Cinema, Television, Theater, Books: Jun. 29, 1962

CINEMA

Lolita. Wind up the Lolita doll and it goes to Hollywood and commits nymphanticide. Sue Lyon, 14, is the titular heroine of the film, and Peter Sellers lightens the encircling tedium with some inspired foolery.

Stowaway in the Sky dangles a grandfather and a grandson from an orange balloon, and wanders, lazy as a cloud, over the fair land of France. Filmed from a helicopter in exquisite mutations of color, Stowaway is a treat for the eye and a tonic to the spirit.

Merrill’s Marauders goes behind the Japanese lines with 3,000 U.S. volunteers in Burma, and documents their ordeal as they fought, died and endured in the smothering heat and quiet of the jungle.

The Miracle Worker is Teacher Sullivan (Anne Bancroft), who guided the child Helen Keller (Patty Duke) out of the terrifying void of a sightless, speechless and soundless existence. The two stars, repeating their Broadway roles, are as fine as actors can be.

A Taste of Honey is a heady pint of bitter drawn from that always leaky cask of discontent, the British working class. As a girl with a wit too many and a skin too few, Rita Tushingham may be the feminine cinema find of the year.

Jules and Jim. In France, love makes the world go triangular. Director François Truffaut (The 400 Blows) translates the ways of two men with a maid into a film that is charming, sick, hilarious, depressing, wise and, most of the time, quite wonderful.

The Counterfeit Traitor. In this superior spy thriller. Allied Espionage Agent William Holden outwits some believable Nazi monsters.

Five Finger Exercise is one long parental tug of war, in which the children serve as the rope, and the incessant strife almost kills the family’s life.

Sweet Bird of Youth. A bottom-drawer Tennessee Williams play has been made into good Hollywood fare, with a nice scenic feel for the Gulf Coast and rock-solid performances by Geraldine Page as a has-been star and Paul Newman as her kept male.

I Like Money. Peter Sellers in a new film version of Marcel Pagnol’s Topaze—a little slow, but fey and funny.

Joan of the Angels? The question mark is a salve to any who might be offended by this excellent Polish film about demons of eroticism loose in an Ursuline convent.

Through a Glass Darkly. A brilliant analysis of four lives—a father, his son, daughter and son-in-law—by Sweden’s Ingmar Bergman.

TELEVISION

Wed., June 27

Howard K. Smith: News & Comment (ABC, 7:30-8 p.m.)* Interpretation and analysis of the week’s top news stories.

David Brinkley’s Journal (NBC, 10:30-11 p.m.). Subject: English classes given in Manhattan to doctors, lawyers, etc., from foreign countries.

Thurs., June 28

Accent (CBS, 7:30-8 p.m.). The Fall of the City, a verse play by Archibald MacLeish.

Fri., June 29

All-America Football Game (NBC, starts at 9:30 p.m.). Two teams consisting of senior All-Americas from last fall’s college squads compete in Buffalo.

Sat., June 30

News Special (ABC, 7:30-8 p.m.). First of two parts on President and Mrs. Kennedy’s trip to Mexico.

Sun., July 1

Meet the Professor (ABC, 2:30-3 p.m.). Today’s discussion wonders if U.S. universities have failed. Panelists: N.Y.U. Anthropology Professor Ethel Alpenfels, Berea College Sociology Professor Perley Ayer, M.I.T. Religious Philosophy Professor Huston Smith, and Stanford Sociology Professor Sanford Dornbusch.

Wide World of Sports (ABC, 5-6:30 p.m.). Water-skiing in Georgia, plus the Irish Sweepstakes.

The Twentieth Century (CBS, 6-6:30 p.m.). The origin, heyday and decline of the battleship. Repeat.

Meet the Press (NBC, 6-6:30 p.m.). Guests: Governors Wesley Powell of New Hampshire and David Lawrence of Pennsylvania.

Show of the Week (NBC, 10-11 p.m.). NBC’s outstanding Project 20 traces the history of the circus from ancient Crete to the present. Repeat.

Tues., July 3

International Championship Debate (NBC, 7:30-8:30 p.m.). Students from Oxford University and North Texas State University argue the question: “Is the Decline and Fall of Western Civilization at Hand?” Texas will insist that it is.

Alcoa Premiere (ABC, 10-11 p.m.). A superb show about group psychotherapy conducted by the U.S. Navy. Repeat.

THEATER

On Broadway

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Initially conceived by Plautus and cunningly performed by Zero Mostel, his fellow clowns and six delectable houris, this zany burlesquerie is good for high, low, and furrowed brows.

A Thousand Clowns, by Herb Gardner. This is nonconformism’s funniest hour on the current Broadway stage. The entire cast, headed by Jason Robards Jr., deserves an award, especially tenderhearted Sandy Dennis, whose tears flow like spring wine.

The Night of the Iguana, by Tennessee Williams, represents a return by America’s foremost living playwright to the gentle mood and probing humanity that characterized The Glass Menagerie.

A Man for All Seasons, by Robert Bolt. This New York Drama Critics Circle prize foreign play might have taken its theme from Shakespeare’s line, “Every subject’s duty is the King’s, but every subject’s soul is his own.” The subject is the wit, scholar and martyr, Sir Thomas More.

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is a fountain of lighthearted satire spraying the inhabitants and customs of corporationland. As a young man who believes that the room at the top is reserved for him, Robert Morse stencils his talent, energy and personality all over this musical.

Off Broadway

Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma’s Hung You in the Closet and I’m Feelin’ So Sad, by Arthur Kopit, is deft and dotty as it slashes away at bad old Mom. As a sexy baby sitter, Barbara Harris makes the scene, the play, and the evening.

Brecht on Brecht. This revue-styled evening of aphorisms, songs, scenes and poems is a vivid introduction to a master of 20th century theater.

BOOKS

Best Reading

Letting Go, by Philip Roth. Characters are subtly and astringently drawn in this look at university life, but this impressive first novel eventually becomes episodic rather than cumulative.

The Reivers, by William Faulkner. In a fresh comic book, the sage of Yoknapatawpha County matches Mark Twain as a teller of tall stories, laces his narrative with agreeable anecdotes.

Saint Francis, by Nikos Kazantzakis. This retelling of the life of the great saint has all the beauty of earlier versions, and much more power.

An Unofficial Rose, by Iris Murdoch. The romantic lower depths of Britain’s upper classes intricately explored by an artful philosopher-novelist.

The Wax Boom, by George Mandel. This war story makes a point that others fudge: a soldier in combat is close to insanity.

Patriotic Gore, by Edmund Wilson. Northerners and Southerners are treated with equal insight and compassion in this vast exploration of Civil War writings.

Ship of Fools, by Katherine Anne Porter. Human frailty is bitterly depicted in this voyage of the ship of life.

Best Sellers

FICTION

1. Ship of Fools, Porter (1, last week)

2. Youngblood Hawke, Wouk (2)

3. Franny and Zooey, Salinger (3)

4. The Agony and the Ecstasy, Stone (7)

5. The Bull from the Sea, Renault (4)

6. Dearly Beloved, Lindbergh

7. Devil Water, Seton (6)

8. The Big Laugh, O’Hara (8)

9. The Fox in the Attic, Hughes (5)

10. The Reivers, Faulkner

NONFICTION

1. The Rothschilds, Morton (1)

2. My Life in Court, Nizer (2)

3. Calories Don’t Count, Taller (3)

4. In the Clearing, Frost (6)

5. Conversations with Stalin, Djilas (5)

6. Six Crises, Nixon (7)

7. The Guns of August, Tuchman (4)

8. The New English Bible

9. JFK Coloring Book

10. Scott Fitzgerald, Turnbull (8)

# All times E.D.T.