Spartacus. Hollywood has taken the old formula of brawn (Kirk Douglas championing Rome's oppressed) and sex (Jean Simmons swimming in the nude) and added both heart and brain to this massive epic. Thanks to the sharp eye of Director Stanley Kubrick, the literary bent of Scenarist Dalton Trumbo and good performances by Laurence Olivier, Charles Laughton and Peter Ustinov, Spartacus adds up to an impressive piece of moviemaking despite its obeisance to commercialism.
Sunrise at Campobello. As in his play, Dore Schary enshrines Franklin Roosevelt but also provides a stirring, often heavily sentimental drama.
The Entertainer. England's John Osborne has provided Laurence Olivier an ideal vehicle. If a seedy music hall performer seems an inadequate symbol for all England's ills, he is, as Olivier plays him, fascinating in and of himself.
The World of Apu. Satyajit Ray completes his uncompromising and unadorned naturalistic trilogy about Indian life, giving proof that he has risen to a control of the film medium that places him among the best directors in the world.
TELEVISION
Tues., Oct. 25
John Brown's Raid (NBC, 10-11 p.m.).* A re-enactment of history, directed by Sidney Lumet, taped on location at Harpers Ferry, W. Va., and starring James Mason.
The Garry Moore Show (CBS, 10-11 p.m.). Guests: Patti Page and Tony Randall.
Wed., Oct. 26
Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall (NBC, 9-10 p.m.). Guests: Jane Powell, Thelma Ritter and Andy Williams. Color.
Tomorrow (CBS, 10-11 p.m.). A new series that will explore current and future scientific achievements. First program, "The Thinking Machine," reports on progress with computers that can write TV plays and win at checkers.
Thurs., Oct. 27
The Witness (CBS, 7:30-8:30 p.m.). Re-enactment of the case of Charles Becker, the New York City police lieutenant electrocuted in 1915 for the murder of Gambler Herman Rosenthal. As played by Nehemiah Persoff, Becker will be put on the griddle by real lawyers in a simulated investigation.
CBS Reports (CBS, 8:30-9:30 p.m.). Second program in the series, "Money and the Next President" explores the complex finances behind the country's daily living, including excerpts from speeches by Nixon, Kennedy and others.
The Ford Show (NBC, 9:30-10 p.m.). Tennessee Ernie Ford, featuring the Top Twenty singing group and Guest Cliff Arquette.
A Date with Debbie (ABC, 9:30-10:30 p.m.). For her first show, Debbie Reynolds has Walter Brennan and Carl Reiner as two of her guests.
Fri., Oct. 28
Family Classics (CBS, 7:30-8:30 p.m.). The first show in a new David Susskind series is Part One of The Scarlet Pimpernel, with Michael Rennie, Maureen O'Hara and Zachary Scott.
The Bell Telephone Hour (NBC, 9-10 p.m.). "One Nation Indivisible," a program of American music, stars Robert Preston, Mahalia Jackson, Peter Palmer and others. Color.
Eyewitness to History (CBS, 10:30-11 p.m.). The week's major news story, as viewed around the world.
Sat., Oct. 29
N.C.A.A. Football Game (ABC, afternoon). Depending on where you live, it is Ohio State at Michigan, California at Oregon, L.S.U. at Mississippi.
Family Classics (CBS, 7:30-8:30 p.m.). Part Two of The Scarlet Pimpernel.
The Campaign and the Candidates (NBC, 9:30-10:30 p.m.). Progress report on the presidential campaign.
Sun., Oct. 30
Face the Nation (CBS, 6-6:30 p.m.). Jack Kennedy.
The Twentieth Century (CBS, 6:30-7 p.m.). "The Violent World of Sam Huff" explores the life of a pro football veteran, the star of the New York Giants.
An Hour with Danny Kaye (CBS, 8-9 p.m.). Danny's first strictly entertainment television show, with Louis Armstrong.
G.E. Theater (CBS, 9-9:30 p.m.). Hugh O'Brian and Stella Stevens star as the city slicker and his backwoods belle in William Faulkner's "The Graduation Dress."
Mon., Oct. 31
Presidential Countdown (CBS, 10:30-11 p.m.). Campaign reports from Walter Cronkite and others.
THEATER
On Broadway
An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May. After club, record, radio and TV success, Mike and Elaine are proving that the vials of their humor are full enough to intoxicate a Broadway theater. While there are rough edges in their portrayals of mother and son, brother and sister, lover and mistress, P.T.A. chairman and guest speaker, they are hilarious often enough.
A Taste of Honey. This earthy drama about a desperately lonely girl who takes love--and the resultant misery--where she can find it, written by Shelagh Delaney when only 19, has turned out to be one of the season's first dramatic hits. The dialogue is true and the lead performance by Joan Plowright uncannily apt.
Irma La Douce. A French musical as fetching and airy as a bouffant petticoat stars Elizabeth Seal, who convinces with her singing and dancing that she can really do no wrong, despite her role as a prostitute.
The Hostage, by Brendan Behan, holds an English soldier--and the audience--captive, while his Irish characters run the emotional gamut from bawdy irreverence to keening Irish lyricism.
Notable among holdovers from last season are The Miracle Worker, Toys in the Attic, Bye Bye Birdie.
BOOKS
Best Reading
The Last of the Just, by Andre Schwarz-Bart. A panoramic, quasi-epic novel of Jewish suffering from medieval pogroms to Nazi crematories, in which the descriptions of martyrdom are eloquent and touching, and answers to the question, "What is a Jew?" are largely existential.
Portrait of Max, by S. N. Behrman. A fond, endearing portrait of Sir Max Beerbohm, whom the author met in Rapallo during the sixth decade of that sempiternal Edwardian's self-declared old age.
The Sabres of Paradise, by Lesley Blanch. This history of Russia's struggles to subdue the wild tribesmen of the Caucasus in the 19th century is hardly an orderly chronicle, but its digressions are fascinating, and its heroes are thundering horsemen and high-bouncing lovers.
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, by William L. Shirer. This massive history by a veteran reporter holds the reader's interest to the Wagnerian end.
The Nephew, by James Purdy. The author achieves eerie effects with clear, simple prose in this impressive novel about an elderly Ohio woman who makes the mistake of looking too deeply into the life of a soldier nephew who has died.
The Child Buyer, by John Mersey. In an acid satire, the author jousts tellingly with most of the fatuities of the age.
Rome for Ourselves, by Aubrey Menen. A fond, witty polemic on Rome's dolce vita, ancient and modern.
The Worlds of Chippy Patterson, by Arthur H. Lewis. A biography notable for its flamboyant subject--a high-living Main Line lawyer who delighted in defending the justly or unjustly accused, as long as they were penniless or of bad repute.
The Trial Begins, by Abram Tertz. A bitter and brilliant novel, smuggled from Russia, mocking the Soviet monolith.
Victory in the Pacific, by Samuel Eliot Morison. The last volume of narrative in this masterly history of U.S. naval operations in World War II.
Best Sellers FICTION
1. Advise and Consent, Drury (1)*
2. Hawaii, Michener (2)
3. The Leopard, Di Lampedusa (3)
4. The Lovely Ambition, Chase (6)
5. To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee (4)
6. The Chapman Report, Wallace (5)
7. Mistress of Mellyn, Holt (9)
8. The Child Buyer, Hersey (10)
9. The Last Temptation of Christ, Kazantzakis (8)
10. Diamond Head, Oilman (7)
NONFICTION
1. The Waste Makers, Packard (5)
2. Born Free, Adamson (1)
3. Taken at the Flood, Gunther (3)
4. Kennedy or Nixon: Does It Make Any Difference?, Schlesinger
5. Folk Medicine, Jarvis (6)
6. The Conscience of a Conservative, Goldwater (8)
7. The Politics of Upheaval, Schlesinger
8. The Liberal Hour, Galbraith (9)
9. How I Made $2,000,000-in the Stock Market, Darvas (2)
10. Enjoy, Enjoy! Golden (4)
*All times E.D.T. through Oct. 29; E.S.T. thereafter.
*Position on last week's list.
This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.