Cinema: Just Like the Movies

On two continents, movie news—like the movies themselves—ranged from the spectacular to the curious to the affecting. Items:

¶ In and around Rome, work was going forward on a production by a new screen writer: Homer. With assists from such upstart scenarists as Ben Hecht and Irwin Shaw, Homer's Odyssey was being filmed in plaster caves and palaces and on board a Greek galley (thoughtfully provided with an engine as well as 100 oarsmen). The stars: Kirk Douglas as a bearded Ulysses, and lush Silvana Mangano as both Circe and Penelope.

¶ In Chicago, the...