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. Director Akira (Rashomon) Kurosawa's grand, barbaric Japanization of Macbeth is probably the most original and vital attempt ever made to translate Shakespeare to the screen.
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. A Soviet film whose reels contain honest celluloid--the fresh, warm, funny story of a little boy's life with father in Russia today--instead of the usual party line.
The Kitchen. British Playwright Arnold Wesker flings capitalism in the soup and serves it piping hot.
West Side Story. This big, slick cine-musical, like the Broadway show it is based on, decorates its hoods with haloes 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. 20
Project 20 (NBC, 8:30-9 p.m.).* "The Coming of Christ," narrated by Alexander Scourby, illustrated by details from hundreds of paintings. Color.
The Bob Newhart Show (NBC, 10-10:30 p.m.). Bob as a button-down Santa, abetted by the Four Freshmen, male quartet. Color.
Thurs., Dec. 21
CBS Reports (CBS, 10-10:30 p.m.). Walter Lippmann comments candidly on issues and personalities of the past year's news, interviewed by Walter Cronkite.
Fri., Dec. 22
The Enchanted Nutcracker (ABC, 7:30-8:30 p.m.). Carol Lawrence and Robert Goulet star in this "free adaptation" of the Tchaikovsky ballet classic.
International Showtime (NBC, 7:30-8:30 p.m.). Don Ameche plays host at "Christmas at the Paris Circus," taped at the Cirque d'Hiver in Paris.
Bell Telephone Hour (NBC, 9:30-10:30 p.m.). A potpourri called "A Trip to Christmas," narrated by Jane Wyatt and starring the Lennon Sisters, Violette Verdy and Edward Villella of the New York City Ballet, and the Schola Cantorum. Color.
Sat., Dec. 23
Accent (CBS, 1:30-2 p.m.). Poet John Ciardi visits a third-grade schoolroom to read his own poetry and some traditional Christmas verses.
Sun., Dec. 24
Amahl and the Night Visitors (NBC, 4-5 p.m.). The NBC Opera Co. in the eleventh annual presentation of Gian Carlo Menotti's Christmas opera.
The Ed Sullivan Show (CBS, 8-9 p.m.). For the kiddies, Ed presents puppets, acrobats, aerialists and animal acts.
Tues., Dec. 26
The Red Skelton Show (CBS, 9-9:30 p.m.). Red. as George Appleby, is hypnotized at an office party, runs afoul of Wife Clara, played by Marilyn Maxwell.
NBC White Paper No. 8 (NBC, 10-11 p.m.). Chet Huntley examines Khrushchev's moves and motives in exploiting the Berlin crisis.
Year-End News Roundup (ABC, 10-11 p.m.). Reports by ABC newsmen around the world.
THEATER
On Broadway
A Man for All Seasons, by Robert Bolt, might have taken its theme from a line of Shakespeare's: "Every subject's duty is the king's, but every subject's soul is his own." As the subject, Sir Thomas More, Actor Paul Scofield is flawless.
Gideon, by Paddy Chayefsky, enlarges on the Biblical tale with more humor than eloquence, more religious speculation than exaltation, but the acting of Fredric March and Douglas Campbell supplies the necessary power and glory.
The Complaisant Lover, by Graham Greene, amusingly argues that love and marriage do not mix, but that lovers and husbands can be good mixers.
Write Me a Murder, by Frederick 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 expertly stirred by Julie Harris and Walter Matthau.
The Caretaker, by Harold Pinter, holds a mirror up to two strange brothers and a verminous tramp and, in it, an audience can read humorous and heartbreaking truths about the human condition.
Off Broadway 2 by Saroyan mates Talking to You, a brief, touching, one-act parable of Good and Evil, with Across the Board on Tomorrow Morning, a full, hilarious, one-act serving of prime Time of Your Life Saroyantics. As a waiter in a zany cafe, Milt Kamen is enormous fun to be with.
Misalliance, by George Bernard Shaw. That old boulevardier of the intellect, G.B.S., loved to wear ideas like carnations. Unlike carnations, few of the ideas in this 1910 buttonhole have withered.
BOOKS
Best Reading
But Not in Shame, by John Toland. A historian's painstaking account of the first six disastrous months of the war in the Pacific makes a moving, suspenseful documentary.
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. Britain's quirky compost of desert hero, scholar and aircraftman, who has provided plenty of controversial copy for novelists, playwrights, biographers and muckrakers, is dissected again in an absorbing analysis by Britain's onetime Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.
Assembly, by John O'Hara. The best ear in the business listens in on modern America with 26 short stories, some of which rank high among O'Hara's upper-middle classics.
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.
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 --consisting of 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. The Carpetbaggers, Robbins (5)
5. Chairman of the Bored, Streeter (4)
6. Spirit Lake, Kantor (7)
7. Little Me, Dennis (6)
8. The Judas Tree, Cronin (9)
9. Clock Without Hands, McCullers (8)
10. The Edge of Sadness, O'Connor (10)
NONFICTION
1. Living Free, Adamson (3)
2. A Nation of Sheep, Lederer (1)
3. The Making of the President 1960, White (2)
4. My Life in Court, Nizer (7)
5. Citizen Hearst, Swanberg (6)
6. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Shirer (4)
7. I Should Have Kissed Her More, King (5)
8. The Coming Fury, Catton (8)
9. Calories Don't Count, Taller
10. Larousse Gastronomique, Montagne (9)
*All times E.S.T.
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