Black Orpheus (French). Winner of the 1959 Grand Prix at Cannes, this wildly beautiful adaptation of the old legend is made new and vital by an unknown cast, the brilliant direction of Marcel Camus and a Brazilian tropical background.
The 400 Blows (French). Director Franc,ois Truffaut has turned the story of a small boy's desperate attempt to escape from the heartsick world of his parents into a stunning metaphor for modern man trapped in the society he has fashioned.
Ben-Hur. Director William Wyler's $15 million film version of Major General Lew Wallace's Biblical bestseller has its failures, but the chariot race alone is worth the price of admission.
Third Man on the Mountain. James Ramsey Ullman's Banner in the Sky is turned into an alpine adventure for kids, with a juvenile hero (James MacArthur) and spectacular scenery.
They Came to Cordura. A flashy though convincing western with Gary Cooper as a cavalry major whose spiritual courage makes even Rita Hayworth forget his physical cowardice.
Pillow Talk. The box-office champions of the 1958-59 season, Rock Hudson and Doris Day, are teamed in an attempt to present a sort of World Series of sex, with Comic Tony Randall stealing all the bases.
The Magician (Swedish). A fantasy about a mid-19th century Mesmer and his troupe of psychological castaways is both confusing and fascinating, remains a dazzling demonstration of Writer-Director Ingmar Bergman's ingenuity.
Happy Anniversary. On their 13th anniversary, Husband David Niven and Wife Mitzi Gaynor remember their premarital hotel room in a mattress farce that is slick, sleazy, but hilarious.
North by Northwest. A wild, completely entertaining Hitchcock yarn, in which enemy spies have the gall to think they can rub out Gary Grant. With Eva Marie Saint.
TELEVISION
Wed., Dec. 30 Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall (NBC, 9-10 p.m.).* Jonah Jones and his jumping trumpet will be on hand to blow up a little excitement. Color.
U.S. Steel Hour (CBS, 10-11 p.m.). The young and idealistic revolutionary hero in an unnamed country almost sells out to the terrorism of his hardheaded boss. But his old college prof comes along just in time to remind him that the tactics they planned in the classroom were cleaner and kinder. George Grizzard, Mark Richman, Nancy Berg and Frank Conroy work out the resulting conflict.
Fri., Jan. 1
Tournament of Roses Parade (NBC, ABC, 11:30 a.m.-l:45 p.m.). The 71st annual pre-Bowl festivities, with Richard Nixon as grand marshal. In color on NBC.
Orange Bowl Football Game (CBS, 12:45 p.m.). Mississippi v. Georgia in Miami. As soon as the game ends, the network cameras will switch to Dallas for the Cotton Bowl game (Syracuse v. Texas).
Rose Bowl Game (NBC, 4:45 p.m.). Washington v. Wisconsin at Pasadena.
Bell Telephone Hour (NBC, 8:30-9:30 p.m.). A group of America's "entertainment ambassadors" abroad brought together to show the home folk their sales pitch. Among them: Louis Armstrong, Shirley Jones, Jane Froman, Taina Elg, Allegra Kent. Color.
Eyewitness to History: (CBS, 9-10 p.m.). With Walter Cronkite acting as M.C., the network news staff will report on the main events of 1959. Their biggest feature story: the impact of "traveling diplomacy" on international relations.
Sun., Jan. 3
Sunday Sports Spectacular (CBS, 3-4:30 p.m.). The first of 13 specials that promise the inside story on many a sport seldom seen on TV, from rodeo to rugby, sports cars to speedboats.
Sunday Showcase (NBC, 8-9 p.m.). The Margaret Bourke-White Story, with Teresa Wright and Eli Wallach starring in the moving and dramatic story of the noted LIFE photographer's winning battle against Parkinson's disease.
Chevy Show (NBC, 9-10 p.m.). Janet Blair fills in for Dinah Shore and takes a trip Around the World with Nellie Bly. Her traveling companion: Cornel Wilde.
Tues., Jan. 5
Ford Startime (NBC, 9:30-10:30 p.m.). Producer Hubbel Robinson's wide-ranging crew takes a crack at psychological melodrama. The Man is Audie Murphy, a demented killer at large in the home of a lonely woman (Thelma Ritter). Color.
THEATER
On Broadway
Five Finger Exercise. There is more than a measure of truth in Playwright Peter Shaffer's picture of English country life, and John Gielgud's fine direction helps to keep the uneven play (with Roland Culver and Jessica Tandy) from becoming intolerably cat-and-mousey, turns it into an engrossing production.
Fiorello! Out of a dynamic human being (New York City's Little Flower, La Guardia) and a razzle-dazzle era comes a musical whose few weaknesses cannot keep it from seeming generally delightful.
The Miracle Worker. The extraordinarily luminous performances of Anne Bancroft as Teacher Annie Sullivan and Patty Duke as the young Helen Keller bring force to Playwright William Gibson's loosely constructed story and brilliance to the theater.
The Tenth Man. Playwright Paddy Chayefsky has juxtaposed chant and wisecrack, surrealism and photography, insanity and farce in his story about a young girl believed possessed by an evil spirit, and though the play fails philosophically, it remains a genuine theater piece.
Heartbreak House. Shaw's picture of Europe's pre-World War I leisure class, if wordy and sprawling, is also witty and brilliant. The cast includes Maurice Evans, Pamela Brown, Diana Wynyard.
Take Me Along. A nostalgic mood musical made from O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness! and made the brighter by Jackie Gleason, Walter Pidgeon, Eileen Herlie and Robert Morse.
BOOKS
Best Reading
The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. 1, edited by Leonard W. Labaree. This well-prepared collection takes the sharpwitted young journalist to his 28th year, shows clearly a man seen too often only as a national monument.
Flower Shadows Behind the Curtain, translated by Vladimir Kean and Franz Kuhn. A wry, readable 16th century Chinese tale about a virtuous widow and the Boccaccian crew of thieves, pimps and "Powder-faces" who surround her.
The World of James McNeill Whistler, by Horace Gregory. This first-rate biography sacrifices color for perspective, but even a toned-down Whistler is no still life.
A Touch of Innocence, by Katherine Dunham. A sensitively written account of the famous dancer's troubled childhood.
The Wisdom of the West, by Bertrand Russell. The peppery old sage pulls off a prodigious feat of analysis, narrative and condensation by fitting a history of Western philosophy into 320 pages.
The Liberation of the Philippines, by Samuel Eliot Morison. The 13th volume in the author's U.S. naval history of World War II steams with customary skill through the summer of 1945.
The Longest Day, by Cornelius Ryan. A poem by Verlaine and Rommel's wife's new shoes are typical of the minutiae turned up in this well-done, microscopic examination of Dday.
In the Days of McKinley, by Margaret Leech. A clear and sympathetic account of the President who remained, even at his best moments, a "captive of caution and indirection."
The Anger of Achilles: Homer's Iliad, translated by Robert Graves. The bad boy of the classicists brilliantly carries out an engaging idea: that the Iliad was intended to be a satire of gods, kings and heroes.
James Joyce, by Richard Ellmann. The best biography so far of the quirky genius; a work that describes and evaluates, but does not try to debunk.
Best Sellers FICTION 1. Advise and Consent, Drury (1)*
2. Hawaii, Michener (2)
3. The Darkness and the Dawn, Costain (4)
4. Exodus, Uris (6)
5. Dear and Glorious Physician, Caldwell (7)
6. Poor No More, Ruark (3)
7. The War Lover, Hersey (5)
8. The Ugly American, Lederer and Burdick (8)
9. Station Wagon in Spain, Keyes
10. Return to Peyton Place, Metalious
NONFICTION
1. Act One, Hart (1)
2. Folk Medicine, Jarvis (3)
3. This Is My God, Wouk (2)
4. The Armada, Mattingly (7)
5. The Status Seekers, Packard (4)
6. The Longest Day, Ryan (5)
7. The Joy of Music, Bernstein (6)
8. The Elements of Style, Strunk and White (8)
9. Triumph in the West, Bryant
10. For 2-c- Plain, Golden (9)
* All times E.S.T. * Position on last week's list.
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