Friday, Jun. 05, 1964

Wednesday, June 3

ONCE UPON A MATTRESS (CBS, 9:30-11 p.m.).* Carol Burnett's off-and on-Broadway hit musical of 1959, with much of the original cast, including Carol.

Thursday, June 4

MEREDITH WILLSON VARIETY SHOW (CBS, 10-11 p.m.). The first of three specials produced by the Music Man himself, this one features Caterina Valente, Sergio Franchi, Willson and his wife.

Friday, June 5

CBS REPORTS (CBS, 8:30-10 p.m.). "DDay Plus 20 Years: Eisenhower Returns to Normandy," Ike's commemorative pilgrimage to the invasion beaches with his personal recollections of the events surrounding June 6, 1944.

Saturday, June 6

THE BELMONT STAKES (CBS, 4:30-5 p.m.). The 96th running of the oldest U.S. racing classic, at Aqueduct, N.Y., in which all eyes will be on Northern Dancer, who, if he wins, will become the first triple-crown winner since 1948.

ABC'S WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS (ABC, 5-6:30 p.m.). The English Derby from Epsom, with commentary by Jockey Eddie Arcaro. Also water-skiing from Pine Mountain, Ga.

Sunday, June 7

DISCOVERY (ABC, 1-1:30 p.m.). Repeat of the second part of a visit to London, including Westminster Abbey, Mme. Tussaud's, the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, and a chat with Leslie Caron.

THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (CBS, 6-6:30 p.m.). The story of Wendell Willkie.

DUPONT SHOW OF THE WEEK (NBC, 10-11 p.m.). "The Patient in Room 601," a documentary about 23-year-old Lita Levine and her fight for life after being severely burned in a 1958 plane crash.

Monday, June 8

HOLLYWOOD AND THE STARS (NBC, 9:30-10 p.m.). A repeat of "Monsters We Have Known and Loved."

Tuesday, June 9

THE RED, WHITE AND BLUE (NBC, 9-10 p.m.). Project 20's view of American patriotism, narrated by Walter Brennan and filmed from sea to shining sea.

THE FRENCH ARMY (NBC, 10-11 p.m.). A history, from Verdun to Algeria.

THEATER

On Broadway

HAMLET. Richard Burton is a virile, extraverted Hamlet with no hint of the melancholy self-questioning that stays his killing of the King. However, Burton's fresh phrasing of the play's famed familiar lines lends great luster to the evening.

FUNNY GIRL. A one-woman burst of starfire named Barbra Streisand illuminates the rise, the love life and the heartbreak of another great and funny girl, Fanny Brice.

HIGH SPIRITS. Anyone who can count to two will recognize the source of all the zany good humor that has been injected into this musical version of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit. The blithesome twosome--Bea Lillie and Tammy Grimes.

ANY WEDNESDAY. Sandy Dennis looks as licit as a child with an ice-cream cone, but she is the Other Woman in a hilariously illicit schedule of sex on the one-day-a-week plan.

DYLAN is a brilliant illustration of how an actor of unparalleled skill can invade the mind and personify the temperament of another man, despite a considerable difference in appearance. For a little over two hours, Dylan Thomas lives again in Alec Guinness.

HELLO, DOLLY! is a big, bouncy, brassy, sassy Broadway musical in the best sense of all those mildly intimidating words. Ditto Carol Channing.

BAREFOOT IN THE PARK. Playwright Neil Simon, Director Mike Nichols and Stars Elizabeth Ashley and Robert Redford pack a hamperful of laughs for this comic picnic about two newlyweds and their ups and downs in a six-flight walkup.

Off Broadway

DUTCHMAN, by LeRoi Jones, raises the color question to a new and distinctly terrifying pitch of violence. A sexually aggressive white girl and a sedate but inwardly seething Negro tell each other off in words that finally kill.

THE BLOOD KNOT links two South African half brothers in a twisted, tender but tormenting embrace that involves both races and the human race.

THE TROJAN WOMEN. The keening eloquence of body, mind and speech that graces this superb revival of the Euripidean classic is the unsellable cry of tragedy.

RECORDS

Shakespeare

SCENES FROM SHAKESPEARE (London, 4 LPs). Samplers from the first recorded set of Shakespeare's complete works (137 LPs), of which the final six plays are being released this week. All were produced during the past seven years by Cambridge University's Marlowe Dramatic Society, which imported professionals for the leading roles. Directed by Scholar George Rylands, they are meant to be poetic readings rather than aural plays; sound effects are minimized and the actors are anonymous. These four recordings are available separately; one contains excerpts from the comedies, one from the histories, and two from the tragedies. They show the fine diction, well-matched voices and generally high standards of the series. Among the records of the complete plays, Othello, King Lear and Much Ado About Nothing are outstanding. But Macbeth, Hamlet and The Tempest are given comparatively undistinguished performances.

THE TEMPEST (Caedmon, 3 LPs) is the 20th release of the Shakespeare Recording Society, which also intends to record the complete works. They use the star system, generally more elaborate sound effects, and provide a written text. The Tempest suffers less than most plays from being heard and not seen, and scarcely at all in a reading like this. Sir Michael Redgrave as a lordly Prospero, his daughter Vanessa as an otherworldly Ariel, and Hugh Griffith as a bestial Caliban join the gallery of other actors who have contributed splendid performances to this series, notably Richard Burton as Coriolanus, Anthony Quayle as Macbeth, Claire Bloom as Juliet, Diane Cilento as Cressida, Sir Ralph Richardson as Julius Caesar, Sir John Gielgud as Richard II.

HAMLET (Columbia, 4 LPs). The new Broadway production starring Richard Burton, who speaks poetry with as rich and melodic a voice as any on records. As Hamlet he rages like Jove, muses like a sage, sparkles in repartee, and keeps the play fast-moving and fresh. But Burton's Hamlet is primarily an Angry Young Man: he is above suffering, he has made all his decisions before he picks up the microphone, he loses his temper but seldom his equilibrium. Paul Scofield (Caedmon, 4 LPs) plays a tortured, questioning Hamlet, sometimes bogged down in his torment, whose words echo less resonantly in the listener's ear but longer in his heart. One believes it when the Queen, magnificently played by the late Diana Wynyard, gasps, "He's mad!"

HOMAGE TO SHAKESPEARE (Argo). Assorted tributes on his 400th anniversary by poets, musicians and scholars on one side of the record, and on the other, brief readings from his later works by 16 leading Shakespearean actors, including excerpts from two plays now on the boards: Paul Scofield reading Lear's reconciliation with Cordelia and Sir Laurence Olivier delivering Othello's speech to the Senate.

CINEMA

THE ORGANIZER. Director Mario (Big Deal on Madonna Street) Monicelli's vivid, moving, timelessly beautiful portrait of 19th century Italy comes into sharp focus on Marcello Mastroianni, demonstrating his remarkable versatility as a socialist Savonarola who leads Turin textile workers in a strike that fails.

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE. Istanbul provides an exotic backdrop for the harem-scare-'em adventures of James Bond, alias 007, alias Sean Connery. A sly spoof of Ian Fleming's fiction.

THE NIGHT WATCH. In this taut French thriller, five criminals trying to tunnel out of a Paris prison learn that a man can scratch and claw his way to freedom from everything but himself.

BECKET. Church-state conflict turns friends to foes in a glowing screen spectacle based on Jean Anouilh's drama about England's 12th century Archbishop of Canterbury (Richard Burton), who dies defying King Henry II (Peter O'Toole).

THE SERVANT. As a conniving "gentleman's gentleman" who masters his master, Dirk Bogarde puts a fine polish on Director Joseph Losey's study of class distinction in Britain.

DR. STRANGELOVE, OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB. Stanley Kubrick's black comedy about nuclear war features fine performances by Sterling Hayden, George C. Scott and the ubiquitous Peter Sellers.

YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW. Disporting themselves con brio, Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni make memorable fun of three zesty folk tales directed by Vittorio De Sica.

THE SILENCE. A litany of selfishness, loneliness and death, starkly told and austerely photographed, with a cast of non-normal characters directed with brooding penetration by Ingmar Bergman.

TOM JONES. Lusty lads pursue busty maids through "Best" Director Tony Richardson's wonderfully wicked assault on Fielding's 18th century classic Winner of four 1963 Oscars.

THE GRAND OLYMPICS. Made in Italy, this color sportstacular dazzlingly synthesizes the glory that was Rome's during the summer Olympiad of 1960.

BOOKS

Best Reading

CORDELL HULL, by Julius W. Pratt. Though he was F.D.R.'s Secretary of State for nearly twelve years, Hull learned curiously little about either statesmanship or psychology. Pratt's is a straightforward biography that shies away from judgments.

THE INCONGRUOUS SPY, by John Le Carre. The first two thrillers by the author of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold have been reissued in one volume. His first is a workmanlike crib on Josephine Tey; the second is about British intelligence, has some of the same characters as The Spy. Both are fine whodunits.

CRISIS IN BLACK AND WHITE, by Charles E. Silberman. The author believes that the best, in fact the only way to achieve equality and integration is by massive, militant drives in housing, schools and jobs. A thoughtful study of the Negro revolution at a crucial stage.

A MOVEABLE FEAST, by Ernest Hemingway. Toward the end of his life, the novelist wrote these memoirs of the '20s in Paris when he was young and poor. The result is a poetic word picture of Paris, a loving one of his first wife, and waspish anecdotes of Joyce, Ford Madox Ford, and especially the Fitzgeralds, who are remembered with malice.

PEDRO MARTINEZ, by Oscar Lewis. With his tape recorder spinning, the author of The Children of Sanchez gets down the biography of another Mexican: a peasant farmer who engaged in one ill-fated political reform after another.

EPISODE-REPORT ON THE ACCIDENT IN SIDE MY SKULL, by Eric Hodgins. The author of Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House recounts his partial recovery from a "cerebrovascular accident" (in layman's terms, a stroke). His wit and skill with words are totally unimpaired.

Best Sellers

FICTION

1. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Le Carre (1 last week)

2. Convention, Knebel and Bailey (2)

3. The Group, McCarthy (3)

4. The Spire, Golding (7)

5. The Night in Lisbon, Remarque (4)

6. The Wapshot Scandal, Cheever (5)

7. Von Ryan's Express, Westheimer (6)

8. The Deputy, Hochhuth (8)

9. The Martyred, Kim (9)

10. Candy, Southern and Hoffenberg

NONFICTION

1. A Day in the Life of President Kennedy, Bishop (2)

2. Four Days, U.P.I, and American Heritage (1)

3. A Moveable Feast, Hemingway (4)

4. Diplomat Among Warriors, Murphy (3)

5. The Naked Society, Packard (5)

6. The Green Felt Jungle, Reid and Demaris (6)

7. Profiles in Courage, Kennedy (7)

8. My Years with General Motors, Sloan (8)

9. In His Own Write, Lennon (9)

10. When the Cheering Stopped, Smith

*All times E.D.T.

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