THEATER: On Broadway, Aug. 24, 1959

CINEMA

North by Northwest. Alfred Hitchcock’s latest cliffhanger (the cliffs are on Mount Rushmore), thoroughly entertaining and suspenseful, with Cary Grant up to his immaculate collar in spies and counterspies, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason among them.

Last Train from Gun Hill. Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn fight it out in a western shot full of sociology, child psychology and Greek tragedy, while Carolyn Jones makes the best of it all as the funny, freaky heroine.

Anatomy of a Murder. Producer-Director Otto Preminger’s effective courtroom melodrama that seems less concerned with murder than with anatomy. James Stewart is the lawyer and Lee Remick the defendant’s inviting wife in a court whose memorable presiding judge is famed Boston Lawyer Joseph N. Welch.

Wild Strawberries (Swedish). In his 18th film, Writer-Director Ingmar Bergman examines one day in the life of a very old, eminent doctor, employing the language of dream and symbol to achieve a moving end.

The Nun’s Story. The photography is glorious but the religious picture is blurred as Audrey Hepburn plays a Roman Catholic nun whose choice between love of God and love of man comes hard.

Porgy and Bess. Sam Goldwyn’s $7,000,000 attempt to make a cinematic success of the Gershwin folk opera, with Pearl Bailey and Sammy Davis Jr. doing their best to relieve the stereophonic monotony.

TELEVISION

Wed., Aug. 19

Armstrong Circle Theater (CBS, 10-11 p.m.).-The first trip under the ice at the North Pole by The Nautilus is still the stuff of high adventure, even in a rerun.

Wednesday Night Fights (ABC, 10 p.m.). Hogan (“Kid”) Bassey, the Oxford-accented stylist from Nigeria, gets a chance to belt Davey Moore loose from his world featherweight championship.

Fri., Aug. 21

Ellery Queen (NBC, 8-9 p.m.). The prima ballerina does a pratfall onstage. But her reputation is saved: it’s murder. Cow-eyed Comedian Morey Amsterdam bounces through the rerun of Dance of Death with the graceful assistance of Ballerina Tamara Geva. Color.

Sat., Aug. 22 Saturday Night Pro Football (ABC,

10 p.m.). Warming up for a season that still seems as remote as fur coats and chilly afternoons at the stadium, the Chicago Cardinals square off with the Pittsburgh Steelers at Austin, Texas.

Sun., Aug. 23

Lamp Unto My Feet (CBS, 10-10:30 a.m.). The fourth installment of Through a Glass Darkly looks at the religious beliefs of the older generation. Special guest: Rabbi Charles E. Shulman.

Look Up and Live (CBS, 10:30-11 a.m.). Part four of The Sand Pile is a proper companion for the preceding program: a look at the religious attitudes of contemporary youth. Special guest: The Rev. William Hamilton.

Mon., Aug. 24

Peter Gunn (NBC, 9-9:30 p.m.). The music is as far-out as ever, but Pete pulls a switch. Right up until the last shot is fired, Pete’s pals think he is lined up with the hoods. But those who saw The Fuse the first time know that he is still an honest shamus.

Desilu Playhouse (CBS, 10-11 p.m.). Repeat of the first installment of The Untouchables, a careful and competent documentary dealing with the breakup of Al Capone’s underworld empire. With Robert Stack and Keenan Wynn.

Tues., Aug. 25

Back to School (NBC, 8-9 p.m.). Newsman Dave Brinkley organizes a survey of school problems across the country.

THEATER

A Raisin in the Sun. There is no sun in this Chicago Negro tenement, but the characters who live there light up Lorraine Hansberry’s first play with love, humor and dreams of escape.

J.B. Tailored by Archibald MacLeish, Job in grey flannels cuts an impressive theatrical figure, even if he does lack the fierce language and logic of his Biblical ancestor.

From the cockney and king’s English of My Fair Lady, past the pure Iowa corn of The Music Man to the pidgin of Flower Drum Song, the best of the musicals make a cosmopolitan chorus. Redhead sings along only because Gwen Verdon calls the tune.

Off Broadway

Mark Twain Tonight! The white-mustached, white-suited, cantankerous old humorist burns as pungently as his own stogie when Hal Holbrook brings him to life in a brilliant solo.

Straw Hat

Stratford, Ont., Avon Theater: A Scottish fantasy, The Heart Is Highland.

Brunswick, Me., Summer Playhouse: Frank Loesser’s The Most Happy Fella.

Atlantic Beach, L.I., Capri Theater: Comedian Joey Adams in The Gazebo.

Latham, N.Y., Colonie Musical Theater: Professionally dumb Dody Goodman in Bells Are Ringing.

Fishkill, N.Y., Cecil wood Theater: In the Counting House (new play).

Olney, Md., Theater: The Power and the Glory, adapted from Graham Greene’s novel.

Miami, Fla., Coconut Grove Playhouse: Pal Joey.

Wilmington, Ohio, Summer Theater: Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth.

Indianapolis, Ind., Avondale Playhouse: Joe E. Brown as Father of the Bride.

Fort Worth, Texas, Casa Manana: Annie Get Your Gun.

Ashland, Ore., Festival Theater: Twelfth Night, King John, Measure for Measure, and Antony and Cleopatra.

Seattle, Wash., Cirque Playhouse: Edward Everett Horton in Not in the Book (new play).

BOOKS

Best Reading

The Same Door, by John Updike. Edged, understated stories in the best New Yorker tradition by one of the best of the magazine’s young writers.

Daughter of France, by V. Sackville-West. A witty portrait of the lumbering spinster who was Louis XIV’s cousin, against a backdrop of her brilliant and squalid age.

The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, by Yukio Mishima. A psychotic Buddhist priest, despising his ugly self and loathing beauty, burns down a magnificent 14th century temple—and a master of literary indirection tells why.

For 2¢ Plain, by Harry Golden. More potshots in the Carolina Israelite’s blintz-krieg of sentiment about old New York, satire about the new South.

The Satyricon of Petronius, translated by William Arrowsmith. Antic haymaking in Nero’s gaudy, bawdy Rome, described by a satirist who knew his satyrs.

The Tents of Wickedness, by Peter De Vries. More overall nonsense in the Connecticut chowder, this time with parodies as well as puns to enliven suburbia’s upper-middle jinks.

Image of America, by R. L. Bruckberger. A thoughtful French priest writes what is outrageous heresy to most of his nation’s intellectuals—a warm, clear-eyed appreciation of the U.S. as the 20th century’s true revolutionary force.

Senator Joe McCarthy, by Richard Rovere. A well-balanced account of the man whom Reporter Rovere regards as the Dead End Kid of U.S. politics.

Richard Nixon, by Earl Mazo. An expert biography, flattering but far from a campaign puff-piece.

The Maxims of La Rochefoucauld, translated by Louis Kronenberger. The power of negative thinking, as demonstrated by the sharp-tongued 17th century courtier, soldier and cynic.

Best Sellers

FICTION 1. Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Lawrence (2) -*

2. Exodus, Uris (1)

3. The Ugly American, Lederer and Burdick (3)

4. Doctor Zhivago, Pasternak (5)

5. Dear and Glorious Physician, Caldwell (4)

6. Mrs. ‘Arris Goes to Paris, Gallico

7. The Tents of Wickedness, De Vries (6)

8. Celia Garth, Bristow (7)

9. The Light Infantry Ball, Basso (10) 10. Wake Up, Stupid, Harris (9)

NONFICTION

1. The Status Seekers, Packard (1)

2. For 2¢ Plain, Golden (2)

3. The Years with Ross, Thurber (3)

4. How I Turned $1,000 into $1,000,000 in Real Estate, Nickerson (4)

5. Mine Enemy Grows Older, King (5)

6. Senator Joe McCarthy, Rovere

7. The Elements of Style, Strunk and White (9)

8. Richard Nixon, Mazo (6)

9. Folk Medicine, Jarvis (7)

10. Belle Out of Order, Livingstone

*All times E.D.T. *Position on last week’s list.