stone (2)
3. To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee (3)
4. Chairman of the Bored, Streeter (5)
5. The Carpetbaggers, Robbins (6)
6. Little Me, Dennis (7)
7. Spirit Lake, Kantor (4)
8. Clock Without Hands, McCullers (8)
9. The Judas Tree, Cronin
10. The Edge of Sadness, O'Connor
NONFICTION
1. A Nation of Sheep, Lederer (1)
2. The Making of the President 1960, White (2)
3. Living Free, Adamson (3)
4. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Shirer (4)
5. I Should Have Kissed Her More, King (6)
6. Citizen Hearst, Swanberg (5)
7. My Life in Court, Nizer
8. The Coming Fury, Catton (8)
9. Larousse Gastronomique, Montagne (9)
10. The New English Bible (7)
*All times E.S.T.
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