Room at the Top (British). The best from England in years: a brilliant social satire based on John Braine's novel about an Angry Young Man in an indifferent old society.
Compulsion. Meyer Levin's bestselling casebook of "the crime of the century," the Leopold-Loeb murder case of 1924, makes a tense, intelligent melodrama.
Alias Jesse James. The best Bob Hope picture since old fender-nose and the Groaner stopped traveling The Road.
The Diary of Anne Frank. A massive and moving epic of the German Jewish girl and her family in hiding during World War II. A fine performance by Newcomer Millie Perkins as Anne, and brilliant direction by George Stevens.
Some Like It Hot. Director Billy Wilder gets as many laughs as possible out of the familiar gimmick of female impersonation, largely because the impersonators are Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, and the object of their attentions a wickedly skilled comedienne: Marilyn Monroe.
The Mistress (Japanese). A poignant Eastern view of a fallen woman who rises by union with nature rather than by struggle against it.
He Who Must Die (French). The screen's most compelling religious statement in years.
TELEVISION
Wed., April 29
Today (NBC, 7-9 a.m.).* Garroway in Paris for five two-hour programs.
Wagon Train (NBC, 7:30-8:30 p.m.). Cameron Mitchell as a guest desperado in the high-ranking shoot-'em-up; the hero is Ward Bond.
Thurs., April 30
Texas Rodeo (NBC, 7:30-8 p.m.). Bronco riding, steer wrestling and all kinds of cow-country capers in the premiere of a show that promises plenty of bounce to the ounce.
Playhouse 90 (CBS, 9:30-11 p.m.). Barry Sullivan, James Whitmore and Lili Darvas in a new play by Merle (Reunion) Miller about World War II's Battle of the Bulge.
Fri., May 1
Markham (CBS, 10:30-11 p.m.). Cinemactor Ray Milland, whose first attempt at a TV series (The Ray Milland Show) was somewhat less than spectacular, takes to the air waves again as a sleuthful lawyer with a penchant for roaming the garden spots of the world.
Sun., May 3
Kaleidoscope (NBC, 5-6 p.m.). Behind and in front of the scenes at the Christiani Brothers Circus.
The Twentieth Century (CBS, 6:30-7 p.m.). One of the most consistently interesting TV documentaries reruns the first part of its biography of Winston Churchill: Man of the Century.
Primer on Geneva (NBC, 7:30-8 p.m.). Just that--a background briefing on the upcoming foreign ministers meeting delivered in words of one syllable by a team of NBC reporters.
At the Movies (NBC, 10-11 p.m.). Comedian Sid Caesar returns for a "special" with Art Carney, Cliff Norton, Audrey Meadows.
Mon., May 4
Voice of Firestone (ABC, 9-9:30 p.m.). Pat Suzuki, Florence Henderson, Lisa Kirk and other voices warbling through "An Evening with Richard Rodgers."
THEATER
On Broadway
A Raisin in the Sun. The New York Drama Critics Circle Prize play about a South Side Chicago Negro family and its deferred dreams, budding hopes and inner conflicts. Honestly observed, superlatively acted.
A Party with Betty Comden and Adolph Green. An infectious romp through movie parodies, songs and skits this talented pair wrote for top musicals, e.g., On the Town, and hilarious sight gags. The mood: New Yorky.
Redhead. A faltering musical whodunit kept on the spin through the matchless body-English of Musicomedienne Gwen Verdon.
J.B. Job in the guise of a wealthy modern businessman. Though Archibald MacLeish's version lacks Biblical richness of speech and rigor of logic, it brings excitement to the theater.
La Plume de Ma Tante. The French are too funny for words, and scarcely need or use them in this madcap revue.
A Touch of the Poet. The late great Playwright Eugene O'Neill makes a powerful if somewhat windy case for his favorite belief, i.e., illusions make and unmake man.
The Pleasure of His Company. Overage Playboy Cyril Ritchard returns to the family hearth just in time to throw his daughter's wooden fiance on the fire.
My Fair Lady raises a topper, The Music Man sounds a trumpet, and West Side Story swings a switchblade in three memorable musical salutes.
Off Broadway
Mark Twain Tonight! Hal Holbrook, 34, makes Samuel Clemens, 70, live again for two hours in a brilliant and delightful display of recaptured Americana.
On Tour
The Warm Peninsula. Julie Harris as a provincial have-not wants to join the social haves in Miami. In SCHENECTADY, UTICA and ROCHESTER.
My Fair Lady in ST. LOUIS, Two for the Seesaw in LOS ANGELES, and The Music Man in CHICAGO do justice to the Broadway originals.
The Dark at the Top of the Stairs. William Inge's characters are alone, afraid, in a world they halfway made. In MINNEAPOLIS.
Look Back in Anger. Playwright John Osborne rants at the world with articulate and often artistic fury. In SAN FRANCISCO.
BOOKS
Best Reading
Points of View, by W. Somerset Maugham. Five civilized conversational essays, another "absolutely last" book by the Old Party, in the engaging tone of a master yarner chatting over ancient brandy.
Endurance, by Alfred Lansing. Sir Ernest Shackleton's foolish-heroic expedition of 1915, one of the most audacious assaults that the Antarctic ever defeated, a breathless saga re-created in well-modulated prose.
The Marauders, by Charlton Ogburn Jr. Merrill's Marauders went through some of the most vicious infantry fighting of World War II. Veteran Ogburn recalls the savage Burmese actions with sharp description and incisive reflection.
By the North Gate, by Gwyn Griffin. A taut little novel that shows Britons at an outlying African desert post trying unsuccessfully to stand up under the white man's burden.
The King's War: 1641-1647, by C. V. Wedgwood. History is a people's memory, and few have summoned up Britain's more vividly than Wedgwood in this scholarly account of Cavalier v. Roundhead.
Mountolive, by Lawrence Durrell. An exciting writer adds politics to a projected tetralogical cycle (others: Justine, Balthazar) that wheels around the magnetic hub of Alexandria.
The Notion of Sin, by Robert McLaughlin. A coterie of non-blue-chip sophisticates examined by a market analyst who knows both their prices and their values.
The Middle Age of Mrs. Eliot, by Angus Wilson. An English widow sentenced under the law of diminishing returns to social work, the company of Angry Young Men, and bohemian sex.
Borstal Boy, by Brendan Behan. A lively swearing of the green by Ireland's latest IRAte young man.
The Fig Tree, by Aubrey Menen. Nature gets the last laugh on science in this aphrodisiacal spoof.
Doctor Zhivago, by Boris Pasternak. The eternal validity of the moral struggle affirmed by a man who is living it.
Best Sellers
FICTION
1. Doctor Zhivago, Pasternak (1)*
2. Exodus, Uris (2)
3. The Ugly American, Lederer and Burdick (3)
4. Lolita, Nabokov (4)
5. Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris, Gallico (5)
6. Dear and Glorious Physician, Caldwell (7)
7. From the Terrace, O'Hara (8)
8. The Devil in Bucks County, Schiddel
9. The Watch That Ends the Night, MacLennan (9)
10. The Middle Age of Mrs. Eliot, Wilson (10)
NONFICTION
1. Mine Enemy Grows Older, King (1)
2. Only in America, Golden (2)
3. What We Must Know About Communism, Harry and Bonaro Overstreet (3)
4. Collision Course, Moscow (8)
5. 'Twixt Twelve and Twenty, Boone (4)
6. Elizabeth the Great, Jenkins (5)
7. How I Turned $1,000 into $1,000,000 in Real Estate, Nickerson (6)
8. Nautilus 90 North, Anderson and Blair
9. The Dress Doctor, Head and Ardmore
10. A Quite Remarkable Father, Howard
*All times E.D.T.
*Position on last week's list.
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