TELEVISION
Wednesday, August 25 THE VIET NAM WAR: WHO? WHAT? WHY? (ABC, 8:30-9:30 p.m.).* Edward P. Morgan narrates a report on the debate between the Administration and congressional critics of Viet Nam policies.
WEDNESDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES (NBC, 9-11 p.m.). Adam's Rib (1949), with Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Holliday, Tom Ewell and David Wayne.
Thursday, August 26 THE DEFENDERS (CBS, 10-11 p.m.). Ruth White guest stars as a governess charged with kidnaping and child neglect. Repeat.
Friday, August 27 FDR (ABC, 8-8:30 p.m.). The Eagle and the Bear, a review of U.S. relations with Russia from 1933 to the Roosevelt-Stalin meeting at Yalta. Repeat.
Saturday, August 28 N.F.L. PRE-SEASON GAME (CBS, 3:30 p.m.). Los Angeles Rams v. Chicago Bears at Dudley Field, Nashville, Tenn.
ABC'S WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS (ABC, 5-6:30 p.m.). Sonny Fox and Leo Durocher report the Little League World Series from Williamsport, Pa.
Sunday, August 29 N.F.L. PRE-SEASON GAME (CBS, 2 p.m.). Cleveland Browns v. Detroit Lions at Tiger Stadium, Detroit.
SUNDAY ENCORE (NBC, 3-4 p.m.). The Chosen Child, narrated by John Chancellor, explores the problems involved in child adoption.
THE AMERICAN GOLF CLASSIC (ABC, 4:30-6 p.m.). Final round from the Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio.
Monday, August 30 THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. (NBC, 8-9 p.m.). Agent Solo is instructed to silence a troublemaking Balkan ambassador by "arranging" the sale of America's newest secret weapon. Repeat.
NATIONAL DRIVERS TEST (CBS, 10-11 p.m.). A quiz that viewers can take in their own homes with common driving hazards visually reproduced. Repeat.
RECORDS
Chorus & Song
RICHARD TUCKER: THE ART OF BEL CANTO (Columbia). The great American tenor sings the ravishingly beautiful songs and arias (Caro mio ben, Gid il sole dal Gange) that constitute the canon of bel canto. His vocal line, the essential element in bel canto, is lyrical, firm and without breaks. There are more sensual interpretations of the art, but few more satisfying.
ANNA MOFFO/LEOPOLD STOKOWSKI (RCA Victor). Miss Moffo sings Brazilian Com poser-Conductor Heitor Villa-Lobos' wanton Bachianas Brasileiras in a way that would excite Bach or any gypsy. Her voice has both richness and fluidity; her mood shifts with the song like quicksilver. In Canteloube's Songs of the Auvergne, she settles unfortunately into simpering sentimentality, which is not relieved by Stokowski's painfully slow pace.
ORLANDO Dl LASSO: PROPHETIAE SIBYLLARUM (Nonesuch). This chorale, in which the sibyls prophesy the birth of Jesus, has a directness and atonal quality that make it sound startlingly modern. The Prague Madrigal Choir sings with cutting clarity.
BACH: THE ST. MATTHEW PASSION (London). Karl Miinchinger and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra give the masterpiece an interpretation that is lovingly faithful to Bach's design. It has an appropriately reverent quality rather than the overwhelming emotional thrust of massed voices that most often dominate baroque oratorios. Among the soloists, all competent, Peter Pears as the narrator and August Messthaler as Judas stand out.
RICHARD STRAUSS LIEDER (London). While Strauss's songs unquestionably sound better when sung by a soprano, Hermann Prey does all that a young rich baritone possibly can. While he cannot claim Fischer-Dieskau's crown as a lieder singer, his open, direct approach gives this record considerable charm.
PETER PEARS AND JULIAN BREAM: MUSIC FOR THE GUITAR (RCA Victor). Though the singers and the composers (Britten, Walton) are 20th century, this disk takes the listener right into an 18th century salon. Pears's technique is faultless, his singing elegant.
MAUREEN FORRESTER SINGS ARIAS OF BACH AND HANDEL (Vanguard). So splendid and secure is Maureen Forrester in this performance that Kirsten Flagstad is the closest and best comparison. In the sorrowing arias, such as "Es ist vollbracht" near the end of Bach's St. John Passion and "He was despised" from Handel's Messiah, she conveys grief and compassion with darkly shaded tones and a seemingly endless vocal line.
CINEMA
RAPTURE. A strange farmhousehold on the coast of Brittany shelters an escaped criminal who fulfills the various needs of a preachy ex-judge (Melvyn Douglas), his other-worldly daughter (Patricia Gozzi), and a bed-minded serving wench (Gunnel Lindblom). The fulfillment is a triumph for English Director John Guillermin.
DARLING. A playgirl's progress from obscurity to celebrity is charted by Director John Schlesinger (Billy Liar), whose brittle, jet-set satire owes much to Julie Christie's presence in the title role.
THE IPCRESS FILE. Freed from Bondage to gags and gimmickry, this British suspense yarn plays up the honest good humor in the exploits of a secret agent (Michael Caine) who saves England's top scientists from a massive brainwash.
SHIP OF FOOLS. Despite the Meaningful Dialogue they spout, Vivien Leigh, Lee Marvin, Simone Signoret and Oskar Werner make fast company for the long haul.
THE KNACK. An embattled virgin (Rita Tushingham) fends off three zany British bachelors, millions of sight gags, and reels of New Cinemisms in Director Richard Lester's (A Hard Day's Night) version of the stage hit.
THE COLLECTOR. In Director William Wyler's grisly but somewhat glamorized treatment of the novel by John Fowles, a lovely art student (Samantha Eggar) wages a war of nerves against a manic lepidopterist (Terence Stamp) who has locked her in a dungeon.
THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES. The good old days are giddily recalled in a great London-Paris air race of 1910, highlighted by a collection of flap-happy vintage aircraft, with Gert Frobe, Alberto Sordi and Terry-Thomas among the madcaps at the controls.
BOOKS Best Reading
WARD 7, by Valeriy Tarsis. The Ukrainian writer was railroaded into an insane asylum in 1962 when he published The Bluebottle, a vigorous attack on Soviet tyranny. Not surprisingly, he found that the other patients' only lunacy was to criticize Khrushchev's Russia, and now he voices the plight of his fellow inmates.
THOMAS, by Shelley Mydans. A full-dress novel about Thomas Becket emphasizes pomp and pageantry, but also characterizes Becket as serving God as much as King Henry II serves the devil.
REPORT TO GRECO, by Nikos Kazantzakis. The tormented Greek writer's autobiography is a powerful, personal testament and a key to the sources of his obsession with God. Kazantzakis died when the book was only in first draft, but the occasional rudeness and awkwardness show the raw energy in his creative gift.
THE LOOKING GLASS WAR, by John le Carre. The author sends another ungim-micky thriller out to fight the cold war with James Bond. Grey East Germany and red-taped London are again the settings; the spy is another drab, lonely man.
THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS, by Giorgio Bassani. The author was responsible for the posthumous publication of Lampedusa's The Leopard, and he has learned much from the master. Bassani's gracefully written novel depicts the elegant, decadent world of a rich Jewish family and its confrontation with Fascism and death.
INTERN, by Doctor X. A young doctor's log of his internship in a city hospital is filled with continual, overlapping crises, costly mistakes and occasional triumphs.
Best Sellers
FICTION 1. The Source, Michener (1 last week) 2. Hotel, Hailey (3) 3. Up the Down Staircase, Kaufman (2) 4. The Looking Glass War, le Carre (4) 5. The Green Berets, Moore (5) 6. Don't Stop the Carnival, Wouk (7) 7. The Ambassador, West (6) 8. Night of Camp David, Knebel (9) 9. A Pillar of Iron, Caldwell (8) 10. The Rabbi, Gordon
NONFfCITON 1. The Making of the President, 1964, White (1) 2. Is Paris Burning?, Collins and Lapierre (3) 3. Intern, Doctor X (4) 4. Markings, Hammarskjold (2) 5. Games People Play, Berne (7) 6. The Oxford History of the American People, Morison (5) 7. The Kandy Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby, Wolfe (9) 8. Journal of a Soul, Pope John XXIII (6) 9. Sixpence in Her Shoe, McGinley (8) 10. A Gifl of Prophecy, Montgomery
* All times E.D.T.
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