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I DO. i DO! (RCA Victor). Even Old Pros Mary Martin and Robert Preston cannot keep this recording of the musical adaptation of The Fourposter from sounding like a commercial for twin beds ANNIE GET YOUR GUN (RCA Victor) his original-cast album of the 1966 Lincoln Center revival compares favorably with original version of 20 years ago (still available on Decca). Ethel Merman's voice may have lost a little of its spring, but it still isn't rusty, and the high-caliber orchestra of the Victor recording makes the Decca sound like a pop pistol.
AT THE DROP OF ANOTHER HAT (Angel). British Satirists Michael Flanders and Donald Swann have recently returned to Broadway with a new collection of dotty ditties about the gas man (who "cometh") and De Gaulle ("all gall"). This LP was recorded in London but is essentially the same as the U.S. show, and besides—it's the only recording that will be released
JE M'APPELLE BARBRA (Columbia). Rue Streisand runs into Place Pigalle on her latest disk, which takes its flavor from an assortment of French songs (Autumn Leaves, Clopln dopant) arranged by Michael Legrand and sung, partly in English partly in French, by the Berlitz bombe. It may be gout americain, but it is still champagne.
CINEMA
HOTEL. The film version of Novelist Arthur Hailey's 1965 bestseller about clean towels and dirty people in a New Orleans hotel is more worthy of a stopover than the book. The improvement is due mainly to Director Richard Quine's smoothly geared meshing of the various subplots and solid performances by Rod Taylor, Michael Kennie, Merle Oberon, Karl Maiden
BLOWUP. A successful young pop photographer casually takes some pictures of an amorous couple strolling in the park and against his will is drawn into a mystery that totally absorbs and challenges him. The director is Italy's Michelangelo Antomom, filming for the first time in England and in English.
GRAND PRIX. Formula One racing cars are the stars of this revved-up and spun-out (three hours) ode to autos. Sixteen camera teams shot 1,000,000 feet of film, much of it at last year's Grand Prix races, and Director John Frankenheimer has fashioned a heart-stopping movie slowed down only by the romantic detour of the drivers (James Garner, Yves Montand) and their camp followers (Eva Marie Saint, Francoise Hardy).
GAMBIT. The perfect crime in this frenetic suspense comedy is described twice— first, as a criminal imagines it will happen; second, as it actually happens. Both times around, Michael Caine plays the crook and Shirley MacLaine his accomplice.
A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS. Actor Paul Scofield's mesmerizing performance as 16th century Martyr Sir Thomas More and Playwright Robert Bolt's superb adaptation of his eloquent play add up to one of the most intelligent religious films ever made.
BOOKS
Best Reading
DEATH ON THE INSTALLMENT PLAN, by Louis-Ferdinand Celine. The scandalous French author's controversial classic in a new, unexpurgated version that softens neither the obscenities nor the antiSemitism.
RAKOSSY, by Cecelia Holland. A novel about 16th century Hungary that belongs to the Mary Renault-Zoe Oldenbourg school of authentic, realistic historical fiction.