(3 of 4)
TO BE YOUNG, GIFTED AND BLACK is a warm tribute to Negro Playwright Lorraine Hansberry, put together from her own writings and presented by an able interracial cast.
DAMES AT SEA, with a thoroughly engaging cast and ingenious staging, is a delightful parody of the Busby Berkeley movie musicals of the '30s.
CINEMA
THE STALKING MOON is a western with classical aspirations but limited accomplishments. Gregory Peck saves the show by allowing his customarily rigid dignity to show an occasional flash of humor.
3 IN THE ATTIC. Campus lady-killer (Christopher Jones) gets his just deserts from vindictive girl friend (Yvette Mimieux) in this sleazy but somehow charming little comedy that is helped immeasurably by the presence of the two young stars.
RED BEARD is an epic drama by the master of Japanese cinema, Akira Kurosawa. Concerning himself with the gradual maturing of a young doctor, he has fashioned a kind of Oriental Pilgrim's Progress.
GRAZIE ZIA. For his first feature, young (25) Italian Film Maker Salvatore Samperi has taken for his theme nothing less than the disintegration of contemporary morality. As often as not, a biting and original satirical eye gleams through the callow symbolism.
THE SHAME. Ingmar Bergman broods once again on the social and spiritual obligations of the artist. In his 29th film, Bergman remains a foremost stylist, and his actors—Max von Sydow, Gunnar Bjornstrand and Liv Ullman—range effortlessly between fervor and restraint.
THE FIXER is an excellent screen translation of Bernard Malamud's Pulitzer prize-winning novel. Under the creative direction of John Frankenheimer, actors Alan Bates (as the accidental hero), Dirk Bogarde and Ian Holm perform their difficult roles with superb dedication.
FACES. A handful of middle-aged people complain about what a mess they've made of their various marriages in this meticulously detailed film written and directed by John Cassavetes. Some of the direction and much of the acting are excellent, but Cassavetes never quite manages to overcome the fact that the basic situation is rather routine.
BOOKS
Best Reading
PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT, by Philip Roth. Laid out on a psychiatrist's couch, a 33-year-old Jewish bachelor delivers a frenzied and savagely funny monologue of lust and guilt reminiscent of the scatological nightclub performances of the late Lenny Bruce.
THE 900 DAYS: THE SIEGE OF LENINGRAD, by Harrison E. Salisbury. Extravagant in its detail, this is the best account yet of the most murderous siege in modern history. Hitler and Stalin are its villains; its heroes are the people of the city, who clung to hope despite hideous suffering.
AFTERWORDS: NOVELISTS ON THEIR NOVELS, edited by Thomas McCormack. The writer's job is lonelier than the lighthouse keeper's, but given a chance to talk about their methods and their aims, 14 successful novelists respond here with vigor, perception and occasional ruefulness.
SETTING FREE THE BEARS, by John Irving. Two Austrian university students on a springtime spree plot to free all the animals from Vienna's zoo. In counterpoint to this quixotic escapade are the recalled events of Austria's and Yugoslavia's participation in World War II. The combination makes a startling first novel.