Elmer Gantry. Sinclair Lewis’ notorious 1927 novel about a con man of religion, which is rich in the gaudy flavor of tent-show evangelism. Burt Lancaster, Jean Simmons and Arthur Kennedy all have the time of their lives hitting the sawdust trail.
Psycho. Hitchcock’s latest, though sometimes heavyhanded, is still a murderously magnificent Grand Guignol show.
Hiroshima, Mon Amour (French). The acknowledged New Wave masterpiece plunges two lovers into charred Hiroshima and reminds the audience—too slowly—that love and life go on even in the nightmare of death.
The Apartment. The often riotous plight of a junior executive whose too-convenient apartment is used by his amorous bosses for their affairs and by Producer-Director-Writer Billy Wilder to show off his cynically sentimental view of human nature.
Bells Are Ringing. A mediocre musical with a silly book is worth seeing only for the wonderfully talented Judy Holliday as the switchboard operator who hates her lonely private line, hopes to plug in on a receptive party.
TELEVISION
Wed., July 20 Music for a Summer Night (ABC, 7:30-8:30 p.m.).* The Legend of the Flying Dutchman works in such old-salt airs as Blow the Man Down and Santa Lucia.
The United States Steel Hour (CBS, 10-11 p.m.). Set in the Australian bush 100 years ago, Shadow of a Pale Horse falls on a murder trial. With Dan Duryea, Frank Lovejoy.
Sat., July 23 1960 P.G.A. Championship (CBS, 5-6 p.m.). The 42nd Professional Golfers’ As sociation Championship, from Firestone Country Club, Akron, Ohio.
Republican Convention Preview (NBC, 9:30-10:30 p.m.). Newsmen interview Republican leaders at Chicago International Amphitheater.
Convention City (ABC, 10:30-11 p.m.).
ABC’s convention previews, with John Daly.
Sun., July 24 College News Conference (ABC, 1-1:30 p.m.). Guest: Republican National Chair man Senator Thruston B. Morton.
Republican Convention Preview (CBS, 6-6:30 p.m.). The CBS delegation warms up in the Chicago International Amphi theater.
Meet the Press (NBC, 6-7 p.m.).
Guests: Richard Nixon, others.
These Are the Men (ABC, 7-7:30 p.m.). ABC’s Bill Shadel interviews assorted Grand Old Politicians.
Mon., July 25 Republican Convention (All three net works start coverage from Chicago about 11 a.m. until lunchtime; they resume in the evening — ABC at 7, CBS at 7:30, NBC at 8 p.m.). Presentation of the platform and keynote address by Walter H. Judd of Minnesota.
Tues., July 26
Republican Convention (ABC and CBS from 5 p.m., with a break from 7 to 8 p.m.; NBC from 8:30 p.m.).
THEATER
On Broadway Bye Bye Birdie. Director Gower Champion’s fresh and frantic musical about an Elvis-type crooner swings through the evening like a pendulum gone wild.
Fiorello! The early, whirly career of New York’s colorful Mayor La Guardia (Tom Bosley) makes delightful musical theater.
The Miracle Worker. Superb performances by Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft as the deaf-blind child Helen Keller and her teacher Annie Sullivan.
The Tenth Man. Paddy Chayefsky’s play—intellectually deficient but emotionally valid—about the fight to save a young girl’s soul from an evil spirit.
Toys in the Attic. A savage investigation into the case of a ne’er-do-well (Jason Robards Jr.) who makes a sudden fortune and of the three women who do their best to ruin him, all in the name of love.
West Side Story. Romeo and Juliet in the asphalt jungle.
Off Broadway
The Prodigal. Playwright Jack Richardson boldly appropriates the grim material of Greek tragedy, skillfully turns Orestes into a mocking modern man.
Little Mary Sunshine. Off-Broadway’s biggest hit, a musical parody of the sugar-glazed operettas of yesteryear.
Measure for Measure. Open-air Shakespeare in Manhattan’s Central Park.
Straw Hat
Laconia-Glendale, N.H., Lakes Region Playhouse: Henry Morgan puts the Accent on Youth.
Framingham, Mass., Carousel Theater: Ginger Rogers in Annie Get Your Gun.
Westport, Conn., Country Playhouse: Hans Conried in a new play by Arthur Watkyn, Not in the Book.
East Hampton, L.I., John Drew Theater: Jeffrey Lynn and Lee Grant balancing on William Gibson’s Two for the Seesaw.
Jones Beach, L.I., Marine Theater: The summer-long sailor spree, Hit the Deck, with Gene Nelson, Jane Kean, Betty Ann Grove, Jules Munshin.
Andover, N.J., Grist Mill Playhouse: Betsy Palmer in a new play by Lesley Storm, Roar Like a Dove.
Millburn, N.J., Paper Mill Playhouse: A new play by Kieran Tunney, Royal Enclosure, with Celeste Holm and Cathleen Nesbitt.
New Hope, Pa., Bucks County Playhouse: Shelley Berman joins Frances Reid and Philip Bourneuf in a new play, The Mirror Under the Eagle.
Southfield, Mich., Northland Playhouse: Tony Randall, one of Hollywood’s best younger comedians, in Goodbye Again.
Dallas, Texas, State Fair Musicals: Redhead, with Dancer Taina Elg in the Gwen Verdon part.
BOOKS
Best Reading
Muni, by Patrick Leigh Fermor. A memorable portrait of the enduring people who inhabit Greece’s Peloponnesus, a sort of mythical rock garden of the gods.
Dictionary of American Slang, compiled by Harold Wentworth and Stuart Berg Flexner. A handy compendium of berserk English, from Abe’s cabe to zooly.
Collected Poems, by Lawrence Durrell. The novelist who wrote the impressive Alexandria tetralogy—Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive and Clea—makes his appearance as a poet with technical flash and soaring imagery.
When the Kissing Had to Stop, by Constantine Fitzgibbon. A piece of political science fiction about how England turns into a Soviet satellite, the book chillingly denies the proposition that Britons never, never, never will be slaves.
Thomas Wolfe, by Elizabeth Nowell.
A vigorous if repetitive biography of the undisciplined American Conrad who lived, loved and wrote to excess, and overflows his own portrait’s frame.
Merry Monarch, by Hesketh Pearson.
A witty, partisan study of Charles II, who, often dismissed as a libertine and a fool, is here assessed as “the sanest and most civilized of monarchs.” Daughters and Rebels, by Jessica Mitford. An often touching, entertaining account of the famed Mitford sisters, who loved too unwisely and too well, both in personal and political affairs.
Felix Frankfurter Reminisces, recorded in talks with Dr. Harlan B. Phillips. Off the bench, the famed jurist is a refreshing, verbally wicked man who rambles on about Presidents, Cabinet members, journalists, as well as about life and law, both of which he loves.
Art and Argyrol, by William Schack.
An absorbing, unmalicious study of Albert Barnes whose dung-heap humor and mercurial temper—no less than his art collection—made him a legend.
Best Sellers
FICTION 1. Hawaii, Michener (3)*(2) The Leopard, Di Lampedusa (2) 3. Advise and Consent, Drury (1) 4. The Chapman Report, Wallace (4) 5. The Affair, Snow (6) 6. The Lincoln Lords, Hawley 7. Water of Life, Robinson 8. The Constant Image, Davenport (7) 9. The View from the Fortieth Floor, White (5) 10. Set This House on Fire, Styron NONFICTION 1. Born Free, Adamson (1) 2. May This House Be Safe from Tigers, King (2) 3. Folk Medicine, Jarvis (3) 4. I Kid You Not, Parr (4) 5. Mr. Citizen, Truman (9) 6. Felix Frankfurter Reminisces, Frankfurter with Phillips (5) 7. The Night They Burned the Mountain, Dooley (7) 8 The Good Years, Lord 9. The Conscience of a Conservative, Goldwater (6) 10. The Enemy Within, Kennedy (8)
* All times E.D.T. *Position on last week’s list.
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