Cinema: Sep. 1, 1961

Cold Wind in August. A stripper falls in love with a teen-age boy in a film that is carried by excellent dialogue and a splendid performance by Lola Albright.

The Sand Castle. In a charming but not overly cute story, a little boy builds a castle of sand so stunning that it merits inclusion in Sir Bannister Fletcher’s History of Architecture, while the camera roams in satiric asides among the flesh castles strewn on the beach.

Nikki, Wild Dog of the North. Walt Disney’s incessantly violent, beautiful adaptation of Nomads of the North, describing the early life and hard times of a Malemute pup that should please young audiences.

The Honeymoon Machine. An electronic computer helps three young people outsmart a Venice casino in a film that clicks cheerfully to a silly conclusion.

Fate of a Man. An excellent Russian film about a carpenter whose life is shattered by war, based on a story by Mikhail (Quiet Flows the Don) Sholokhov.

The Parent Trap. The delightful story of teen-age twins who try to kid their divorced parents into remarrying— both twins played by Hayley Mills, biggest child star since Temple, and a better actress than Shirley ever was.

TELEVISION

Wed., Aug. 30

Armstrong Circle Theater (CBS, 10-11 p.m.).* Hit-and-run driving is the subject of this week’s semi-documentary drama, starring Kevin McCarthy. Repeat.

Thurs., Aug. 31

Summer Sports Spectacular (CBS, 7:30-8:30 p.m.). From the fair grounds at Cobleskill, N.Y., comes the “Tournament of Thrills,” an automobile stunt festival with something for all members of the family— end-over-end crashes, autos bursting through sheets of flame, two cars crashing head-on at a combined speed of 120 m.p.h.

Silents Please (ABC, 10:30-11 p.m.). Douglas Fairbanks comes swinging through the air again as The Black Pirate.

Fri., Sept. 1

Person to Person (CBS, 10:30-11 p.m.). French Singer Patachou is interviewed at her apartment in Neuilly, Comedian Jim Backus at his home in Bel Air, Calif.

Sat., Sept. 2

Wide World of Sports (ABC, 5-7 p.m.). Water-skiing championships from Long Beach, Calif.

Sun., Sept. 3

Meet the Press (NBC, 6-6:30 p.m.). Guest: Walter Heller, chairman of President Kennedy’s Council of Economic Advisers.

Sunday Mystery Theater (NBC, 9-10 p.m.). Walter Slezak stars as an inspector for this missing-persons bureau of the Paris police. The inspector himself disappears.

THEATER

Straw Hat

Williamstown, Mass., Summer Theater: Jean Anouilh’s Becket, the imperfect but interesting import about the worldling who became a man of God.

Beverly, Mass., North Shore Music Theater: Carol Bruce in Rodgers & Hart’s (and John O’Hara’s) memorable biography of a rat, Pal Joey.

Falmouth. Mass., Playhouse: Old Touring Partners Joan Bennett and Donald Cook get together again in The Pleasure of His Company.

Hyannis, Cape Cod Melody Tent, Kiss Me, Kate, Cole Porter’s deft Taming of the Bard to music.

Framingham, Mass., Carousel Theater: Damn Yankees, starring Julie Newmar.

Paramus, N.J., Bergen Mall Playhouse: Former First Daughter Margaret Truman in Time of the Cuckoo.

Andover, N.J., Grist Mill Playhouse: Tennessee Williams’ comedy, Period of Adjustment, with Dane Clark.

Philadelphia, Playhouse in the Park: The inimitable Martyn Green in Mr. Gilbert, Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Green.

Moylan, Pa., Hedgerow Theater: No More Parades, a new play by Samuel Hall.

Ardentown, Del., Robin Hood Theater: Tennessee Williams’ delicate fretwork, The Glass Menagerie, his first hit.

Columbus, Veterans Memorial: Vivian Elaine blanches in A Streetcar Named Desire.

Worthington, Ohio, Playhouse on the Green: The Drunkard.

Canal Fulton, Ohio, Summer Arena: Joe E. Brown in The Show Off.

North Madison, Ohio, Rabbit Run Theater: William Gibson’s Two for the Seesaw.

Fort Worth, Casa Manana: Holiday in Mexico featuring the Folklorico troupe, 60 of Mexico’s top singers, dancers and musicians, in its U.S. debut.

La Jolla, Calif., Playhouse: A Majority of One, starring Fred Clark.

Redding, Calif., Bridge Bay Summer Theater: The Fourposter.

New York City, Central Park: Joseph Papp’s excellent free Shakespeare group in Richard II.

Stratford, Ont., Shakespeare Festival: Henry VIII, Coriolanus and Love’s Labour’s Lost.

The Road

Sail Away, a new Coward musical sometimes too reminiscent of the first Noel, with superb choreography, delightful lyrics, and, fortunately, Elaine Stritch. At the Colonial Theater in Boston.

BOOKS

Best Reading

An End to Glory, by Pierre-Henri Simon. Writing an eloquent antiwar tract in the form of a novel, the author tells the agony of a French professional soldier who, in Algeria, comes to believe that his is an ignoble role in a shameful war.

The Road Past Mandalay, by John Masters. Another face of war—the pride and nobility of fighting men at their best—is the concern of the author, who writes, more convincingly than in any of his novels, of his service with the Indian army in the East.

Men and Women, by Erskine Caldwell. A collection of the best short stories of an author whose touch with humor and horror is superb, and who deserves better than his reputation as a drugstore patent-fiction merchant.

Collected Poems, by Robert Graves. The bent-nosed Jove of Majorca is no Yeats or Eliot, but he can outdistance these masters in evoking the moods of love, childhood, or the classic past. In his own right he is an impressive poet, truer to his passions than to the literary fashions of his time.

A Season of Mists, by Honor Tracy. Part hoyden, part waif, and part Irish, this comic author loves to unstuff shirts, unstarch pomposity, and rip the cotton batting out of fuzzy minds. In her latest novel, an aging, 18-year-old Lolita dynamites a rich art fancier’s ivory tower.

An American Visitor, by Joyce Gary. Countless African novels draw their blacks and whites from paper-thin headlines. Gary, who fought in Africa in World War I and served there as a magistrate, brilliantly drew his characters from life. This early novel (1933) is topped only by his own memorable Mister Johnson.

Jimmy Riddle, by Ian Brook. The author observes, not kindly, the retreat of the British empire in Africa in this spoof of everyone up to the Prime Minister and down to visiting U.S. anthropologists.

The Way to Colonos, by Kay Cicellis. A young Greek writer has borrowed characters and situations loosely from Sophocles, and the result is a trio of remarkably good short stories, each touched by tragedy.

Best Sellers

( √ previously included in TIME’S choice of Best Reading)

FICTION

1. The Agony and the Ecstasy, Stone (1) *

√ 2. To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee (2)

3. Mila 18, Uris (3)

4. The Winter of Our Discontent, Steinbeck (5)

5. Tropic of Cancer, Miller (7)

6. The Edge of Sadness, O’Connor (4)

7. The Carpetbaggers, Robbins (6)

8. Rembrandt, Schmitt (8)

9. Mothers and Daughters, Hunter (10)

10. The Incredible Journey, Burnford

NONFICTION

√ 1. The Making of the President 1960, White (2)

√ 2. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Shirer (1)

3. A Nation of Sheep, Lederer (3)

4. Inside Europe Today, Gunther (4)

√ 5. The New English Bible (5)

√ 6. Ring of Bright Water, Maxwell (6)

√ 7. Russia and the West under Lenin and Stalin, Kennan (7)

√ 8. The Spanish Civil War, Thomas (8)

9. My Thirty Years Backstairs at the White House, Parks (10)

10. Firsthand Report, Adams (9)

* All times E.D.T.

*Position of last wek’s list.